Comments on: Editorial: Everybody Wants 
to Be a Teenager http://www.hbook.com/2013/04/opinion/editorials/everybody-wants-%e2%80%a8to-be-a-teenager/ Publications about books for children and young adults Mon, 13 May 2013 16:01:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: d elzey http://www.hbook.com/2013/04/opinion/editorials/everybody-wants-%e2%80%a8to-be-a-teenager/#comment-40103 d elzey Thu, 02 May 2013 21:10:40 +0000 http://www.hbook.com/?p=25760#comment-40103 Back in my day (yours and Martha's too, I imagine) there was no YA and we teens were perfectly fine (and sometimes eager) to cross the threshold into the "adult" side of the library and read from there. My eighth grade teacher was a little nervous about my picking Vonnegut for a class reading project, but "as long as I had my parent's permission" (ha!) she didn't have a problem with it. That was me at 14 and up and I didn't want book versions of The Afterschool Special, I wanted to know all about the ADULT world I was headed for. Given the number of adults reading YA these days perhaps its for the better if marketing just stepped aside and let the vast majority of those books fall where adults (and some teens) prefer to go looking for them: in horror, romance, and general fiction. Back in my day (yours and Martha’s too, I imagine) there was no YA and we teens were perfectly fine (and sometimes eager) to cross the threshold into the “adult” side of the library and read from there. My eighth grade teacher was a little nervous about my picking Vonnegut for a class reading project, but “as long as I had my parent’s permission” (ha!) she didn’t have a problem with it. That was me at 14 and up and I didn’t want book versions of The Afterschool Special, I wanted to know all about the ADULT world I was headed for.

Given the number of adults reading YA these days perhaps its for the better if marketing just stepped aside and let the vast majority of those books fall where adults (and some teens) prefer to go looking for them: in horror, romance, and general fiction.

]]> By: Stacy Whitman http://www.hbook.com/2013/04/opinion/editorials/everybody-wants-%e2%80%a8to-be-a-teenager/#comment-40025 Stacy Whitman Wed, 01 May 2013 18:53:18 +0000 http://www.hbook.com/?p=25760#comment-40025 I've thought about this a lot, as well, particularly because several of the YA books I've published *are* for the younger YA set--for 12- and 13-year-olds, though mostly they're "clean" enough to hand to a 10- or 11-year-old too. And then some reviews come in which the reviewer questions if it's even YA--if it ought to be middle grade, or complains (when reading as an adult, for themselves, not keeping the needs of actual 12-18s in mind) that it's "too juvenile." I really love it when adults love our books, but for the most part, I'm thinking of kid readers, not adults, when I publish books. There was a time a few years back when someone was calling for the splitting of the YA section, because there is quite a developmental gap between 12 and 18. I don't know that that's a solution, but it is definitely important to keep carving out that space in YA between middle grade and books aimed at grownups. I’ve thought about this a lot, as well, particularly because several of the YA books I’ve published *are* for the younger YA set–for 12- and 13-year-olds, though mostly they’re “clean” enough to hand to a 10- or 11-year-old too. And then some reviews come in which the reviewer questions if it’s even YA–if it ought to be middle grade, or complains (when reading as an adult, for themselves, not keeping the needs of actual 12-18s in mind) that it’s “too juvenile.” I really love it when adults love our books, but for the most part, I’m thinking of kid readers, not adults, when I publish books.

There was a time a few years back when someone was calling for the splitting of the YA section, because there is quite a developmental gap between 12 and 18. I don’t know that that’s a solution, but it is definitely important to keep carving out that space in YA between middle grade and books aimed at grownups.

]]> By: Deborah Taylor http://www.hbook.com/2013/04/opinion/editorials/everybody-wants-%e2%80%a8to-be-a-teenager/#comment-40006 Deborah Taylor Wed, 01 May 2013 14:46:45 +0000 http://www.hbook.com/?p=25760#comment-40006 I've been thinking about this a lot and I wonder if teens will wind up as "guests" in their own category. I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I wonder if teens will wind up as “guests” in their own category.

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