What makes a YA book? The National Book Award nominations were announced yesterday and already there is controversy brewing in the young people’s category. Apparently there is much buzz about the fact that one of the nominees, David Small’s graphic memoir Stiches, was published as an adult title. The controversy is multi-fold: can an “adult book” be nominated in a young adult category? Is such a nomination taking away an opportunity from a “certifiable” young adult book? And, what makes a young adult book anyway – protagonists’ age? Teen themes? High School setting?
When we were selling Browne & Miller title Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji a few years ago we were in a bit of a quandary, the story was told from the point of view of a 17-year-old narrator, but the story itself was a timeless coming of age romance. We pitched to YA editors and were told it was too adult, but when we pitched to adult editors we were told it was too YA. Ultimately, we sold it to an editor at a mainstream adult imprint, who fell in love with the story and who we felt was going to be the book’s champion in the marketplace. Rooftopshas been read by adults and young adults alike, it’s been picked by adult book clubs, but also picked by education.com as a top summer reading choice for high schoolers. Does that make it an adult book that appeals to young adults or a young adult books that appeals to adults? I say it’s a great story that should be read by all – read it and decide for yourself.
Meantime, check out these posts by the editors at Booklist and YA author John Green regarding the NBA nomination question.
Here are the NBA nominees:
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Well, I have not read Stitches and don’t know what it’s about. BUT, I think if the book is a hit among teens, then why shouldn’t it be counted? When I was in high school, there were lots of adult novels my senior year in the summer reading list. One in particular I fell in love with because it caused a lot of emotions in me. There are tons of examples where adult novels also met the needs of teens. Take Morganville Vampires series for instance. That had been published as a adult novel, but its a hit among teens. Is there some unwritten rule that says a book can’t serve two ages groups like some serve two, sometimes three, genres? I don’t know. That’s just me.
I see Ash’s point, but OMG if we have categories for awards and we have categories for publishing, shouldn’t the two of those coincide in some way? The whole point of having a YA/children’s award is to bring a certain amount of awareness and kudos to those people who write and publish for teens/children. If we’re going to stuff the YA/children’s award categories full of books that were published for adults, wherefore the YA/children’s books that were published for teens/children? If, say, AUT (just kidding! this won’t happen) got nominated for an adult NBA award, people would be like, what? That’s a KIDS book. Because I think we all know how ghettoized YA is in literary circles.
And, um, WAS Stitches a hit among teens? Do we know that? And how, if we know that, do we know that? I’d like to see the stats on that one. I doubt there’s any proof of that.
Maybe this is me just being a literalist, but I’d draw the line at–was the book published by a teen/children’s imprint? No? It’s not a YA/children’s book, as far as awards go. Obviously teens read adult books, and adults read teen books, but if we’re going to have a children’s award, it should only have nominees from children’s imprints.
Oh, I meant “if we know that, HOW do we know that?” Nice one, Jarzab.