When market research firm Circana issued a report on the slump in the middle grade market in July, it was not so much a surprise as a continuation of disheartening news for the category, whose sales began trending downward in 2022. According to the research, print unit sales for middle grade books in the first half of 2024 slid by 5% compared to the same period in 2023 (amounting to 1.8 million fewer units sold)—a larger decrease than in the children’s category as a whole, which had a 2% decline in the same period. Circana data shows that middle grade books remain the only category in children’s that continues to underperform in comparison to 2019 numbers.
More disheartening was the company’s consumer research, which indicates “a negative correlation between increased screentime and reading for fun.” Professionals across the industry have been feeling the impact of this decline. “The reports don’t lie, and I think it’s important to acknowledge the data,” says Cathy Berner, children’s and young adult specialist and events coordinator at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston and program director for Houston’s Bookworm Festival, Tweens Read, and TeenBookCon.
Still, those invested in kid lit⎯from authors to publishers and booksellers⎯recognize that the numbers don’t necessarily capture the whole picture. Authors still report enthusiasm at bookstore events and school visits. Teachers and librarians still see students eagerly seeking out books. Shifts in middle grade reading habits that came into focus during the pandemic are likely the result of multiple forces, from competing media to politics. And according to some, history tells us that the downswing is cyclical, not terminal. We surveyed authors, editors, and booksellers on the current state of middle grade reading and what might bring readers back to books as a source of fun.
How did we get here?
Conventional wisdom points to the pandemic as the point of origin for the middle grade decline in reading for fun, supported by both research and anecdotal evidence. “Our whole world just went through this really weird period that turned everything upside down,” says Christina Soontornvat, three-time Newbery Honoree author of middle grade fiction and nonfiction. “I think we are still trying to get ourselves right side up again in so many ways, including with reading.”
But some issues around middle grade reading started long before the pandemic, says Meg Medina, Newbery Medalist and the current national ambassador for young people literature. In many schools, she says, “regardless of the approach, whether it’s literature-based learning or ‘science of reading,’ reading is cast as a task⎯something that you have to do, leaving out the major purposes of reading: fun, self-reflection, imagination.”
Added to that is the pressure on teachers to quantify students’ reading ability to meet benchmarks. “High-stakes testing and the continual chipping away at resources for public education has absolutely made it harder for educators to devote class time to reading for pleasure,” Soontornvat says.
Candlewick editor Miriam Newman, who focuses on middle grade, says educators must walk a fine line, balancing the goals of developing reading skills with promoting love of stories. “Reading needs to do more than one thing. It’s a huge part of how we learn about the world, escape the world, and learn about ourselves. It’s important for kids to think deeply about stories and what goes into a story.” But she also acknowledges the importance of getting lost in a book.
Some find the alignment between the decline in reading for pleasure and the escalation in book challenges in recent years to be more than coincidental. “I think the relentless book-banning efforts have done a lot to make educators feel afraid and embattled,” Soontornvat says. “It’s very hard to create a joyful atmosphere of reading under those conditions. Teachers need the freedom to build reading into their school day in a way that serves their students best.”
Critiques of in-school reading are in no way meant to cast blame on educators, Medina says. “On the best days, teaching is really hard. But our goal of creating lifelong readers requires us to change the way we approach kids about their literary lives.”
Among the successful strategies Medina has observed are keeping book selections current; surrounding kids with subtle, positive messages about reading; teaching them how to do a “quick and painless one-minute book talk”; letting them write shelf copy about books; and letting them express their opinions—positive or negative—about what they read. Reading succeeds where there is a climate of support for it, she says—when parents, caregivers, and educators share about what they’ve read. Above all, she believes that giving kids choices rather than top-down selections encourages reading for pleasure.
That sentiment is echoed by Jeff Kinney, bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and owner of An Unlikely Story, an independent bookstore in Plainville, Mass. “When a kid picks out a book, it’s one of their first opportunities to have real agency,” he says. “They’re picking something that says something about themselves. Adults are stepping out of the way and letting kids make their own decisions.”
Competing in the attention economy
Conversations about middle grade kids and reading inevitably lead to the question of screens. “There’s no doubt we’re living in an attention economy,” Kinney says, adding that authors are “competing with screens.”
Kids aren’t the only ones who are distracted, though. “Once screens are in our lives, it’s very hard to cut them out again,” Soontornvat says. “I am an avid reader, a huge book lover, but even I find myself pulled away from books by the gravity of my phone, and I don’t think it’s any different for kids.”
