I’ve seen this sometimes on r/books when discussing the age demographics in the publishing industry, and even a little recently with the release of the Percy Jackson tv series on Disney+. Where middle grade is claimed to be for middle schoolers. After all the two terms sound similar right, and a lot of MG is about middle schoolers, so it’s easy to make that association.
But the answer isn’t as cut and dry. Middle Grade in the publishing industry is the ages of 8 to 12, so that’s only 3rd through 6th (sometimes 7th) grade. Compared to Young Adult, which is 12 to 18, or 7th through 12th. Middle school kids in the US are aged 11 to 14, which places them right on the dividing line of MG and YA.
So while Middle Grade does have some overlap with and some appeal to middle schoolers, these are generally not books made specifically for middle schoolers. They’re books for written with 4th and 5th graders in mind for the most part. MG books often take place in middle school/junior high because kids generally like to read about characters that are older than them.
The term “middle grade” was actually coined back when K-8 schools were the norm, with K-2nd being primary grades, and 7-8th being “young adolecent” leaving 3-6th being the “middle grades”.
by TheMisterManGuy