Our final genre of discussion is books for the younger crowd, from middle grade to young adult.
When I was growing up, I don’t remember much in the way of a Young Adult genre. Or maybe I passed through the reading levels so quickly, I skipped it all together. As an adult I am fascinated by the fact that there are entire sections devoted to teen fiction. I rarely read it myself but I occasionally come across stories that blur the genre’s borders.
I stumbled onto this one while killing time at the airport. In fact I had read half of it before I realized it was a young adult book. You can read my full review here. I have the sequel in my TBR pile and I look forward to reading it as well.
I was also lucky to find myself a couple of chapters into The Blackhope Enigma before I knew it was meant for a younger reader.
You can read my full post here.
In general, I think a Young Adult genre can be a useful bridge for kids during their reading evolution, but it’s important that writers don’t “talk down” to their audience, just because of their age. A well-written book can have a meaningful story regardless of its intended audience.
The reason I initially disliked YA a lot was because I felt that every author was talking down to their audience, selling them some kind of romanticized and silly love story that everyone knew was completely ridiculous. Some books have really changed my mind though and I can now see how some people would love the genre. I have too much of a passion for the classics and literary fiction to be really swayed by it but I don’t dislike it anymore! Thanks for your post 🙂
Juli @ Universe in Words
There are some truly great YA books that would be read more if people didn’t think of them as YA first. Eleanor & Park is one that comes to mind first-fantastic story, emotional and well written, just happens to be about teenagers. I have Hollow City on my shelf to read too-I’m excited to get to it.
Yay miss peregrine! Get to the sequel soon, it’s great!