Reaching Distracted Middle Grade Readers in New Ways

There's been much talk lately about the fact that middle graders just aren't reading as much as they used to. The middle grade market is tough right now, and publishers are scrambling to figure out how to capture the hearts and minds of kids who'd rather be staring at a screen than a printed page. The jury's still out on whether COVID's to blame or if our digital world is simply creating shorter and shorter attention spans--it's probably a combination of those things and more--but we do know that we need new strategies to get kids reading. 

Here are a few things that seem to be working:

Graphic Novels

The MG graphic novel market has been huge, and it's not showing signs of slowing down. I work at a Barnes & Noble, and I can attest to the fact that middle grade readers come out in droves for the newest big graphic novel release. Many books that were originally written in prose are being adapted into graphic novels as well. The Wings of Fire Series and the I Survived Series are great examples of books that sold extremely well in their original format and are now seeing a huge surge as graphic novels.

Shorter Books

I did a school visit the other day, and the librarian said she can't convince students to read a 400-500 page book anymore. Kids simply won't pick a book of that length up in the first place. Publishers have noticed this too, so they're looking for shorter MG novels these days. Books that are around 200 pages (40-50k words) seem to be in high demand. 

Christina Soontonvat's Legends of Lotus Island Series is a great example. These fantasy adventure books come in at only about 150 pages each, but each book has a satisfying story arc.

Highly Illustrated Novels

I've been seeing more and more highly illustrated MG novels on the shelf, a trend that I love. These books generally have a lower wordcount, just like those shorter books do, but they also have plenty of illustrations. These types of books have been around for a long time (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, anyone?), but they're becoming even more popular as a bridge from graphic novels to prose novels or as a bridge from chapter books written for younger readers (up to age 8) to novels written for 8-12 year olds. 

One of my favorite examples of a highly illustrated series is The Area 51 Files by Julie Buxbaum. I recommend this one all the time at the bookstore, and it's always met with great enthusiasm!

Hybrid Forms

Books that use alternate or hybrid formats can be very successful at capturing kids' attention. Verse
novels work well for reluctant readers because of the lower wordcount and because the increased whitespace tends to be less intimidating. Jarrett Lerner's A Work in Progress is a great example of an illustrated verse novel. Megan E. Freeman's Away uses news articles, text messages, letters, verse, scripts, and more to tell the story.

Books for middle grade readers aren't going to disappear--but the market may be changing, at least for a little while. It will be interesting to see what the next innovations are!