On YA sections

Posted on by scott

There’s an interesting wave of discussions going on right now about YA sections of bookstores. Do adults read YA? Should they feel dorky for doing so? When shopping for YA, should they bring a teenager along to make them less conspicuous?

The discussion was started by Cory Doctorow, whose new book was mentioned in my previous post. He’s telling his adult science fiction fans where to find Little Brother, and about how many other awesome books there are in the “undiscovered” YA section.

It’s called “Young adult sections in bookstore — a parallel universe of little-regarded awesomeness.”

Of course, as the folks watching Christopher Columbus sail in must have thought, being “undiscovered” is relative. And John Scalzi responds on that point, noting that YA (especially science fiction and fantasy) is actually much healthier than adult fiction in the sense of sales, cover designs, writing, and general vitality. YA has been well and truly discovered by readers, publishing houses, etc. It’s just that some adult fans of sf/fantasy don’t know that much about the new wave of awesomeness.

Here’s John’s post: “Why YA” (in which he says many appallingly nice things about me).

Mind you, the best part of these two posts are the comment threads, which consist largely of adults saying, “ZOMG, have you discovered this YA author yet?” to each other. Granted, they’re mostly talking about stuff that you guys already know about. But it’s always exciting to see new people getting enthused about the coolness of our world.

And for added amusement, you also get a few, “But I read adult books as a kid. Surely I am too mature to read teen books as an adult!” As if you guys don’t also read adult books. I mean, sheesh.*

A related amusing thread in these comments is how many adults are scared of going into the YA section. Like, they’ll be laughed at or arrested or something.

Anyway, it’s always interesting to see how others see us.

____________
*The “I’m too mature to read YA” assertion reminds me of a guy I met at a party a few years ago. Upon finding out that I write novels, he said, “Oh, I only read non-fiction. Because that way I’m learning something.”

Now, there are many ways to skewer this position, but I figured the simplest was to say, “So you must watch only documentaries, and never movies with a story.”

He sputtered a bit and said, “Well, no. I don’t just watch documentaries. But movies are entertainment.”

Even as he said this, his expression showed that he got my point. Saying that he read only non-fiction was meant to make him sound smarter. But what it really suggested was that he saw reading as work. Sort of like medicine, reading wasn’t supposed to be pleasant, but to improve him. And what did it say about him that reading was work and watching a movie wasn’t?

Now, obviously, lots of very smart people read mostly or only non-fiction. (This is a golden age of narrative non-fic and science writing, for one thing.) But the smart ones never declaim that it’s better for them, just that they like it more.

Not reading/watching/listening to whole genres on principle is rarely a good look.

99 thoughts on “On YA sections”

  1. Liset: You want “Bass Ackwards and Belly Up” and its sequel, “Footfree and Fancyloose.” They’re about four best friends heading off to college; book one is freshman year and book two is sophomore. And they in no way suck.

  2. I no! Cant she just leave them alone… but thats how you sell books. Make something unexpected happen and the reader will want to know more!

  3. I don’t see anything wrong with adults reading YA.
    I’m sixteen, and I enjoy a classic GooseBumps every once and a while. Besides, I don’t want to feel like I can’t read YA when I’m an adult!

  4. i read a lot of YA books, though they’re mostly sci-fi. i’m 30. but then i occasionally read kids books too. i really like reading!

  6. I’m 29, and though I love a wide variety of books, I adore young adult fiction, sci-fi and others. For my birthday, my fiance took a list of books I wanted to Borders and asked a salesperson to help him find them. When 75% of them were in the young adult section, the salesperson said, “Aw, are these for your little sister?” My fiance was laughing too hard to correct her.

  8. omg. i just completely messed up my internet on my computer. cuz i have opera so you like get a lot of choices with layout and crap and i was just messing around with mine and now i don’t know how to fix it. πŸ™ scotts blog turned is green. πŸ™ and weird. πŸ™ ..*cries*

  9. Its ok Kay-wa we—-What the heck!!!! Why is it me, he person who dispises bugs, gets all the bug infested desk!!! there are ants on this desk! See last time i was some where else but know im at home and there are ants. Urg! Scurry my little ant friends!

  10. By the way, Happy Cinco Demiyo or however the heck you spell that. You guys know what I’m talking about right? Sorry, I’m just showing my Americanism right there. Cant even spell a decent Spanish word.

