Week 7: Not Just For Teens

Articles

YALSA's article The Next Big Thing: Adults Reading Teen Literature and Publishers Weekly's YA Comes of Age provide useful insights into why adults are increasingly drawn to YA fiction. A lot of it seems to have to do with marketing and movie/TV tie ins. These things draw adult readers in, and once they realize that there is a lot of high quality writing and storytelling in YA, they continue to seek it out.

Blogs

I've been following Forever Young Adult and John Green for about a week or so and am enjoying them both more than I had expected.

FYA is a self-described "non-stop internet slumber party" for "YA readers who are a little less 'Y' and a little more 'A'."As someone who falls into that general category, I've been having a lot of fun with this site. They write about and review YA books, teen-centered TV and movies, and interview authors. The tone is a nice mix between snark and girlish-naivete, and so it will appeal to many nostalgic young women.

It took me a little while to figure out what John Green, a very popular YA author, was trying to do with this website. At first it just seemed like a bunch of random videos of him and his brother ranting. Okay, so that's exactly what it is, but that seems to be the point. He and his brother have a lot of interesting thoughts and ideas, and there are people out there in the world who want to hear them, so they've created a little internet community where they can all talk about these ideas. Why not?

Publisher Sites

I spent some time on Harper Teen (and their blog Epic Reads) and Little, Brown Books for Teens. Along with the usual teen romance, distopia, and fantasy, I noticed a number of YA books with historical elements.