“Think Future” Panel Debates What Makes a YA a YA

By Diane Roback -- Publishers Weekly, 4/30/2008 9:56:00 AM

What makes a book a young adult novel, what separates it from books for adults, and how it does or doesn’t cross over were major topics of discussion on Tuesday morning, when Publishers Weekly held the third breakfast panel in its “Think Future” series. The panel, sponsored by Kensington Publishing, included Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; Dara La Porte, manager of the children’s department at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.; H. Jack Martin, assistant coordinator of young adult services at New York Public Library; and George Nicholson, senior agent at Sterling Lord Literistic; it was moderated by PW children’s reviews editor Elizabeth Devereaux.

During a wide-ranging conversation, panelists discussed various issues involved in publishing for teen readers, including the limitations that designating a book as a YA can have in the market, and they addressed the tension between what teens want to read vs. what some adults find appropriate.

Alexie at the Think Future panel.
Photographs: Leslie Jean-Bart.

The genre called “YA” is a new one for novelist Alexie, who won the 2007 National Book Award for his first book for teens. Having already had a “really great career” in the adult world, he said that for him, the best part of writing YA novels is “seeing all these younger versions of myself and my characters” when he meets his readers. Also, Alexie believes, there’s a lot more at stake for teens, telling of a boy he’d recently met at an appearance who had Tourette’s Syndrome, and who asked him for advice on how to deal with bullies. “Adults are not going to stand up and ask me that question.” he said.

Writing for teens involves a stripped-down technique, Alexie said. “You tend to write more like Hemingway than Faulkner. More like Emily Dickinson than T.S. Eliot. It’s not a matter of more complex thoughts, but the number of adverbs and adjectives. In the adult world, the number of adverbs and adjectives can be confused with great writing.” Martin put it another way: “Teen books are like adult books, without all the bullshit.”

La Porte, who said she taught seventh and eighth graders before becoming a bookseller, spoke of the enthusiasm of that age group as readers. “They love the book or they hate the book, and they can’t wait to tell you about it. And they can’t wait for the next one.”

Nicholson provided some historical perspective, recalling the days there was no category called “young adult.” Then, in the 1970s, a few writers came along “who had a social context,” such as S.E. Hinton, and a teen audience was identified and located. “When [Hinton] was first published by Viking,” Nicholson recalled, “No one wanted it in the adult world. But when the book was republished as a book for teens, with a new cover, it began to sell in the millions.”

Alexie sees adult attitudes toward YA as bifurcated. “There are those who still want teen literature to be written as if it was 1978,” he said, “and then there are those who are aspiring toward greatness. They want great literature, and great literature can be messy.” With all the tough elements in Absolutely True Diary (including violence, house fires, early death and alcoholism), he expressed chagrin that its most objected-to aspect has been masturbation, recounting a recent experience of reading his book aloud and having audience members “freaked out by the phrase ‘metaphysical boner.’ ” His reaction to such objections? “To get rowdier.” (Alexie also said that the YA world is made of “99% women,” and that a significant percentage of them have no idea how boys and men think.)

La Porte and Martin.

Martin told of a kid in his library who loudly announced to him, “I want books about rape and incest!” (When Devereaux asked if he had books for that reader, he replied, “I totally had books for him.”) “There’s some diversity in teen literature,” Martin acknowledged, “but by no means does it reflect the diversity of people in America.”

La Porte argued against outrageous for outrageous’s sake. “What we have to focus on is what makes a really good, long-lasting book,” she said. “It’s not the salacious stuff. If you’re going for a more outrageous way that a child gets disfigured while his parents are divorcing, there may be one [book] that catches on but the others are gone and you haven’t nurtured a writer.”

An audience member, agent Rosemary Stimola, observed that a key issue in the debate is, Are these books for young people or are they books about young people? Alexie addressed her question, commenting, “If the former, a more conservative point of view comes in. If they are about young people, it’s more about respecting and not protecting. As an Indian I’m used to being what I call ‘reservationized.’ There can be a sense of the category, instead of elevating us, doing the reverse.”

Citing books like Alexie’s novel and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, La Porte asked, “How do you sell those books in stores?” Her answer: handselling. “You tell a customer, you have to read this. If an 11-year old kid picks up Nick Hornby’s Slam, you tell the parent, “Your child’s not ready for this book, but you are, and your 15-year-old is.” “Depends on the kid,” Alexie interjected. “I was that 11-year-old kid who would have read Slam.”

Still a Stigma?

Nicholson.

Despite the number of acclaimed writers for adults who have also produced works for young adults, said Devereaux, the YA genre has not yet shed its stigma. Alexie spoke of the response he’s received from writers in the adult world, since publishing Absolutely True Diary. “I thought I’d been condescended to because I’m an Indian,” he said. “That was nothing compared to the condescension I get because I’ve written a YA novel.” He said that fellow writers have also accused him of chasing a lucrative market. “Because I’ve written a book about a 16-year-old,” he said, “that means I’m a capitalistic whore.”

Addressing a question about whether labeling a book “YA” excludes adult readers, Nicholson brought up the example of novelist Peter Cameron’s recent novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, which was published for teens. Calling it a work of “great emotional complexity,” Nicholson said “there is no doubt in my mind that it was published as a YA because that was a novel that young adults would not have found otherwise.”

Practical Concerns

The panelists: (l. to r.) La Porte, Alexie, moderator Devereaux, Martin and Nicholson.

Panelists also addressed the difficulties in deciding where to shelve YA, and where to draw the boundaries, both in separating younger from older YA books, and the practicalities of also including adult books of teen interest.

Shelving crossover books is not a problem at NYPL, according to Martin; he told the audience that 30–40% of the YA novels in his library were actually published for adults.

Nicholson pointed out a hard reality that factors into the “where do we put this book?” discussion: chain bookstores will not multi-position a book in the store.

As a bookseller, La Porte said, “The issue we’re grappling with right now is that as we get these more sophisticated books, there isn’t a good place to put them.” She is aiming to set up a section in her store for older teens, which would contain books for adults that teens might want, as well as “more sophisticated” YA books with challenging subject matter. For her, shelving books in more than one location, or creating new locations to encompass different categories, is “a question of the politics of space.”