  11. My friend’s mom refuses to read adult books because she calls them “lame”, and thus only reads YA, but this friend refuses to read YA because she calls it “fluffy”, and thus only reads classic literature. It’s really weird.
    And about adults that are in denial about reading YA? My library caters to them by putting all the popular YA books in the adult section as well. It’s really funny.
    Oh dear. My brain is not operating correctly. “It’s really weird”? “It’s really funny”? Honestly, I thought I was more creative than that.

  12. My mom really dosn’t read a whole lot. The only thing that she reads is your basics: Text (for school), ummm… yeah and that is pretty much it. She also reads the bible. All jfo my friends pretty much read young adult. I have to read certain books though. My sister makes me. She is tha top reader out of my whole school. See when we read books we are suppossed to take a test on them. The tests give you points. And you can buy stuff with them and anyways she has the most points out of all the school. I think she has read half of the books in my school. It’s kind of scary because they had this meeting witht eh top readers and this year my sister has gotten 600+ points and has read more than 6,000 words. Off of books fromt he library only. Just to let you know on the whole pint scale so that you know how much 600 pts is Uglies was worth about 13.

    I love Sueprman/Tom Welling!!!!

  14. HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY B-DAY SCOTT-LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    how old are you? does anybody no?

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! πŸ˜€

  17. Oh. My. Goodness. Someone likes capital letters. And the word “happy”. It gets the point across, though. Happy Birthday, Scott-la.

  18. coolio happy b-day scott-la!! how old r u (or r u at the age when u get offended whenever someone asks how old u r, in which case i didn’t say anything)????
    well gtg
    ps MOSQUITOES R EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!EVIL I TELL U!!!!! EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  19. UMR-wa, you are totally right about the evilness of mosquitoes. But they’re not as evil as geese! Ugh… geese. Just the word makes me shiver!

  20. Oooh, a goose bit me once! HeHe, and Lizzy-wa I have been wondering that for like forever! I’d say Zombies just cuz zombies rock! But I’ve got no clue!

  22. Whenever I see adults in the YA section they seem completely lost. If I were a more outgoing person I would ask them if they wanted suggestions or something… but I am not an outgoing person in the least. So.

  24. I’m an adult who reads YA fiction regularly. I’ve found it to be much more appealing than the traditional adult sci-fi. I’m not embarrassed at the bookstore. I AM embarrassed when someone asks me what I’m reading, though. Of course, most people wouldn’t be able to tell it was YA just by the cover of the books, so I have no idea why I don’t just tell them about the awesome book I’m reading.

    I think the problem is that I don’t want to appear stupid. I’m smart. I’m well-read. I read strictly for entertainment now, but I still worry that someone will think I’m dumb.

    I guess I need to get over that…

  25. lol sorry about your ant problems Bran-la. ….we have ants invading out kitchen so my mom is finally starting to enforce the put your plate in the dishwasher rule. one jumped on my paper and i was like ahh! and then i was like oh. it’s an ant! haha.

    i was almost attacked by a goose. we were camping and were feeding them and like i didn’t have any bread left but it wouldn’t leave me alone and i had to jump in the convertible to keep from being attacked.

    as for my internet i think i pretty much fixed it. the green screen has disappeared. πŸ˜€ the only thing missing now is my little news feeds/links that update themselves frequently that i love so dearly. and it’s completely my fault too. lol. i pressed the button that said hide the links. and now i can’t find them. how much stupider can i get? …answer=not much. lol. so now i’m gonna force my brother to update it tomorrow and hopefully my magical news feeds/links will reappear.

    and last but definitely not least… HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT-LA!! I HOPE IT’S A GREAT ONE!!! πŸ˜€

  26. happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen: happy birthday! happy birthday! :mrgreen:

  27. haha! i found the secret hidden tab that hid my news feeds/links! and now they are back! πŸ˜€ yays!

  29. i totally hate anything that has more than 4 legs (i luv horses btw tho that sorta came outta nowhere…hehe). geese never really bother me, as i rarely see them when they’re not in the air. sigh my little brother and sis r fighting again and my sis is making up this really wierd song. o well they’re wierd and often creep me out.

  30. Hey Scott – this is the only way I found to contact you and perhaps get a response. πŸ™‚

    I wanted to ask you if there’s any sort of grammatical rule regarding the name endings in Tally’s city (la, wa, and maybe any others that escaped radar). Tally seems to be the only character whose name ending is “-wa.” Even Aya is “Aya-la.”

