Defying Gravity: Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars
This book is disarmingly—in fact, unnervingly—amoral.
...more
Posts Tagged: YA Fiction
The Art of Memory
It is optimistic in terms of fiction and young adult fiction to propose a world in which there is healing, and in which healing exists, because complete or perfect healing doesn’t exist in the real world. But there is the idea of making room for new people. Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, […]
...moreBringing Asexuality to YA Fiction
Asexuality is often left out from discussions around queer visibility in pop culture. At Bitch Media, Lucy Mihajlich shares how she was told by an agent that her young adult dystopian trilogy, Interface, could be the next Hunger Games—but that it needed romance: It’s particularly hard to find asexual characters in young adult fiction, which is […]
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Jennifer Baker
The more variation we see in life, the more it becomes less about seeing one type of book by marginalized people.
...moreWhy Some Voices Are “Stronger” than Others in YA Lit
At the School Library Journal, Kelly Jensen examines gender norms and double standards in YA fiction, questioning which female protagonists we refer to as “strong”—and why do not refer to male voices as such: When women take risks in their writing, when they choose to write female-driven narratives with take-no-bull girls who may not care at […]
...moreUnboxing a Rainbow of Books
Rainbow Boxes is a project by Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta, two YA writers who want to send a collection of LGBTQIA-themed books to one library and one LGBTQ homeless shelter or GSA in all 50 states: The hope is that the project will do many things at once. Directly, it will impact teens […]
...moreWould You Rather Babysit Cathy Ames or Christine Hargensen?
What do Yukio Mishima, Tana French, Shirley Jackson, and John Steinbeck have in common? They’re the masterminds behind a couple of the most evil fictional youngsters of all time, according to a list compiled by British bookstore Abebooks. The list shuns contemporary malevolent characters in favor of the “utterly evil” children of yore, reasoning: “While […]
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Rainbow Rowell
Rainbow Rowell talks about her new novel, Landline, the writing advice she refuses to follow, and young adult fiction.
...more(Un)death in Venice
Do you know what year the word “zombie” first stalked the English lexicon? Do you think you can provide your kids with a “psychologically safe context for contemplating a collapsed world”? Did you read the CDC’s memo on zombie preparedness tips? Neither did we. Allow us to direct you to Clair McLafferty’s very highbrow meditation […]
...moreGay is the New Vampire
In an essay at The Millions, Alex Kalamaroff praises the growing number of LGBTQ characters in young adult fiction. He wonders, however, why there’s such a disparity between YA and adult fiction, especially considering that many between the ages of 18 and 44 read books intended for teenagers. In other words, why is it that […]
...moreTeen Reading
At BuzzFeed Books, Anne Helen Petersen expresses nostalgia for the reading she did as a teenager. It’s not so much that she misses the books themselves, though, but rather the “style of reading” associated with being a teen, the kind of full immersion that one isn’t able to achieve as an adult: As adults, we’re taught […]
...moreYA Shaming
Young adult fiction has never been more popular among grownup-adults—more than half of YA books are sold to people over the age of 18. There isn’t anything wrong with the occasional guilty pleasure, or even in indulging in topics that are, by definition, childish, says Ruth Graham, writing at Slate, but should we be concerned […]
...moreAre you there, Judy? It’s us, all of us
The Los Angeles Review of Books features a triplet of delicious essays on Judy Blume books and their influence on each author as they navigated the harsh terrain of their pre- and teenage years. In “Judy Blume Was Right: On Reading Deenie Twice,” Nina Berry writes:
...moreYA and Your Mom
Author of the recently released novel, Sister Mischief, Laura Goode offers some insight into the fiery world of young adult fiction because as it turns out, “Your Mom Reads More YA Than You.” Twitter is one way mothers reveal themselves as highly visible young adult book consumers, and it’s getting increasingly intense. There are a […]
...moreYA Fiction Feud
This weekend twitter hosted a feud on the subject of young adult fiction, spurred by Meghan Cox Gurdon’s article in the Wall Street Journal, detailing the perils of contemporary young adult fiction. According to Gurdon, young adult fiction “can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life […]
...more