Speaking of life, in the article “What’s New About New Adult?,” the authors mention that both YA and NA deal with “coming of age” stories. They write, “In short, coming of age is a process that takes place over many years, so it makes sense to stretch it out across both YA and NA” (Brookover, Burns, & Jensen, 2014, p.43). The process of becoming a mature adult is a long process. Internet culture has a plethora of memes about how those in their early twenties are considered adults, but they still struggle to do basic things for themselves like cooking, shopping, cleaning, etc. Shockingly, in some YA books teens are more capable of these things. On top of it sometimes they have to do the extraordinary like battle controlling regimes or evil wizards. The point is that learning and growing is something that can happen at any age. The title of Adult, Young Adult, and New Adult does not matter. If any patron wants a book about coming of age or dealing with the struggles of new responsibilities, they must be given the assistance finding such a book.
In my personal experience, I mostly enjoy reading YA novels for some of the reasons listed above. Even though I am twenty-five years old, I still find myself relating more to the teens in YA than the mature (sometimes very mature) adults in Adult fiction. Also, my mother and some other adults I know really enjoy YA as well. Some of them, like my mother, prefer Adult fiction, but still like some of the very intriguing and unique stories in YA. I only know all of this because we talk about it. I believe that is the first step to making Young Adult, New Adult, and graphic novels accepted. The more a topic is discussed, the more the stigma goes away.
One specific example occurred around the time the first Hunger Games movie was coming out. I had purchased the whole trilogy to read in preparation. A few months later, closer to when the movie was going to be released, my dad was talking to a couple of his friends from church. At the time, both men were nearing middle age. When my dad told them about the books and how much I enjoyed them, they expressed interest. I ended up letting both borrow all three books and both liked them; one a bit more than the other. I remember this actually shocked me a bit that full grown men were so interested in a story about teenagers. Yet, that was the moment I realized it did not matter what someone likes to read. If they enjoy it, they enjoy it.
References:
ALA. (2006). Freedom to Read Statement. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement
Brookeover, S., Burns, E., and Jensent, K. (2014). What’s New About New Adult? Horn Book Magazine, 90(1), 41-45.
Rachel, your story about the men at church reminded me: my dad LOVED the YA book The Hate U Give. He talks about it all the time. He read it because of a book club that met at his job--I'm not sure it's something he would have picked up otherwise. But because he read it, we had a very good conversation about gun violence and the way it adversely affects communities of color. Even YA books have a lot to teach readers!
ReplyDeleteI always find it interesting how much books can appeal outside of their specific categories- age/genre/ etc. It seems like people get these feelings of what they think is acceptable for them to read, or like, and are afraid to step outside the lines. One of my favorite things to do when suggesting books for people is to find titles that might stretch their comfort zone a little and encourage them to try something a little different than they would normally choose for themselves. It sounds like that's what the Hunger Games books did for those men- and I think it's something to be embraced.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you included that personal story at the end! Never judge a book by it's cover, you never know what will appeal to a reader. Fantastic write up, full points!
ReplyDelete