I've seen The Blue Girl shelved in both sections. Why not? It's very relateable for teenagers. And the voice de Lint uses is different not because he is playing down to his audience. It's still equally smart and literary. It's because it's a realistic teenage voice. I see no problem with a section just for teenagers. I think where people get mixed up is that we tend to think of "childrens" and "Young Adult" as genres when they are really age demographics. I have a tendency to ignore the age demographic that a publisher puts on a book. It's too bad other people can't. Books are for everyone. Why should you care what the cover says? Scolastic as a great series called "Dear Canada" which is a series of diaries of girls aged 11-14. They're always shelved in the children's novels section, but I love reading them because they not only have great stories, they are a fantastic introduction to Canadian history. Neil Gaiman has a book called Coraline that is is shelved in the children's section, but he calls it his first book for all ages. ciavyn: I'm not surprised you didn't like Amelia Atwater Rhodes. She's crap. She's published about six books and she's only about a year older than I am. Her style has not evolved since she was thirteen.
I have read Harry Potter, I loved Harry Potter, I gave a Golden Compass a try and didn't like it, and so on. I have tried books like that and the only one I have liked is Harry Potter and if it counts as a YA book Artemis Fowl. YA fantasy is all right, I can pick up a few books and not exactly enjoy them as much as I want. YA general fiction is kinda on the boring side, I need a little more action.
Rei: after I posted that, I checked her age. While impressive concepts for such a young woman (the one I'm reading :gag: she wrote when she was 16), her writing is choppy and confusing. I have no idea how she got published. If nothing else, it should give us hope! Am really enjoying de Lint, though.
Have you tried anything by Rick Riordan or D. J. MacHale? I haven't read either of the series, but they are quite popular (not necessarily a mark of quality, mind you). Scattercat could probably vouch for the former, though. If you like action, you might also want to look at Alex Horowitz's Alex Rider series. It seems to combine a male protagonist with action novel tropes (spies, etc). Again, I haven't read the books so I couldn't say if they were actually good or not. ...yeah, old habits die hard. I just like recommending things.
The Percy Jackson series has a lot of action, and is furthermore fairly well-written and plotted for a YA novel; the characters and events remain a little on the thin side, but the stories hold together thematically and I have yet to wince at anything other than the tendency towards power creep evidenced so far (and many so-called mature writers have trouble with that sort of thing.)
I have a lot of issues with YA novels, mostly due to the repetetiveness in theme/plot/characters I keep noticing. When my Barnes & Noble can fill a table with books about '(un)dead teenagers' (and I am not talking about vampires) then clearly the market needs some fresh blood. I'm also tired of seeing 'the loner' in YA novels, usually because they are actively alienating themselves from their peers while complaining about how nobody likes them. I really just want to read a book about a normal person who happens to do extraordinary things (Un Lun Dun being a wonderful example). I still go to the YA section everytime I go to a bookstore, but there has been a dearth of anything good for a long time. As for what separates adult from YA? I think it's willingness to deviate from the norm. There are some quality YA books out there, but (I feel) they tend to be older, and the more recent ones are simply repackaging old formulas with shiny new ribbons. The world of 'adult fiction' is more diverse. And before anyone jumps on me for this, I'm a teenager too. I just get frustrated when the YA section has nothing that interests me.
Here are the books nominated this year by teen book groups across the country for the 2008 YALSA award. I notice an overload of fantasy stuff.
Overt sexual themes and large words typically separate YA from A. I wouldn't worry about it much. most books or stories are basically the same, unless they're different. I mean come on, Eragon is some sort of cheap and blatant ripoff of the Star Wars and LOTR series. Whereas Eoin Colfer's fantastic Artemis Fowl series is a much more interesting take on the usual fantasy fare. Don't get me started on "adult" fiction. All four of Dan Brown (DaVinci code) books follow a very obvious and annoying formula.
LOL! thejakeman, I noticed the same thing. How does a guy get to be as well-known as Dan Brown, when he has such a lousy repetitive series? I was a fan until I read the second, and then the third, and then I got tired of reading the same story with different accents.
I can nominate three books on this list as being truly outstanding: Harry Potter (durr), Unwind, (which would appeal strongly to infinitebeauty's request for ordinary people doing extraordinary things, as well as just being a great action/psychological/philosophical read) and Maximum Ride (which is just sheer flat-out fun-- for the first three books, anyways. If the fourth book was any sign, the series is facing a very very bad decline in quality.)
