![]() ![]() PUSH launched a line of novels by debut authors with authentic voices in 2001. When David Levithan was helping develop Scholastic’s teen imprint, PUSH, in the late ’90s, he and his team spoke directly with teens over the course of four years to discover what they wanted in their literature. Skurnick is also devoted to reissuing classic young adult novels, from the 1930s to the 1980s.While young adult spans and mashes up multiple genres, it connects readers to transformation stories best through emotion. “It’s the only genre that can always be both. “It’s not surprising that YA is always dealing with transformation, whether it be realistic or supernatural,” author and publisher Lizzie Skurnick said. Now, reveling in the continued success of fantasy subgenres and series, young adult fiction is enjoying a sustained boom rather than an afterglow. “Teens are caught between two worlds, childhood and adulthood, and in YA, they can navigate those two worlds and sometimes dualities of other worlds.” “Just like adolescence is between childhood and adulthood, paranormal, or other, is between human and supernatural,” said Jennifer Lynn Barnes, a young adult author, Ph.D. The shift led to success for Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” vampire saga and Suzanne Collins’ futuristic “The Hunger Games.”īut why did paranormal and dystopian tales connect so well with teens? Rowling’s well-timed “Harry Potter” series exploded the category and inspired a whole generation of fantasy series novelists, Cart said. Expansive young adult sections appeared in bookstores, targeting and welcoming teens to discover their very own genre. The book world began marketing directly to teens for the first time at the turn of the millennium. “Now, I feel like it’s evolved from three shelves to whole hallways of books.” “When I was a teen in the ’90s, there were probably three shelves of teen books I wanted to read,” said Shannon Peterson, former president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. But a baby boom in 1992 resulted in a renaissance among teen readers and the second golden age beginning in 2000, Cart said. With fewer teenagers around to soak up young adult lit due to low birth rates in the mid-1970s, books for tweens and middle-schoolers bloomed. Stine’s “Fear Street” series, and adolescent high drama a la “Sweet Valley High,” while the ’90s were an eclipse for young adult. The 1980s welcomed in more genre fiction, like horror from Christopher Pike and the beginning of R.L. Books like Cormier’s “The Chocolate War” brought a literary sense to books targeted at teens.īut once these books devolved into “single-problem novels” – divorce, drug abuse – teens grew tired of the formulaic stories. The young adult books of the 1970s remain true time capsules of the high school experience and the drama of being misunderstood. The first golden age is associated with the authors who the parents of today’s teens recognize: Judy Blume, Lois Duncan and Robert Cormier. The focus on culture and serious themes in young adult paved the way for authors to write with more candor about teen issues in the 1970s, Cart said. Hinton’s “The Outsiders,” offered a mature contemporary realism directed at adolescents. The term “young adult” was coined by the Young Adult Library Services Association during the 1960s to represent the 12-18 age range. In its footsteps followed other romances, ands sport novels for boys. It was a novel largely for girls about first love. “Seventeenth Summer,” released by Maureen Daly in 1942, is considered to be the first book written and published explicitly for teenagers, according to Cart, an author and the former president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The roots of young adult go back to when “teenagers” were given their own distinction as a social demographic: World War II. ![]() Now, as the book industry enjoys a second “golden age of young adult fiction,” according to expert Michael Cart, it bears asking why young adult fiction has become so successful. In the years between, young adult has managed to capture the singular passions of the teen audience over a spectrum of subgenres. Wizards, vampires and dystopian future worlds didn’t always dominate the genre, which hit its last peak of popularity in the 1970s with the success of controversial novels by the likes of Judy Blume. But with young adult literature regularly burning up the bestseller lists, it’s clear many young adults don’t need an excuse to seek out the written word: Sixteen- to 29-year-olds are the largest group checking out books from their local libraries, according to a Pew survey. Thursday is Celebrate Teen Literature Day, part of National Library Week. Back in 1998, just as Harry, Bella and Katniss were on the verge of owning the front shelves of bookstores everywhere, the Young Adult Library Services Association launched Teen Read Week in an effort to mold adolescent bookworms. ![]()
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