Screens are clearly not going anywhere, though, so how do books fit in? “There’s no erasing screens from children’s lives,” Medina says. “Moving forward, we need to figure out innovative ways to [create] crossovers, and not think of screens as the enemy. It’s just not an either-or.”
In an environment where attention is a prize commodity, “it’s incumbent on creators to create work that’s attention grabbing and worthy of kids’ attention,” Kinney says. “Authors need to be entertainers, too.” Kids read for the same reasons that adults do, he adds, citing entertainment and escapism as top motivators. “No matter how good the marketing message is, if the book doesn’t grab you, you put it down.”
Tom Angleberger, author of the Origami Yoda books, says, “I try to write books that give you no reason to put it down. If they don’t put it down, they skip the other stuff for a bit. It’s hard to be as funny as a cat meme or as exciting as a movie with big explosions, but that’s what I try to do.”
Chris Grabenstein, author of the Mr. Lemoncello books, reflects on his own experiences as a kid to bring that attention-grabbing quality to his work. “I was a reluctant reader many years ago when I was a kid,” he says. “But if your writing could get the movie projector in my head clacking, then I wouldn’t put your book down until I finished it. Reading can be fun when we make it fun.”
Grabenstein cites graphic novels, illustrated chapter books, and “rip-roaring adventures and puzzling mysteries” as some of the content that keeps kids turning pages. This tracks with the Circana report, which sees middle grade books on robots and dragons, as well as adventure and wilderness stories, selling well.
In an age of anxiety, books can offer escape. “Kids know what’s going on in the world,” says Stuart Gibbs, author of the Spy School series. “I get that they could be anxious and scared. What better way to counteract that than with a good, fun book?”
For kids to really enjoy reading a book, though, the author needs to enjoy the process of making it, according to multiple sources. “Ultimately, in order to make reading fun again, I think we need to make producing books fun again,” says Graci Kim, author of the Gifted Clans series. “That means the onus is on publishers and authors to exercise their creative muscles together in a different way. Let’s learn from other industries, listen to our reading-enablers and readers themselves, and be an industry that is able to adapt and grow with our audience.”
It’s also important to recognize that there is no single type of book that is perfect for middle grade readers, says Newman at Candlewick. “There do need to be books about serious things. They are part of how we process things that happen to us and they let us know we’re not alone.” On the other hand, she says, “books don’t have to be one or the other. They can be both fun and deep at the same time. What is fun can mean different things to different kids, too.”
Nonfiction can be an overlooked source of fun as well. “There are kids who are bored to tears reading fiction about dragons and kids who are bored to tears reading nonfiction about wombats,” Newman says. “We need books for both of those kinds of kids.”
Any way, shape, and form
Rather than saying middle grade readers are less enthusiastic than they once were, it might be more accurate to say they have been displaying a “lowered stamina” toward books, according to Berner. “They may be less likely to read a 400-plus-page book, so I think it’s important for a bookstore to have a variety of titles for this age group in terms of both page length and format.”
Soontoonvat has heard from teachers and librarians that the kids in their lives are “very happy that I have a fantasy series with a shorter page count” (like her Legends of Lotus Island series); it’s more likely that they will pick it up and give it a try.
Publishers are increasingly exploring different formats as a way to cast a wider net for readers. Popular series are being adapted in a variety of visual forms, such as Max Brallier’s Last Kids on Earth series, offered in illustrated novel and graphic novel formats, along with a spin-off comic series. “I hope that continues,” Berner says. “These choices give readers more options to spend time with a book.”
Publishers need to “understand and appreciate that kids at a certain age level need visuals,” Kinney says, adding that these formats provide bridges for readers whose skills are still evolving.
To give books an edge against screen-based media, publishers need a more flexible approach, Kim says. “If we know binge watching is a thing, and we want kids to read all the books in a series before they age out, could publishers contract authors to write a complete series first, and then release them one after another in rapid-fire succession? Could books be split into smaller installments and be released on a faster schedule?” Her Korean publisher is issuing The Last Fallen Star, the first book in her Gifted Clans series, as two separate books with added illustrations and back-to-back release dates, in order to cater to local demand for faster, shorter, and more visual books.