    Is there any particular reason for this? My hypothesis is that it is based on the letter L being in her name (that is to say that “-la” is the default, unless one has an L in one’s name, whereupon the name ending changes to “-wa” in order not to trip the tongue). Is this correct, or is it something else?

    I’m a stickler for accuracy, and I’d love to be able to call my friends _____-la or _____-wa accordingly! πŸ™‚

    Thanks Scott!
    Emma

  31. Emma: there’s a really great blog a few entries down from this one where Scott explains it. πŸ™‚

  32. Thanks Alwyn! All I saw were references in the comments, but it seems that my hypothesis is correct, yes? πŸ˜› Thanks again!

  33. At my school, we have this class called “Academic Litteracy” which is basically a mandatory reading class (well it’s more of helping us learn how to do well on the Standardized reading tests but we read a lot too) and all the teachers HAVE to read YA books because they end up reccomending them to us since we have to read 25 books minimum for the school year (yeah not a problem for me and most of my friends-especially if you factor in most of the books I read over the summer.

    The teachers seem to like YA but then again my teacher seems to only like realistic fiction, not that I don’t like it but it just bores me sometimes, I mean most of them seem to have the same plot line every time: Girl and Boy friends, Boy likes Girl, Girl likes Jerk Boy, Girl and JB get together, she figures out he’s a jerk, she gets with Boy at the end. I kinda like the weirder Realistic fiction books…..like about teen promblems and stuff like that. (Like I’d read Suite Scarlett, but I’m gonna wait until paper back since I’m running out of money)

    Oh btw, Scott you are starting to get really popular at my school, this one girl who only reads like the opposite of what I do took out all of the books in the Uglies Trilogy (plus Extras) the other day. Hopefully she’ll like them.

  34. Many of you might have already read The Ò€œTwilightÒ€ Series by Stephenie Meyer, But if you havenÒ€ℒt do so!!! Or you are not fullfiling your life as a YA reader!

  35. ^true, true. And wow, only 25 for the year? HeHe, dude I read like that much in a month…I feel like a book nerd now! Ha, I wear my title proud!

  36. I’m one of the few people at my school who does read that much. Once, someone in my drama class asked me how many books I’ve read in my life, and I asked him, “You expect me to COUNT!?” He said he’s probably read seven in his life – which is less than the required 2-a-semester (I know, not much AT ALL.) And he wonders why he’s failing LA?

  40. noob. hehe. nice.

    ehk. drama. ehk. i love actin an all, but my drama teacher is horrifiyingly dreadful. ugh.

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 8)

  41. Ah, my sister, who’s 17, thinks I’m a dork for reading YA. I just shrug her off and go back to what ever YA book I happen to be reading at the time. I’m 19 BTW. But honestly I don’t understand why it matters to some people if it’s geared towards your age group. Heck I still love Green Eggs and Ham.

  43. I LOVE YA and I’m 28 years old. I boldly take my self in the children’s section of the library, and don’t give a hoot who’s looking! I love your books, and it’s not always sugarcoated, and teen angst. More adults should get in the YA section so they can discuss things with their kids, and get another perspective!

  44. I decided to force my friend to read Uglies and her mom liked it more than she did. See, adults can come back down to earth and read what their kids are reading(and not just to spy on them)

  46. imo (in my opinion), you’re never too old to read YA. It turns out that a lot of the best writers write for it…

    i.e., Scott Westerfeld, J.K. Rowling, Vivian Vande Velde, Louise Rennison, Carol Plum-Ucci, Zevin…

    There you have it. They’re good, man.

  48. I just found out about you as an author through the Uglies series, and I’m glad I googled and found your blog. I’m 25 and still enjoy the “Young Adult” section’s books. There are so many great books there these days, and even the trashier ones are good for a guilty pleasure read. I’ve dabbled in writing and anything I’ve written would probably end up being labeled Young Adult.

    I loved your comment about the man who “only reads non-fiction”. I know someone like that who claims she “doesn’t read books with stories” and the way she says it you can tell she thinks she’s saying something smart or being an adult or some other nonsense. This also demonstrates that they don’t realize how much people can learn from stories.

    Besides, who’s reading the medical journal from 150 years ago? Probably very few. But there’s plenty of people still reading Little Women.

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