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Message |
    
Gloria Marlow
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
902
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 07:45 am: |   |
I know that at some point we probably have discussed what Young Adult books are and what ages they are for, but could someone clarify that for me. I'm thinking the books are for younger teenagers. Am I wrong? As I recall being 13 or 14, I remember that I was reading books that were more in the adult section of the library...Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, etc. So, my question is what makes a book Young Adult or Adult? What creates that line?
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Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
58
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 07:58 am: | |
True Blue Forever is classified as YA, but I admit that it is hard to define. For the typical YA novel (which TBF is not) most of the readers range in age from 13-25. Usually they have teenaged characters and deal with issues teenagers relate to, but there are exceptions of course. Many fantasy novels are considered YA because of their popularity amongst teen readers.
BTW, I also began reading Victoria Holt, Phyllis A. Whitney and Dorothy Eden as a teenager. I have fond memories of all those gothic tales!
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage |
Gloria Marlow
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
903
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 08:10 am: | |
I had quite a few friend's of my daughter (13) and son (15)who read Flowers for Megan and really enjoyed it. They are all anxiously waiting to read The Butterfly Game now. Of course, they're both classified as mysteries I guess. I'm just wondering why they have YA as a category...in my opinion, by 15, I'd guess that the line has greatly blurred in the mind of most readers. I do remember reading from the "teen" section at the library once I was around 13 or 14, but only the biographies (I loved biographies).
Joyce, didn't I see on another post that Louisa May Alcott was one of your favorites? Or was that someone else? I have very fond memories of her books, too. I happened upon a yard sale once as a teenager where they had a box of Victoria Holt books. I bought everyone of them and spent the summer reading them.
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Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
60
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 10:42 am: | |
Gloria, my very favorite book of all time is Little Women. I've read it eight times and can recite the first page verbatim.
I recently ordered a Phyllis A. Whitney book through Amazon's used book listings that I read as a teenager and never forgot--The Winter People. I think the copy I bought may have been the original one I read from the library--ha ha. I haven't had the chance to read it again yet (still reading all the PA books I have) but I plan to. Ah . . . fond memories of sitting beneath a big ol' shade tree in the summer, lost in a book while my transistor radio played "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and "The Night Chicago Died." 
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage |
Todd Hunter
Unity Member
Post Number:
1478
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 03, 2004 - 08:34 pm: | |
Young adults (12-18) seem to get more excited about my book than other adults (especially the ones 60+)...
Whether those up to 25 can be considered young adult probably depends on the 'young adult' in question... |
Jan Fields
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
599
Registered: 09-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 07:13 am: | |
Right now many of the big publishers have young adult books for really two different age groups. There is younger young adult (whose actual readers are usually 10 - 12.) and that age group would read books like Vivian vande Velde's Ghost of a Hanged Man. Younger YA is shorter, and generally reads like a middle grade but contains grittier subject matter (like real horror, murder, etc). Older YA targets readers from 12 - 14 and is often very gritty...they may talk about older readers but the bulk of readers who actually read any YA line is 14 or under. If a book will appeal to anyone over 18, publishers usually print it as an adult book. (A couple times I have seen books printed with two different covers so it can be sold as either YA or adult -- but that is pretty rare. I think I've seen two like that).
Many middle teens read "adult" books that are fairly simple in plot, and heavily genre. Often a high-reading middle teen will pursue specific types of adult books -- fantasy, romance, science fiction, horror -- and not really read anything much outside the genre. So certain genre know they have a lot of teen readers and some books are printed in an adult line when the publisher knows it will draw a lot of teen readers, those teens who actually read these days.
The hottest form of YA right now (or at least the kind all the editors I am running into say they want) is chick lit. It's fading in adult lit and really coming into its own in YA. That happens a lot.
Anyway, my 2 cents.
