The lessons of middle-grade books.
by my pen name Therearenobadbooks
Middle-Grade books are nowadays a specific category that librarians and educators look for because these are very helpful in addressing children's and/or teen's issues offering them tools to find answers for themselves.
The ideal is for these stories to be relatable to the age group, their struggles, or even with the culture, so you'll find many of these set in familiar cities or towns, showing the daily routines of their students.
The most common theme used to be bullying, but I'm glad that authors are starting to focus on the positive ones such as dreams, aspirations, and affirmations.
Let's celebrate Middle-Grade March together. Part I
Fantasy is perceived most of the time as escapist, but it offers a good vehicle to create scenarios and give answers to many themes and subjects that haunt us in real life.
Amari is a great example. It's fantasy because she enters an academy where imaginary creatures are real, but she is constantly fighting prejudice.
When I decided to write Beyond the Cliff and Courage I chose animals for characters instead of humans, turning them into metaphors: Aion's wings... Valia's adoption... Tulerul wanting to find his way to express himself... a monster with a love for tea and cookies who doesn't want to be scary... Here are some of my favorite (recent) books.
Titles on Amazon: