Differences Between Middle Grade and Young Adult Books

What are some of the differences between a middle grade book, a young adult book, and an adult book?

Updated in March 2023!

Are you a parent looking for books for a kid or an aspiring writer wondering what kind of book you are writing, anyway?

I am a mom, a volunteer at two different school libraries, and a reviewer of YA books for the past 12 years and I am here to help!

Overall, the age designation of a book (middle grade vs. young adult has a lot to do with both the maturity level and reading difficulty of the text, the overall tone of the story, AND also the types of experiences and challenges faced by the main character.

Here's my list of 15 differences between young adult books and middle grade books. 

BUT every rule has an exception and all rules are made to be broken! 

If you're an aspiring young adult or middle grade writer, it does help to know the general parameters, so here we go...

Differences Between Middle Grade and Young Adult Books

1. Age of the characters

2. Length of the book

3. Presence of explicit content

4. Level of violence/danger

5. Presence of profanity/cursing

6. Complexity of word choice

7. Length of sentences

8. Presence of metaphorical language

9. Complexity of plot and narrative structure

10. How optimistic or dark the book is

11. Psychological complexity of the characters

12. Nature of the book's central conflict

13. Themes of the book

14. Resolved or unresolved ending

15. What is the role of the adult characters in the books?

Age of the characters: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

Many people think the category of a book is JUST decided by the age of its main character, but that isn’t necessarily true. 

YA and Middle Grade books usually have characters that are just a little older than the designated age range, which is around 8-12 for middle grade and around 13-17 for young adult. 

Most middle grade characters tend to be around twelve.

YA characters HAVE to be at least sixteen. (Argue with me in comments if you like, but I didn’t make the rules.) 

NA characters are usually nineteen to early twenties.

Length of the book: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

As a rule, young adult books are longer than middle grade. BUT again, the rules are a bit flexible. Fantasy books tend to be a little longer than contemporary books. Popular authors are given more leeway than aspiring authors. 

So people may tell you that Middle Grade is 50,000 words, while YA book are 75,000-80,000. But Rick Riordan's middle grade books are around 320-360 pages, which is about 90,000 words. 

Explicit Content: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

Yes, by late elementary school, most kids know about the birds and the bees. But middle grade fiction does not typically have any explicit content. I can't think of any exceptions to this.

Young adult books can have explicit content. Some authors and publishers still prefer to keep that kind of content out of their books, to appeal to the broadest audience. Others feel passionately that young adult readers need books that talk about things that many teens are doing.

Violence and Danger: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

Middle grade books can definitely have character in peril. They can have scary villains. But they rarely if ever have explicit violence.  Young adult books tend to be more dark in both theme and actual content.

Profanity/cursing: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

Profanity is another controversial topic. Middle grade books don't typically include profanity. Some young adult books include it, but many do not. I did this post on cursing in YA, including a statistics, so take a look! 

Word Choice: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

This is an obvious one. A book should stretch your vocabulary, but not have so many unfamiliar words that you have to keep looking them up or asking Alexa what the word means. Here's a text analyzer that helps you see what level you're writing at. 

Length of Sentences: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

I love long sentences! But lower level readers can read more slowly and by the time they get to the end of a long sentence they forgot where they started. Don't dumb your writing down, but don't make every sentence long with a semi-colon.

Metaphorical Language: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

Metaphorical language can be beautiful, but some less experienced readers will find it a roadblock. Also some kids (and people) are very literal thinkers. VERY literal. So your flowery similes and metaphors may be lost on them.

Plot and Narrative Structure: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

I'm not the biggest fan of a crazy complicated narrative structure, with time jumping. Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution, one of my favorite YA books of all time has a past/present narrative.  The story switches between Andie, a sullen young Brooklynite who's visiting her father in Paris in the present day, and Alexandrine, a French girl caught up in the French Revolution. 

But it's more unusual for a Middle Grade book to have a complicated narrative structure or a crazy, twisty plot.

Optimism or Darkness: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

YA books can sometimes have an overall dark tone, but that's rare in Middle Grade. Think A Series of Unfortunate Events. Yes, the book is dark, but it's also humorously dark, not hopelessly dark.

Psychological Complexity of the Characters: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

I'm not saying that Middle Grade books have flat, undeveloped characters. But I don't think a  deep dive into psychology happens that often in Middle Grade fiction. 

Themes and Conflict: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

Middle grade books are generally stories that center around the main character's exploration of their own familiar world. Middle grade conflicts are usually centered around family and friendship. The main character will certainly change and grow over the course of the story, but not in a way that is life-altering. 

Middle grade stories are growing up stories, but not coming of age stories, and YA books are about a moment of profound change that moves the main character over the threshold into adulthood. 

I'll explain with two classic movies.

In the Parent Trap, identical twins Annie and Hallie meet for the first time at summer camp and discover that their divorced parents divided them up and have kept them separate for their entire lives. After camp ends, they swap places: Hallie heads to London to live with her mother, and Annie to California to meet her father. When the girls learn that their father is about to remarry, they plot to bring their mom and dad back together again.

The Parent Trap presents what I see as a middle grade conflict and character growth arc. Yes, Hallie and Annie take steps toward independence -- they're away at summer camp, they're traveling alone, and they're outwitting the adults. At the end of the movie, they've learned some new things, but their outlook on life remains childlike.

In Dirty Dancing, Frances "Baby" Houseman has just graduated from high school and is on vacation in the Catskills with her parents and older sister. She develops a crush on Johnny, an attractive dance instructor, and through him meets some of the resort staff. When one of the waiters impregnates and abandons a female dancer, Baby tries to help, causing a misunderstanding that leads her father to forbid her from seeing Johnny. Baby defies her father and surprises her entire family by secretly practicing a dance routine for the talent show.

Yes, Dirty Dancing has mature content that might automatically put it out of the middle grade zone. But even without that aspect of the story, Baby learns harsh lessons about class and social status, about the fact that the father she idolizes can be judgmental and flat-out wrong, and that people aren't always what they seem. The summer in question is a life-changing one for her and at the end of it, she could never go back and be the person she was before.

In most YA books, the protagonist experiences a loss of innocence. Something happens -- whether it's the death of a loved one, an apocalyptic disaster, a devastating heartbreak, or a huge betrayal of trust -- that pushes them over the threshold to adulthood. This pivotal event can happen before the book's story begins or as it unfolds, but for me, it needs to be there. When Katniss steps up to take Prim's place during the Reaping, when Tris chooses to be Dauntless, when Hazel and Gus are diagnosed with cancer, each of them has left the carefree innocence of childhood forever.

Resolved Ending: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

So I'm not talking about a loose end in a series book. But the unresolved endign is becoming more of a thing in young adult and adult books. I do not approve! Younger readers like resolution, and I agree!

Role of the Adult Characters: Middle Grade vs. Young Adult

This is more my opinion, but think about Home Alone, a classic middle grade type story. It's completely unbelievable - a kid accidentally gets left alone at home over Christmas and has to defend his home from robbers. 

Now, think about what we've talked about above. This story could be scary. But in this case, it's kind of a caper. The adults are bumbling idiots, and the kid is the star of the show. This is the kind of story that younger readers LOVE and teens might be rolling their eyes at. 

Young adult books can have all different kinds of parents: controlling, supportive, or absent. But they rarely have bumbling Home Alone style adults. 

What do you think of my opinions on the Differences Between Middle Grade and Young Adult books?  Let me know in comments.