young adult

Which young adult sf/f titles, if any, would you recommend to an adult reader who would not otherwise consider reading YA fiction because they think it's only suitable for kids?

A lot of standards appear, but Scott Westerfield shows up in many answers from the all-star panel.

Children have welcomed the Harry Potter books in recent years like free ice cream in the cafeteria, but the largest survey ever of youthful reading in the United States will reveal today that none of J.K. Rowling's phenomenally popular books has been able to dislodge the works of longtime favorites Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton and Harper Lee as the most read.

Cory Doctorow discusses how fans can't find his new book--Little Brother--because they're looking in the wrong section. Perhaps some Wordsy readers who are adult and also male can shed some light on the assumption that going into YA sections suggests you're a child molester! Comments full of hilarity (plus recommendations).

A recent post by Nancy Kress concerning the mature themes of current young adult science fiction struck a chord with my own observations over the last few years. Namely, that the fiction being marketed to today's young adults deals with adult themes more than the young adult fiction from yesteryear. SFSignal asks a bunch of people in SF/F the question.

Roger Sutton, editor-in-chief of The Horn Book, sparked an interesting discussion on his blog today with some casually derisive remarks about grown-ups who prefer to read children's books and YA novels:

Adults whose taste in recreational reading ends with the YA novel need to grow up.

Harriet the Spy was controversial when it came out in the 60s, says Anita Silvey, author of 100 Best Books for Children, in part because Harriet was a very flawed character. Some critics hated the book, and some schools even banned it. Harriet saw too much, said too much. She even threw temper tantrums and had to visit a psychiatrist. But Silvey says that that's all part of Harriet's charm.

Specifying a character’s brand of lipstick, shoes or handbag is a commonly accepted way to add an aura of reality or consumer aspiration to books aimed at young readers: just think of “The Gossip Girl,” with that series’s abundant references to Prada. But what if writers and publishers enlisted companies to sponsor those branded mentions, as is the widespread practice in Hollywood?

"There can hardly be a female aged between ten and 45 who does not regard reading Blume's novels as a seminal moment in their emotional and sexual upbringing. And Blume can confidently lay claim to being the first to blaze her particular trail."

Synopsis

Some parents think the Gossip Girl books give their innocent children ideas that they normally wouldn't have...ideas about drinking, drugs and sex. Clinical psychologist Roni Cohen-Sandler says "The problem is that many of the girls who read the book are in elementary school and middle school and cannot differentiate reality from fiction." Really?