Wondering how to tell if a book is YA or middle grade just from a quick glance?

When you pick up a book, say at the library or in a book shop, how do you know which audience it’s been written for? Sometimes the way books are shelved doesn’t make it obvious: my local library labels its middle grade section ’11 to 14′  which combines upper middle grade and lower YA, while the chapter book shelves are labelled ‘6-10’ which is a huge age range covering really different reading abilities and maturity levels.

If you’re researching the market or looking for comp titles, you’ll need to know the target audience for the the books you find. There are, of course, loads of ways to spot the difference between middle grade and YA books while you’re reading them – here are some:

• Know your audience: middle grade [blog post]
• How old should your main character be? [blog post]
• How long should my story be? [blog post]
• MG & YA rebels: Ask yourself why you’re going against the grain [blog post]
• Test yourself: Guess the MG, YA and adult extracts in this quiz [webinar and handbook]

But how do you figure it out quickly without, you know, actually having to read the whole book while you stand in the shop? Aha, I’m so glad you asked! Here are some clever ways of figuring out a book’s audience without evening opening it. Get your detective hat on! Here are the tips I’m going to be discussing:

1. Check the age guide on the back
2. Check the publisher
3. Read endorsements from other authors
4. Interrogate the blurb
5. Analyse the title and front cover

1. Check the age guide on the back

Some books include the recommended reader age right there on the back of the book. This practice varies from publisher to publisher. For example:

• The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller, Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin and Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh all list ‘Ages 8-12’ at the bottom of the back cover so you know these are middle grade
• Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson suggests ‘Earth ages 8 and up’ which I LOVE SO MUCH
• The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill and Charlotte Says and The Haunting by Alex Bell come with the line ‘Warning: Not for Younger Readers’ on the back, which suggests they are YA

2. Check the publisher

Often the name of the publisher or imprint will give away whether a book is targeting a middle grade or YA audience. Once you become familiar with the various publishers and imprints that publish middle grade and YA you’ll find it easier to spot which is which. For example:

• Scholastic publishes children’s books so when you see their logo you’ll know the story isn’t aimed at over 18s. That doesn’t help you distinguish between middle grade and YA but it does help if you’re unsure whether a novel is for teens or adults.
• Hot Key Books, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, only publishes teen and YA fiction
• HarperTeen is the teen division of HarperCollins and publishes YA (some HarperCollins books will include the Epic Reads logo on the back which is a sure-fire sign this is a YA novel!)
• HarperVoyager is a division that publishes adult horror and fantasy plus YA
• Tor Teen is an imprint of Tor publishing fantasy, science fiction and general fiction for YA readers

3. Read endorsements from other authors

Lots of books include quotes from other authors or praise from critics and these can usually give you a few clues as to whether the novel is middle grade or YA. For example, Kathryn Foxfield’s endorsement on the back of Cynthia Murphy’s Last One to Die describes the book as Point Horror for a new generation. If you knew that Point Horror was a teen series, you’d guess that this book is, too. And the other two quotes are from Emily Barr and Kat Ellis, both YA authors, which suggests this is a YA book as well.

4. Interrogate the blurb

This seems like an obvious one, I know, but in order to guess the audience from the back cover blurb you’ll need to know what clues to look for and how to interpret them. In Last One to Die, the blurb tells starts:

Niamh is in London for a summer of fun and freedom.

But young women are being attacked across the city … and she quickly discovers they all look scarily similar to her.

First off, middle grade horror is usually supernatural in nature whereas this blurb is pitching the book as a slasher, so that’s your first clue this is YA. Next, Niamh doesn’t sound like a child as she’s looking forward to a summer of freedom, plus she apparently looks very similar to the ‘young women’ being attacked. Young women implies teens rather than children, so there’s your second clue.

If you’re lucky enough to spot the protagonist’s age in the blurb, that’s a big giveaway too. If they’re 11 or 12 it’s most likely middle grade. In their teens and it’s probably YA.

5. Analyse the title and front cover

I won’t go into detail about book cover trends here because I’m no expert on design, but there are particular styles that tend to crop up in middle grade and YA over and over which can help you distinguish between the two. It’s not a fail safe strategy but if you allow your eye to be drawn to covers that just ‘look’ like MG or YA in shops or libraries you’ll probably speed up your search! Here are a few articles that’ll help you get a feel for the trends and conventions:

• https://miblart.com/blog/young-adult-book-cover-design/
• https://bookriot.com/ya-cover-design/
• https://popgoesthereader.com/do-judge-a-book-by-its-cover/25-favourite-middle-grade-book-covers-of-2021/
• https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/5-popular-book-cover-design-trends-in-2022/
• https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelstrolle/all-the-best-ya-book-covers-of-2021
• https://bookriot.com/ya-book-cover-international-editions/
• https://marydrover.com/2020/07/21/ttt-beautiful-covers/

Happy hunting!