shouldn’t some things be for kids?

maybe you shouldn't write YA if it makes you defensive

The History Trust of South Australian, South Australian Government

I think of myself as somebody who was just a couple years too old for the birth of “YA” as it exists now. To me, YA begins with Twilight and the Hunger Games books. Even something like Harry Potter feels like belongs to an older genre of “children’s literature,” which I distinguish from YA mostly by whether or not these are books that feel like they’re well-suited to being read out loud. Take the Lemony Snicket books—they will work just fine read out loud. The prose has a certain complexity and cadence.

When I think of “YA,” on the other hand, I think of a streamlined feeling in the prose that’s not going to work as well as a bedtime story. True to its idea of being for young adults, something like Twilight isn’t meant to be read to you by your parents. It is something you read on your own as you experience the emotions of adolescence—feelings that will eventually mature into those of adulthood, but which aren’t there ye…