Speaking of Weetzie Bat, I just read the latest one, Pink Smog, and loved it. Even tho' part of it made me cry. (It hit some buttons I've been talking about in therapy.)
This is so nice. Having everyone together for my birthday. Of course, you could smash in all my toes with a hammer and it will still be the bestest Buffy Birthday Bash in a big long while.
Buffy ,'Potential'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
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."
Atropa - Jul 17, 2012 12:15:07 pm PDT #19378 of 28343
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
Matt the Bruins fan - Jul 17, 2012 12:16:52 pm PDT #19379 of 28343
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
Yeah, we had L'Engle in my elementary school's library.
Polter-Cow - Jul 17, 2012 12:43:21 pm PDT #19380 of 28343
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Weetzie Bat is definitely YA, yes.
I'd always thought it was a children's book series, huh. But I don't know anything about it, so there's that.
I do love that The Enchanted Forest Chronicles got a mention, though.
Consuela - Jul 17, 2012 12:45:43 pm PDT #19381 of 28343
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
Earthsea was originally sold as children's, but certainly it gets read by teens (and adults).
Are there really hard-and-fast distinctions between YA and younger categories? Or is it just a marketing category?
Amy - Jul 17, 2012 12:50:42 pm PDT #19382 of 28343
Because books.
There are, Consuela. You're not going to publish a first-person novel about a sixteen-year-old girl who gets pregnant as a middle grade book, for instance.
A lot of it is marketing, and certainly a lot of books cross over to many audiences, but most middle grade books are a) shorter, b) uses language geared maybe three or so years older than the audience, and c) features children as protagonists (usually).
flea - Jul 17, 2012 1:40:07 pm PDT #19383 of 28343
information libertarian
Yeah, middle-grade is generally aimed at 8-12 year olds, and the protagonists are children, middle school at the oldest. There's usually no or only the mildest of romantic content.
YA is aimed at middle-schoolers to teens. If your 8-year old, however good a reader, is too immature for the themes, it's not middle-grade.
Sophia Brooks - Jul 17, 2012 1:46:09 pm PDT #19384 of 28343
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
I did not know that. At my library growing up there were only three sections- children's (which was picture books), young adult (which is pretty much what is now being described as intermediate- it ranged from The Bobbsey twins to The Outsiders and Judy Bloom) and adult
DavidS - Jul 17, 2012 2:02:25 pm PDT #19385 of 28343
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I'd always thought it was a children's book series, huh.
The first book deals with AIDS and goes to a leather bar South of Market.
Polter-Cow - Jul 17, 2012 2:20:13 pm PDT #19386 of 28343
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I thought it was about bats.
Kat - Jul 17, 2012 6:17:35 pm PDT #19387 of 28343
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Short version: Encyclopedia Brown and An Unfortunate Series of Events were not written for a YA audience. Which doesn't mean they didn't or won't read them, but I would love it if any journalist bothered to differentiate between middle grade and YA, or post-apocalyptic an dystopian for that matter.
Amy is me! Also, YA is VERY different than middle school fiction. Encylopedia Brown is intermediate. When I sat on CYRM, I had a great librarian friend explain it this way. YA is like the R-rated work of the children writing set. Intermediate fiction is chapter books up to grade 5 and then middle school or junior fiction is everything else.
YA is anything that you might get a phone call from a parent about. To Kill a Mockingbird would be YA if it weren't canon.