While at the Texas Library Association conference earlier this year, Kim surveyed librarians, compiling their responses on what makes compelling reading for middle graders. “Young readers are tired of reading digitally, because they’re inundated by it at school,” she says. “Physical and tactile reading resources can go a long way to grab their attention. Big books can be intimidating, so smaller bites or tasters could help them catch the reading bug. Visual content is always welcome to pique a potential reader’s interest, and interactive tools are useful for the same reason, as are any initiatives that can create a feeling of community between readers or even different departments at schools.”
Reaching readers
Historically, peer-to-peer recommendations have played a strong role in the middle grade market. That chain was broken during the pandemic, and some attribute the break to the continued sluggish performance in the category. But while those recommendations remain key, adults still play a role. “We have found that if booksellers have read the books and can talk about them with readers, readers are more likely to give them a try,” Berner says, citing the importance of getting ARCs from publishers, a practice that was curtailed during the pandemic.
Berner points to Houston’s local book festivals—Bookworm (for emerging readers), Tweens Read (for middle grade readers) and TeenBookCon (for teen readers)—as effective ways to “connect readers with those who create books for them and to reflect the diversity of the city’s population.” It may sound obvious, but for middle graders, meeting authors truly has an impact on attitudes toward reading.
Angleberger says that when he was a child, an author was a distant, “unknowable person.” With festivals, school visits, and online interaction, that distance evaporates. While teens have social media, many middle grade readers don’t have accounts and don’t have access to book recommendations through those channels. But online communities can still be outlets for them. Angleberger hosts a “superfolders” group to spotlight kids’ origami creations and offer contests, posting photos of kids’ origami art and fostering a sense of community. “As bad as social media can be in many ways, the beauty of it is that it can get kids excited,” he says. Despite the fact that Origami Yoda was published 14 years ago, there are “constantly new kids showing up on the site. They have energy and ideas and keep me inspired.”
Creative ways to develop community and connection around a book go a long way to expand its reach and make reading feel less isolating. In conjunction with Kim’s 2025 release Dreamslinger, her publisher, Disney Hyperion, is launching a Dreamslinger League readers group to foster a sense of community. “We’ve even got sheet music for a song in the novel printed as endpapers in the book, which will be used to run a performance contest with prizes,” she says. “We’re hoping this might help attract potential new readers from the music departments in schools.”
As for how to reach kids on a broad scale, Medina cites the generational effect on reading that was achieved by Reading Rainbow. “It harnessed TV, the popular medium of the time. What is it that we can harness now?”
In the doldrums, waiting for a lift
Many in the middle grade market point to the long absence of blockbusters that reignite readers in the age group. “It’s a hit-driven market,” Kinney says. “A rising tide lifts all boats. But it’s been a while since Dog Man [Dav Pilkey’s 2016 bestseller]. These things come out of the blue. We’ve seen it before with the Harry Potter books and The Hunger Games. But “it takes more than marketing muscle to create a cultural juggernaut,” he adds. “A hit is organic. You can’t predict when they’ll come. You’ve got to have a good product first.” He offers the BookTok phenomenon as an example. “No one could have predicted or engineered that.”
In the meantime, there’s no shortage of great, unsung books struggling to find their audiences. “I think we’re living in the golden age of middle grade,” Gibbs says. “There are so many wonderful books and talented authors. There are budding readers. There isn’t just one right book for them. There are hundreds of them, despite all of the distractions.”
Reflecting on the current state of middle grade reading, Newman says, “All of these things are by their nature cyclical. Every decade or two we have one of these panics, and then kids are reading again. There are ebbs and flows. It’s hard to be in one of the ebbs and putting things out, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. We need to, because there are kids still reading, and there need to be books there when more kids are reading again.”
Though numbers indicate otherwise, authors and booksellers alike report that enthusiasm about reading is still high. “We see young readers come racing into the shop who can’t wait for the next book in a series, which is always an amazing feeling,” Berner says.
The audience is out there, but authors can do better at polishing their presentation skills and “grabbing the ring” of opportunity, Kinney says, adding that his team takes great pride in making sure that their school visits “live up to the hype” and deliver quality entertainment along with books. “Kids are thirsting for it.”
Kim confirms that the appetite for books is still there in middle graders. “I am constantly amazed at the fervor with which young people are consuming and enjoying books when I do school visits,” she says. “They are highly passionate, and once they find something they like, they are ravenous for more.”
Increasing readership in middle grade readers starts with “listening to what they want and feeding their interests,” Kinney says. “We are setting the table for readers.”
