Spike ,'Showtime'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Is there a book 1 I should be looking for, or is this the first Tiffany Aching book?
That's the first Tiffany Aching book. Make sure you get the Stephen Briggs version. Another guy does the abridged version of Hatful of Stars and he's not nearly as good. I think Pratchett did another book marketed to kids but it wasn't in this series.
Thanks! Audible has Stephen Briggs doing all of them, it looks like.
Wee Free Men is the first Tiffany Aching, go ahead and jump in. Discworld Children's Book 1 might be The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents? Or a mistake.
I'm reading Wee Free Men at the moment, and so far the only thing that seems "aimed towards children" is the fact that Tiffany's a kid. But I've never been clear on what makes something YA.
The age of the protagonist.
Seriously, I cannot think of any other reason for something like The Book Thief to be considered YA. (I think it was marketed as adult in Australia, at least.)
The age of the protagonist.
Not always, though. Bastard Out of Carolina, for instance, is largely about a child, but it's not a YA book. It doesn't mean teens can't or shouldn't read it, but it's not marketed to them because the subject matter is really weighty, and it's an adult's perspective on the issue.
Winter's Bone is another example, while True Grit, if written today, probably would be marketed as YA.
A comment from Teppy that I'm replying to in this thread:
Also, and I realize this is the wrong thread for it, I just finished Heartless, and it actually made me say "Holy SHIT!" out loud, at about 4 different places in the book.
I KNOW, RIGHT?! I love the last image of the book. LOVE.
I finally caved and subscribed to Yen Press's digital manga magazine so I could read the monthly installments of the Soulless manga. I agree with Pete, that is NOT what Lord Maccon looks like. Not at all. But the manga version of Lord Akeldama is fantastic.
ITA; BOoC is NOT YA.
I taught it to seniors, and I have extremely liberal standards (and if a teen wanted to read it, I would never censor, but would be blunt about its graphic nature) but it's definitely adult fiction, told through the POV of a violently abused girl.
Neither is Winter's Bone. Although both were very good.
I haven't read The Book Thief yet, though.
Mark Zusak's other book I Am the Messenger is definitely YA. So maybe Book Thief is in that category because his other work is too?
Also Megan McCafferty's books straddle a YA/Adult fiction split. And I love her books. I've seen them shelved in both YA and in adult fic.