Fact & Fiction for Middle Grade Readers

I co-presented a workshop with Traci Todd, children's book editor for Chronicle Books at the recent San Francisco Writers Conference. She spoke on non-fiction for middle grade (9-12 years old generally) and I spoke on Fiction. Traci highlighted several wonderful books that Chronicle Books publishes: Sienna's Scrapbook: Our African American Heritage Trip; The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins and one about Caves that isn't even released yet. She noted that most non-fiction books for this age group are fun as well as educational, peppered with interesting graphics, photographs, sidebars and other things that keep kids interested and entertained. The books were absolutely beautiful. The astronaut book even included images of actual flight logs from Michael Collins detailing how he serviced the Apollo 11 toilets. Kids would be fascinated, believe me.
I spoke on what's popular these days in middle-grade fiction. Here's an outline of my speech:

MIDDLE GRADE FICTION

The popular trends have been the same for a while now, with small variations.

Fantasy represents 50% of the middle grade fiction market
a. Fairies (Spiderwick, Disney Fairies)
b. Princesses (Meg Cabot, Princess Diaries, Fairest)
c. Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts (Vampire High, Vampire Kisses)
d. Trolls, Boggarts, Elves (Edge Chronicles, The Sea of Trolls)

2. Horses--a perennial favorite for young girls
a. (Mustang Mountain series, American Girl mysteries, The Horse Girl)

3. Tales of Adventures for Boys
a. Pirates (Thank you Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow
b. Science Fiction (Ender's Game)
c. Quests (Eragon, Pendragon, The Warriors, Bionicle, A Series of Unfortunate Events)
d. Secret Agents/Mysteries (Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider, Chasing Vermeer)

4. Stories about School
a. Coming of Age (The Midnighters, Keys to the Kingdom, Bridge to Terabithia, The Higher Power of Lucky)
b. Humorous (I Was a Third Grade Science Project/IWATG Spy by Mary Jane Auch)

5. Movie and TV tie-ins are huge
a. Bridge to Terabithia, The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars
b. Buffy The Vampire Slayer (now a graphic novel series too), Charmed

6. Celebrity Books are growing in popularity
a. Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Britney, Paris, etc.

7. Graphic Novels are a worldwide phenomenon
a. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (new type of graphic novel)
b. Tokyo Pop and other Manga purveyors
c. Marvel Comics (Iron Man, Batman, X-Men, Ghost Rider, Spiderman)

8. Series pull in a lot of money for publishers
a. At the recent SCBWI convention, the buyer for Borders Books stated that 60% of her sales are backlist, and 80% of those sales come from 300 titles.
b. Numbers (see spreadsheet)