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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43742
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I had a similar experience with _The Hobbit_. But I don't think that's because of the target age of the audience. I think it is because of the style of story that it was. Plucky adventurer full of pluck and mirth bounds off on their adventure, unaware of the true trials and tribulations about to befall them, armed only with, you guessed it, pluck. Even at 10 I knew how this story always turned out. And when I read _The Lord of the Rings_ years later, even though it was slightly darker, I knew that the plucky underdog was still going to come out on top at the end.

I did not feel that way with _The Bridge to Teribithia_ or _Where the Red Fern Grows_. They were different books. They were different stories. It was a different style. I also think the **Everything Will Be Okay At The End** vibe has a bit of a negating effect on the impendingness of the danger. Sure we know that Bilbo and Frodo are going to survive, partly because there are simply too many pages left, but _their danger is real to them_. So we get to watch them experience horrifying mortal danger from the safety of our homes with the tranquility that comes with knowing that the happy outcome will come to be.

I'm also reminded of reading _To Kill a Mockingbird_, when one of the children is very much in mortal danger. I don't believe danger, or even tragedy and death, are off-limits in middle-grade books. What makes them middle-grade is the language used, the relatability of the characters, and the relatability of the themes.

Original score: 9