Jan |
Nancy Marie
Unity Member
Post Number:
1733
Registered: 08-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 08:10 am: | |
Thanks for the imput Jan. It is very pertinent right now since I am in the process of writing a YA fantasy novel. I am enjoying the work immensely, and have been reading it to my kids (ages 11 and 15) both are enjoying it, so I think I may be onto something.
blessings, Nancy |
Gloria Marlow
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
904
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 09:32 am: | |
Just when I think I have my kids figured out, my 13 year old daughter brings me two "kid" books last night and asks me to read them to her and her younger brother before bedtime. (It was all I could do not to cry while I was reading. I mess that so much)
Jan, I've been amazed at the number of movies coming out that are "chick flicks" for teenage girls. I guess that age girl is becoming a big consumer.
Gloria |
Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
65
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 01:45 pm: | |
"I've been amazed at the number of movies coming out that are "chick flicks" for teenage girls. I guess that age girl is becoming a big consumer."
I think this is indicative of the way girls are encouraged by the media and the marketing world to grow up too soon. I cringe when I see little girls around 4-7 dressed in slutty Britney/Christina/J-Lo getups with their mothers' approval because they think it's cute. I'm so very, very thankful that my girls can't stand any of those pathetic, clueless, Marilyn-Monroe-fates-in-the-making.
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage
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Gloria Marlow
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
908
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 02:14 pm: | |
I know just what you mean, Joyce. My daughter is 13 and she is built very much like Marilyn Monroe, but that doesn't mean she wants to dress like her. We are constantly trying to find clothes that "cover" her, but there is definitely little supply of those. We go to the mall and it's like "Hookers R Us"...even in the little girls' section which we had to quit shopping in years ago.
Another thing that bothers me about the media and teenage girls is this desire to show them fighting. Where I come from, girls don't fight. Why does the media want to change that?
Gloria |
Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
68
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 06:07 pm: | |
Gloria, my 14-year-old daughter would trade her hourglass figure and almost D-cups for Hobbit feet in a heartbeat! The last article of clothing she asked for was a Weird Al Yankovic T-shirt. She picks out her shoes by how comfortable they are, and when we go to buy her school uniforms, she doesn't even want to try them on because it takes away from the time she gets to stay in EB Games and the book store.
And I wouldn't trade her for all the cutesy, giggly, Britney wannabes in the world.
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage
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Gloria Marlow
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
911
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 09:19 pm: | |
I agree. I wouldn't trade my daughter for anything. I don't know what I'd do with only boys. My daughter will primp. I have to admit. She loves to mess with her hair. Of course, her hair actually does something but hang there like mine does, so I don't blame her. It bothers me so much when people think she is one way just because she's built like she is (apparently exactly like your daughter). It's very hard to explain to an 11 or 12 year old that some people are going to automatically think she's "loose" because of the way she's built, because she came home crying that someone said that about her. It doesn't really help I guess that she is more comfortable with boys than girls. We can blame that on God too, I guess, because she is the only girl of 7 grandkids and my sisters and I are very close and raised them all together. While other girls think boys are this unique and wonderful species, she knows they're really just gross and not too bright  ...however, she's also realized from experience that girls can be heartlessly cruel to other girls, even their friends.
There's never a dull moment with her around. She is very opinionated. |
Joyce Scarbrough
Hunger Member
Post Number:
69
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - 09:58 pm: | |
Gloria, fortunately, my daughter has gone to school with the same group of kids since kindergarten, and they all know she is smart, funny, kind of spacey, but most certainly not loose. She wears all her shirts buttoned up to her neck and usually wears a jacket unless it's really, really hot.
She has just lately taken an interest in her hair and let her bangs grow out. She has long, curly strawberry-blonde hair I would have killed for at her age. She has online friends who are boys and she's friends with some of the boys who are in band with her, but she usually thwarts my questions about boys by saying most of the ones at school are "immature, irresponsible, or insensitive jerks." (That's a quote from the heroine in True Blue Forever.) The little smart aleck.
Toyce
True Blue Forever
Read the first chapter at http://www.authorsden.com/joycelscarbrough1
See the hunk at http://www.southernbelleauthor.com/joycepersonalpage
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