Wednesday, June 30, 2010

What is Young Adult Fiction?

I just read a really great analysis/discussion of what young adult literature REALLY is (here).

I thought it was a great discussion, and wondered what MY view on "what makes a book YA" really is. I think, as I contemplate, that YA books have a sense of youthfulness, of discovery and exploration (whether it is the internal discoveries of a seventeen-year-old girl who may be dying, or the exploits of an adventurous trio of pre-teens trapped on an island). Most, if not all YA has a hopeful feel to it. While serious issues and deep problems get tackled, there's a feeling that in the end, things can work out, or at least the way things end is the "right" way.

What do you think makes a book a YA novel? Is it just the characters being teens? Or is there more? What do you think?

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