The problem with ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ was that it was designed to be a PG-13 movie. It was literally a horror movie for a younger generation. I was trying to do the film equivalent of teenage, young adult readers, and when they gave it an R rating, the movie couldn’t sustain an R.
Misconceptions about Young Adult fiction aren’t new to fans of the genre. From being dismissed as mindless fluff for ‘Twilight’-obsessed tweens, to constant warnings that the genre is dying, kerfuffles between the media and readers occur with alarming regularity.
Some of the most powerful memories are those when you are very, very young. Adult life is seen through the reflection of complex, rational thought.
The distinction has blurred between young adult and adult books. Some of the teen books have become more sophisticated.
I made stupid decisions as a kid, or as a young adult, but I’m trying to be now, I’m trying to take this lemon and make lemonade.
House music for me was incredible. It was a huge part of my growing up and developing into a young adult because I found a community within music.
Anyone interested in the world generally can’t help being interested in young adult culture – in the music, the bands, the books, the fashions, and the way in which the young adult community develops its own language.
I was born and raised in Queens and moved into the city as a young adult. Then I ended up acting and decided to run off to California.
With few exceptions, the publishing industry has come to a consensus: if a book has a young protagonist, and if its worldview is primarily interested in the questions that crop up when coming of age, then it’s a young adult novel.
When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I’m learning that as we have to make choices – education, career, lifestyle – life gets more and more complicated.
I can’t root for the Lakers. I grew up in northern California, so I spent many of my young adult years rooting against the Lakers.
I am a young adult author, and so are quite a few of my friends. We all write books for the same demographic; many of us are even published by the same publishing house. Two of us, in fact, share the same editor.
My book group has one rule: no books for adults. We read young adult fiction only.
I can recall, as a young adult, running through the rain forest at the Forest Reserve, at times feeling a sense of fear when I felt I was in danger. In danger of confronting an ugly snake or a coral snake, which represented the greatest fear of someone in a rural area when you traverse the forest.
I myself identify as British-Nigerian, and I’m also gay, and I’m also a young adult in London making music. All of things can co-exist as one.
Young adult novels don’t shy away from the discussion of weight issues, and ‘Blubber,’ the tale of an overweight, not-so-sympathetic fifth-grader bullied by her peers, is a refreshing take.
Among my books, the ones that sell best are for readers between the ages of 8 and 12. According to a study by the Association of American Publishers, the largest area of industry growth in 2014 was in the children and young adult category.
My foray into young adult lit was by no means planned. I wrote the first ‘Alfred Kropp’ book as an adult novel, which everyone loved but no one would publish – until I changed my protagonist from a thirty-something P.I. into a 15-year-old kid. After that, it was off to the races, and I am so glad.
I’m rather pleased with the new manuals. I see Inform now as a gauche young adult, having got past the stage of growing out of his shoes every few months.
One of the things that has puzzled me the most in my years of serious mystery reading is why there are relatively few standout books geared specifically for middle grade and young adult readers.
I started to read James Baldwin very early on in my life. At a time, as a young adult in the Sixties, when there were not that many authors in whom I could recognize myself, he was an important guide and mentor to me, as he was to many others. He helped me understand who I was and decipher the world around me.
As a kid, I became a total SF geek. It started in the 5th grade with Asimov’s ‘Lucky Starr’ series of what would now be called ‘young adult’ novels of adventures in the solar system.
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