dystopollyanna

From: SoupTV (via collegehumor)

"Many times, it's big-name publications that get young adult literature all wrong. Their 'experts' call anything published for the under-18 crowd YA, or they make claims that there aren't any books written for boys (I covered this in my 5 Things to Know About YA post).

     But really the blame might be grown-ups more broadly.
     This month alone, an adult called Laurie Halse Anderson's groundbreaking Speak 'child pornography' because it dare bring up rape. Speak also promotes abortion, theft, promiscuity, group sex, and profanity. Shoo Raynor, a children's author himself, claims that books like Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series aren't books for teens, but rather, they're 'adult books disguised as children's books.' He goes on to suggest that Ness's series encourages readers to pick up guns and to join gangs.
     Neither of these are the first challenges to YA lit, nor will they be the last.
     Another interesting grown-up phenomenon is that of suggesting that YA books today are nothing like they were back in the day. That when today's adults were growing up, either there were no such things as YA books or that YA books were in no way as dark, scary, profane, or bleak as today's YA books. Neither of these are true."
— Kelly Jensen, BookRiot
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