Comments on: Are You Reading YA Lit? You Should Be.

By: The History of Young Adult Literature | the dirigible plum

The History of Young Adult Literature | the dirigible plum — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:56:00 +0000

[...] has another article about YA lit that I also think you should read: Are You Reading YA Lit? You Should Be. It isn’t about the history of YA lit, but it’s an important piece and also recommends [...]

By: When is YA literature YA literature? « Insperata Floruit

When is YA literature YA literature? « Insperata Floruit — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 23:33:15 +0000

[...] to this blog, I was just reading this article on YA literature, and apart from the fact that it’s brilliant and everyone should read it, one [...]

By: for a 15 year old. « Coastline Books

for a 15 year old. « Coastline Books — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:39:06 +0000

[...] that ‘young adult’ books are finally being recognized as a distinct and identifiable category. Now I don’t think there will be much agreement on what exactly ‘young adult’ [...]

By: library day in the life 7.4 « The Jade Librarian

library day in the life 7.4 « The Jade Librarian — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:04:13 +0000

[...] Are You Reading YA Lit? You Should Be. – on my favorite kind of literature [...]

By: Wizards and Demigods and Shadowhunters, oh my! / News from NBP | Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:53:24 +0000

[...] In The Library with a Lead Pipe blogger librarian Gretchen Kolderup discusses the rise of YA lit: Are You Reading YA Lit? You Should Be. [...]

By: Category Vs Genre | Lynley Stace

Category Vs Genre | Lynley Stace — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:21:25 +0000

[...] – In the library with the leadpipe [...]

By: Gretchen Kolderup

Gretchen Kolderup — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:20:25 +0000

Scott, you’re right that “YA” isn’t the best label for this category of books (or library services)–but it’s what’s commonly used, so I used it here. I think that “teen” is a better designation.

It’s especially problematic to use “young adult” to describe teens, because then there’s a bit of a lexical gap to describe young people who are just starting adulthood and are in their early to mid-twenties. The terms that I’ve seen applied to this group include “emerging adults” and “new adults.” I think it’ll be a while before we see one label that comes out the victor here.

By: ScottTheWriter

ScottTheWriter — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:59:41 +0000

What an authoritative review of the field. I’m glad that lovers of literature are taking “YA” seriously.

But is “YA” the best tag for a form whose audience are not adults, yet? What do you call literature written for young adults?

By: The Blog List « Jason A. Beineke, Author

The Blog List « Jason A. Beineke, Author — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:00:52 +0000

[...] Hartwig, “I write young adult fiction (many of the reasons can be summarized here), which is also what I enjoy reading by and [...]

By: Spencer

Spencer — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:38:30 +0000

A separate peace- is that considered YA fiction- or is it just fiction? A Catcher in the Rye? The Things they Carried? The Curious Incident of the dog in the nighttime? All of these have teen/young characters at the center, but none of them- as far as I’m concerned- would be considered YA fiction. It’s because they are just considered plain fiction- or even “literature”. The difference between these and YA fiction is the difficulty of the read? Is it subject matter? I think it’s the difficulty of the read. If a teen can read literature, I have yet to find something in the YA section that I would feel comfortable recommending for anything other than a lark (such as the HP series).

I find the book thief is a prime example of this. The story could have been great- but we get a dumbed down, kiddie pandering version. I’m ok with that, as long as we don’t pretend it’s good literature.