Young Adult literature is one of the fastest growing and most popular areas of the publishing industry, and yet YA fiction writers still have trouble getting the respect they deserve. Why is this the case? What has contributed to the marginalization of YA fiction? And despite this marginalization, why do adults love to read fiction written for (and sometimes by) teens? What does YA fiction have to tell us about what people are looking for when they read? How does YA fiction handle experience, speculation, anxiety, change, and growth in ways that deserve attention and admiration? This week, we’ll read about the recent controversy over YA literature and think about what this example can tell us about the world of publishing, authorship, readership, and criticism.
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