Going YA2
By Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 2/21/2008
Five years ago, with the burgeoning of teen fiction, bookstores began adding YA sections. In the intervening years the category has grown to encompass books for younger readers as well as those in high school. Now booksellers are faced with a new question: Where to shelve books like Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries, if John Green’s Looking for Alaska is considered YA?
Some stores, like Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., have tried sending subliminal messages to younger readers by facing out only those YA titles appropriate for grades 6, 7 and 8. But that’s not always enough to keep sophisticated books or books with graphic subject matter out of the hands of preteens and teens, who aren’t quite ready, or to help parents and grandparents buy age-appropriate gifts for their kids.
Right now, says Dara La Porte, manager for children’s at Politics and Prose, she has two distinct sections with paperback fiction—elementary fiction (aimed at third grade through sixth) and teen fiction (seventh grade through 10th). She’s looking to add one more, a third section just for high schoolers, where she can shelve Private Peaceful, Finding Grace or even Barbara Kingsolver.
Some stores that have already added an older YA section consider it the best solution to the tween/teen book dilemma. “When I first opened the store three years ago, I split up my teen section, separating young teens from older teens,” says Karlene Rearick, owner of The Alphabet Garden in Cheshire, Conn. She shelves books for grade 7-9 (ages 12 and up) together under Young Teens; the Older Teens area is for books with drugs, sex and gun violence, more appropriate to grades 10 and above (ages 15 and up). And she added a separate Series Fiction section just for Clique, Alex Rider, Harry Potter, Warriors and other popular series. “It works pretty well for us,” says Rearick. “Somebody can come to the store and say, I have a four-year-old, and we can say, ‘Look at this section.’ When it comes to teens, it’s the same thing.”
At Inkwood Books in Tampa, Fla., teens had to walk through a room filled with picture books to get to the YA section. No more. After middle reader/YA book buyer Laura Spies realized that older teens were avoiding YA, she removed what she calls the “YA-2” books—the Twilight series and the Libba Brays— from the teen area and moved them into the adult fiction room. As of the fall their new home is right above graphic novels. Already, Spies says, teen sales are up. “We haven’t put up a sign yet,” she adds, “because we don’t know what to call it. Without a name, it’s almost like it’s taboo.”
