As someone who has worked in an independent bookstore and experienced all types of people buying books, my favorite genre to recommend will always and forever be middle grade.
Middle grade books refer to books written for ages roughly 8 to 14, just shy of young adult (YA) novels such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Looking For Alaska by John Green, but older than elementary readers such as the Junie B. Jones or Magic Tree House series.
One thing I’ve noticed while trying to read all the adult general fiction bestsellers as of late is how depressing most of them are. The ones that seem to “break barriers” always tend to center around very sad themes, like death, divorce, or painful memories. These sad books, coupled with a pandemic that has caused damage to the overall psyche of the nation, seem to do more harm than good. I’m not saying they’re bad books, I’m just saying that they’re sad, which might not be the best for someone’s mental health.
That’s where middle grade books come in. Some notable ones you may think of might be the Percy Jackson series, or the Harry Potter books, but within the last few years the genre has taken on a much more mature tone. So many of these books discuss serious issues and current events while retaining the innocence of a young child reading. Not all have extremely happy endings, but they aren’t all incredibly crushingly depressing either. This wonderful innocence in a book can be a good change of pace for some people who find themselves greatly impacted by sad themes.
Just a few weeks ago I read a middle grade book that was part of the Rick Riordan Presents group of books, where authors from different cultural backgrounds write a Percy Jackson-esque novel that portrays mythology from their own cultures. The book I read was Tristan Strong Punches A Hole In The Sky by Kwame Mbalia, and let me tell you I was absolutely blown away by this author’s debut novel. This book is the story of a young boy who, after the death of his friend, goes to his grandmother’s farm in Alabama and learns that Black American gods, like the ones he was told about when he was young, are real. The characters such as Brer Rabbit, John Henry, High John, and Anansi lend so much color to the world.
Instead of these sad adult fiction books that tell harsh stories in a harsh time, maybe we should turn to younger books. These books give us hope, re-teach us empathy, and sometimes shed a much needed new perspective on the issues of today. And maybe, if we read the books we once read when we were younger, we can gain back some of that childlike innocence, energy, and optimistic outlook that we once had. Stories have always been able to take us places we only dreamed of, so why not go back?
