Meta: What's a Young Adult?

Mar 16, 2012 11:49

When I proposed that this year be "young adult" themed, I didn't realize how complicated it'd get ( Read more... )

2012 tournament

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Comments 18

akamarykate March 16 2012, 16:23:22 UTC
I can help with what seems to be the most straightforward question:

Is Discworld a young adult series?

The series as a whole, I'd say no. But the Tiffany Aching books (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight) were written as YA and are marketed as such, and they have a slightly different narrative approach than the rest of the Discworld books.

The rest of your questions...ugh, dilemmas! I'm working on an MFA in writing for children and young adults, and I can tell you that even within the industry there's a lot of grey area between what's YA and what's MG (middle grade), where titles like Ramona's books seem to fall. I hope you don't have to go through and age-check every one!

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esc_key March 16 2012, 16:43:43 UTC
Oh I didn't realize they were marketed differently. that does change things I suppose. One problem solved.

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cyshobbitlass March 16 2012, 16:49:48 UTC
Hm, maybe we need to have an age limit for the characters. They need to be 10-21 at some point in their story.

Sorry if that's a huge pain in the butt for you, though.

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esc_key March 16 2012, 17:52:24 UTC
I'm just concerned that some books might not have a really clear timeline. Like Pippi is 9 at the beginning but there are more books so I assume she ages, I just don't know how long a period it is.

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kiwiria March 16 2012, 17:12:49 UTC
It's also interesting to note that there is a difference between what is considered YA in different countries. Personal example - The Black Magicians Trilogy is labelled YA in Denmark, but obviously not in the US, as my nomination was disqualified (don't worry, I'm not upset about it - I just think it's funny/interesting).

No real ideas unfortunately.

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esc_key March 16 2012, 17:14:59 UTC
Argh. I didn't know that. Weird.

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kiwiria March 16 2012, 17:22:00 UTC
How could you? Not to mention why should you? Besides, I did make a mistake with Ayla so I'm unfortunately not infallible either and can't tell you to just take my word for it ;-)

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esc_key March 16 2012, 17:53:18 UTC
Others below have suggested your nom be reinstated in that case. But unfortunately a lot of people have already done their voting so I think it would be handicapped anyway. :/

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hhertzof March 16 2012, 17:38:45 UTC
If we were to have an age range, I'd say that if the character overlapped the range in any way, they should be eligible. I like the 10-21 age range as it gives some leeway.

And I know I was the one to question the Black Magician trilogy, but I think that should be reconsidered if it was published as YA somewhere.

I'd consider To Kill a Mockingbird YA. I believe we've had Alice in Wonderland in our YA department too. Ramona I wouldn't consider YA by any definition.

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esc_key March 16 2012, 17:55:20 UTC
I am leaning toward removing Ramona, sadldy. But I feel like I'd have to remove Alice then too. She seems older than 7 but it clearly states she's 7 1/2 (her half birthday!).

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hhertzof March 16 2012, 18:00:40 UTC
Aww.

We need one of these for children's books. *gdr*

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esc_key March 16 2012, 18:03:29 UTC
I AM TOTALLY THINKING THIS IS NEXT YEAR'S THEME! Awesome fictional characters under 10 years old!

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lysystratae March 16 2012, 17:42:20 UTC
Pippi should still count, for 2 reasons - there wasn't really a YA category at the time it was written, and there's more than one Pippi book, and she does age thru the series.

Ok, and I read it when i was 14 :)

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kiwiria March 16 2012, 19:45:16 UTC
Yup, there are three or four official Pippi books and then a couple more written by ghostwriters.

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