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Written by McClatchy-Tribune
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Wednesday, 06 September 2006 |
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PHILADELPHIA — Science fiction fans, mothers of teenage girls, and librarians all know something you don’t: Teen books can be great reading.
“Young adult” is the name of the relatively young and fast-growing genre of books that are geared to readers ages 12-18 or 14-18. But the readership of YA may have little to do with age.
“I’m 37, and all my friends read YA books,” said Cindy Egan, an editorial director at Little, Brown.
Lisa Santamaria is a college student who also enjoys YA fiction, particularly fantasy, which she said is often more imaginative than fantasy written for older readers. Santamaria runs the children’s department of the Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove, Pa.
“Children’s books have a more upbeat ending, and a lot of people are looking for that,” Santamaria said.
“They want something a little more entertaining or fluffy, so they come to the kids’ section, only to find out that these books are not necessarily fluffy at all. Like “Harry Potter — it makes you think.”
Harry Potter. The mention was inevitable.
“I hate to bring everything back to ‘Harry Potter,’ but those books really brought many more adults to YA reading,” said Jan Orts, manager of Joseph Fox Book Shop in Philadelphia. “ ‘Harry Potter’ has blurred the lines.”
Orts said the discussion about what makes a book YA is always controversial for booksellers. “It used to be content. Sex, incest, drugs, abuse, all used to be adult themes only — but that’s no longer true.”
“I feel entirely free to recommend YA books to our adult customers,” Orts said. And those recommendations are important, she said, since many adults wouldn’t feel comfortable walking back to the children’s section themselves.
But even that embarrassment factor might be changing.
Santamaria said there’s “not a stigma among people my age. I have no problem shopping in the kids’ section... there’s a lot of good books there.”
In the end, that’s what people come back to: the enjoyment of reading no matter what the book looks like. | Only registered users can write comments.
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