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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/34700
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

At the moment I'm trying to write a fantasy novel, and I think it's leaning more towards middle grade rather than children's or young adult fantasy, but I'd like to know if there are any particular clues I could look out for when deciding which I should class it as.

While I know the general age range for these genres (Children's (~8), middle grade (9~11), and young adult (12+)) and can think of some traits that tend to be in the writing of one or another, I can't help but wonder where one crosses over into another, and whether there are any clear cut distinctions between the themes/plots/stories for these genres. For example, while E. Nesbit's [Five Children and It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Children_and_It) is very much a children's fantasy (it's light hearted, the children get themselves into trouble but not mortal danger, they learn from their mistakes), Susan Cooper's [The Dark is Rising Sequence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Is_Rising_Sequence) is described on Wikipedia as 'for older children and young adults' (more of a classic Light vs Dark, Good vs Evil, ancient-magic-awakening kind of story), so I assume that means it could be classed as either middle grade or young adult.

In the end, basically, I would like to ask: Are there any definite rules such as 'stories like this are always children's fantasy, and ones like this are always middle grade, young adult, etc.'?

Original score: 7