The hostility with which some intellectuals regard the existence of YA never ceases to amaze me.
Yes, teenagers read. No, they shouldn't be restricted to YA only. But yes, it is good for them to have books written specifically for them!
Yes, teenagers read. No, they shouldn't be restricted to YA only. But yes, it is good for them to have books written specifically for them!
Comments
Insecure people like to gatekeep.
Happens in all kinds of culture discussions, music springs to mind with some claiming rap or country or whatever isn't music.
that's probably the hottest take I'll have for years lol
(I realize you did say SOME intellectuals, just saying...)
See the constant discussions of boys in YA, 14/15 year old protagonists, books without romance, etc., etc.
However, a lot of this just reads as hostility to the category in general, which strikes me as strange. Do you also hate books for toddlers? I mean, why not just give your four-year old Wuthering Heights, right?
That is worth celebrating, even though there are still gaps in the market.
But having stories written FOR you is powerful.
All of it kind of reads as just disdain for children in general. (Why can't they just pop out at age 18 as Jonathan Franzen fans?)
And yes to everything else you said. I believe that those who disdain children's literature for one reason or another have not read widely in it and are speaking from a place of complete ignorance.
I showed my agent a PB manuscript once, and she kindly told me that I'm better at being a novelist. My novels are, I would venture to say, good, but trying to tell a story in 600 words? Nope.
Coming of age story about an 18 year old chosen one boy: fantasy.
Coming of age story about an 18 year old chosen one girl: YA, or in some cases Romantasy.
There's a huge demand that's been displaced - largely young women or other margenalized groups.
I've often read YA myself, and it's because it's where all the books are about kickass young women, with higher odds of LGBTQ+ and diverse protagonists that are often excluded from other genres.
As long as teens are reading something they enjoy I'd think adults should be happy.
Is it YA because it's about young adults? Plenty of adult books are about teens.
Is it YA because the writing style is more accessible? Then a YA novel doesn't necessarily need to be ABOUT teens.
Is it a combo of both? FOR teens and ABOUT teens?
For me, the core is that YA needs to be about teenage experience from the POV of teenagers. So books where adult characters are reflecting on their teenage years, or age into adults, are generally not YA.
I've seen waters get muddy with people expecting YA because it's about teens but the themes are most certainly for adults.
I have always found reading a YA novel performs the same service for me.
Such energy, passion, pace, imagination and good writing. Wish I had them 70 years ago.
Kate McKinnon's The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquitte for Young Ladies of Mad Science
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/02/nx-s1-4848724/kate-mckinnon-childrens-book-millicent-quibb
It’s just…this genre. It wasn’t made for me specifically!
*wails even more loudly*
The link is in my bio for Gilgamesh.
It doesn’t have to be ‘highbrow’ or ‘academic’.
That shit can come later.
Now it's slowly coming back, though oftentimes it's not marketed as dystopian.
And science fiction is sadly underrepresented in YA.
I started with Marvel and ended up teaching Shakespeare
If you think it’s all easy, try reading _Jellico Road_.
I've read hundreds of recent YA books, and TBH none of those are frequent themes.
(Not that I think these subjects should be off-limits, by any means, but if anyone thinks that these are super-common, I question their knowledge of the recent market.)
Some good books, but a definite obsession with sex and death.
One of my favourite books is Harriet the Spy.
I’m no expert. I just think genres help publishers more than readers.
I disagree that age categories only help publishers. Categories are essential to finding things.
But the industry, the distinction is usually clear. Absolutely no one would publish a book like Daisy Jones as YA.
I'm honestly befuddled why anyone would classify it as YA TBH.
There aren't that many YA books that include molestation. I haven't looked at the other topics
It is NOT an age category. It’s an arbitrary label that publishers created to sell more books. Such books are mostly sold to adults, some of them are then given to 13-14 year olds.
Whoever you think YA is written for, that’s not who is buying or reading it.
https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/30/more-than-a-quarter-of-readers-of-ya-are-over-the-age-of-28-research-shows