YA Lit
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His Audio-Only Materials
Citizens of the multiverse rejoice: Philip Pullman has released another tale from the world of His Dark Materials, the fantasy trilogy for which fans have long awaited a fourth installment. Narrated by Bill Nighy and available only in audio format,…
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Not-So-Young Adults
Good news! Early reports show that book sales are up 4.9 percent in 2014. Who can we thank for this Christmas miracle? Adults who read e-book versions of YA novels, that’s who. Sales are up by a dramatic 53 percent…
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The Rumpus Saturday Essay: Stain
It’s hard to remember why I was silent. Maybe, like some of the women only now reporting they were raped by Bill Cosby decades ago, I was afraid I wouldn’t be believed.
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Stories That Care
Reflecting on 20 successful years of Chicken Soup for the [Insert Identity Here] Soul, Katy Waldman explains why the same clichés get us every time: Despite the growth of the self-help market, has the recession, or irony, destroyed Chicken Soup’s…
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Skewed Standards
The YA battle rages on at Flavorwire, where Sarah Seltzer responds to Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker essay pondering the effects of supposedly lowbrow children’s lit: We have to interrogate our basic assumption that writing skills possessed by educated white people…
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Online Ranting, Real-Life Raving
YA author Kathleen Hale became obsessed over a negative Goodreads review of her first novel, to the point of finding the reviewer’s address and deciding to stalk her in real life. She wrote about the experience on the Guardian last…
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The Birth of the Young Adult
For the New Yorker, Jon Michaud reveals how S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, a staple in middle school and high school classes, came to define the young adult genre: “The Outsiders died on the vine being sold as a drugstore paperback,”…
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On Being a South Asian American
Tanuja Desai Hidier’s 2002 Born Confused was the first-ever South Asian American coming-of-age novel. At The Toast, she talks with Safy Hallan Farah about her debut book, its new sequel Bombay Blues, and future projects.
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Henry James & The Great YA Debate
Responding to the ongoing debate about whether or not American literature is saturated with young adult fiction (and if adults should read these novels), Christopher Beha, in the New Yorker, addresses A.O. Scott’s recent essay in the New York Times…
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A Teen’s Perspective
The Los Angeles Review of Books has posted “an honest review from a teen’s perspective” about The Fault in Our Stars.
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YA Lit Tackles Modern Concerns
Plenty of critics have lamented the rise of Young Adult literature, but its popularity isn’t accidental. The genre is focusing on contemporary problems and, more importantly, manifesting them in easily digestible ways that appeal not just to teens, but to…