As a content specialist and copywriter at Barnes & Noble in New York City from 2023 to 2025, Josh Sippie had a front-row seat to how middle grade books were performing at retail. It wasn’t a pretty picture, so he decided to do something about it.

“When I worked for the bookstore, middle grade was a really difficult selling point,” Sippie says. “There are so many contributing issues. But I was not super pleased with the store’s strategies, so I started to think about what could make things better.” Improved communication with the industry topped his list. He pitched the idea of a group that the bookstore could run to facilitate easier dialogue with middle grade publishing folks. When the store wasn’t receptive, Sippie stepped up.

“I took it upon myself to get out into the industry more and talk to agents, editors, librarians, whoever is involved with middle grade to see what they thought—what kind of support they needed, at the bookseller level,” he says. He started in fall 2023 by gathering a few agents who were friends and some editors he knew.

“There were about 10 of us for the first meeting and we initially picked a bar,” he recalls. “But it was so loud and there was nowhere to sit, so we walked outside and saw a diner, and that little diner is now our home.” The group now has not only an official meeting spot but also a name: Save Middle Grade.

“It began as sort of this think tank,” Sippie says. “We were talking about how to get better middle grade out there in front of kids, get it selling better, get kids reading again, especially in the face of decliningvliteracy rates.” As the group has grown—there are roughly 30 members now, with three to eight people typically turning up at the monthly meeting—so has its camaraderie. “It’s as much a support group as it is a think tank. We’re hoping by sharing our successes and when we see that something’s working well, that we can all glom onto that and lift middle grade out of the slump.”

Though the group paused over the summer while Sippie was settling into his new job as an editor at HarperAlley, he expects things to pick up again soon, with a goal of steering the group in a more action-oriented direction. For starters, he says, there have been discussions about creating a festival to get kids excited about reading again. He’s been heartened through his experience of establishing Save Middle Grade.

“Everybody’s willingness to take time from their busy lives and try to turn this into something that can make a difference has been really great to see,” Sippie says. “Yes, publishing is an industry, but deeper than that is this unified desire for kids to be reading, not just for the sake of selling books, but for the sake of the country and the world.”

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