Posts Tagged ‘young adult’

1
Apr

YA Crossover Books

   Posted by: rettstatt    in children's literature

It’s not news to anyone that adults are reading books marketed to young adults. Harry Potter and Twilight may have made this phenomenon more socially acceptable, but they hardly started it. Think Tolkien and Mark Twain, back before the publishing industry had articulated marketing categories such as “middle grade” and “young adult.”

What’s new is that publishers are increasingly adjusting their marketing strategies to work with this reality instead of against it.

More and more titles are being published as YA in the US and as adult in other countries, and sometimes vice versa. Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels, originally published as an adult title by A&I in Australia, was published as YA by Knopf in the US. The Book Thief was published as an adult title in Australia.

And publishers in the UK regularly publish YA and adult editions  simultaneously. This is certainly the case for His Dark Materials.

From my own experience writing middle grade and YA fiction (and working very closely with other writers) is that one of the most difficult questions you can ask an author is the age target of the book. That question confounds me like no other.

When I was writing Kaimira, I did have a certain audience in mind. They were people like me, people who love losing themselves in massive fictional worlds. They are readers above all else, but they enjoy immersive storyverses in any format, from fan fiction to gaming.

But this audience I had in mind did not have a specific age. They could just as easily be 30 as 13.

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16
Mar

YAuthor to YAuthor: Interview with Adam Rex

   Posted by: rettstatt    in children's literature, writing

I’m starting a new feature called “YAuthor to YAuthor,” a series of interviews with other authors of Middle Grade and Young Adult books.
As a judge in this year’s Cybils, I was pulling for Adam Rex to win with THE TRUE MEANING OF SMEKDAY, which was one of my favorite books of 2007. Hilarious and heart-warming, which is a tough combination to pull off.
YAuthor to YAuthor with Adam Rex
Chris: Why do you prefer working on books for kids?
Adam: Well, I like reading them, though I read at least as much adult fiction and nonfiction as well. Maybe it’s because, when I write, I naturally lean toward genre stories of some kind or another. My impetus for writing tends toward ideas like, “human and alien come to terms with each other and forge a relationship against the backdrop of massive alien imperialism,” rather than, say, “humans come to terms with their disappointing lives and forge unhealthy relationships against the backdrop of an age of crippling ennui.” The former is typical kid lit, the latter is adult lit. I don’t know how to write the latter.
Chris: You seem to have more ideas than you have time for. How do you decide which ones you want to spend time on?

Adam: I don’t, frequently. The position of MOST PROMISING is something that a lot of my ideas take turns occupying. It’s very democratic. But some ideas are just lightning, and can’t be ignored.

Chris: Was there a moment when you felt like you had “arrived” as an author or illustrator?

Adam: I felt pretty good a year or two ago when people in the industry, librarians and booksellers and people in publishing, began to know who I was without my explaining it first. Once a librarian recognized me by sight alone. I understand now what a seductive feeling that can be, but as long as it’s happening primarily at book expos or conferences I’m pretty comfortable with it. When it starts happening at the supermarket I think it’s a problem, but then again I’m only an author, so it’s not a problem I’m likely to have.

Adam Rex’s cats

Chris: Are you a cat person?

Adam: I don’t really make a philosophical choice between cats and dogs, but I have no dogs and two cats, Little Nemo and Dr. Simon Dicker.

Chris: What did you think when THE DIRTY COWBOY was banned at W.C. Andrews Elementary?

Adam: Not a lot. There is a sort of thrill that comes from being banned, from being in the company of Sendak or Twain or the Apostles. And I’ve never known a book banning that didn’t raise interest in the book in question. So I can probably thank the school for a couple sales I wouldn’t have made otherwise. Otherwise, book banners just make me feel tired and full of pity. They have to be frightened, unhappy people who have entirely lost the connection with their childhood selves.

Chris: You seem to have successfully made the transition from illustrator to author/illustrator. Is there anything you miss about illustrating other people’s stories?

Adam: Not at all–I’m illustrating another author’s picture book right now. If a manuscript is great, I want to be a part of it. In an ideal world, I already am because I wrote the thing. But if that can’t be the case, I can at least illustrate it.

Chris: What are you working on now?

Adam: The debut book by author Mac Barnett, to be called Billy Twitters’s Blue Whale Problem. So lots of paintings of whales, and whale maintenance.

Chris: How do you say “Please pass the horseradish” in the Gorg language?

Adam: Hmmm…that would be…BAFF G’TA TODF’DAQIFT! You’ll notice I omitted the word “please.” It doesn’t really translate.

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