Saturday, August 24, 2013

WHY ISN'T YA TAKEN SERIOUSLY?

via We Love This Book

C.J. Daugherty on why Young Adult fiction isn't taken seriously by anyone other than its fans 

There are a lot of theories out there about why things are as they are. My personal theory is it’s a kind of snobbery. It seemed to begin around the time the Harry Potter books became popular. You’d often read articles in the major UK newspapers about how absurd it was to see adults reading children’s books on the tube. Pundits bemoaned the 'dumbing down' of literature. The Potter books broke sales records but were not included on many bestseller lists because they were technically children’s books. In some cases it was the Potter books that made newspapers decide to separate children’s books out from adult books for their bestseller charts – so the sales figures of 'real' books weren’t diminished by the presence of children’s books on the list.     
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1 comment:

Melinda Szymanik said...

YA 'should' be taken more seriously - there are many great examples. Try Annabel Pitcher, John Green, Mal Peet, Meg Rosoff, Sonya Hartnett Malorie Blackman or Maggie Steifvater. But please don't start with 'City of Bones'