Week 13 Prompt: Young Adult

                Maybe I’m a weirdo, but I love young adult literature!  It’s so fun!  I like being caught up in the teenage angst.  I think it’s fun to feel young again and being reminded of those times I struggled with difficult situations and getting to re-experience milestones through a character’s perspective.  I think libraries should be spending money on young adult novels and promoting them to both teens and adults.  Like the romance genre, young adult has a bad rap.  I realize young adult is kind of a new genre and it hasn’t been around as long many of the others, but that doesn’t make those works lesser.  Young adult novels like The Book Thief, Go Ask Alice, and Thirteen Reasons Why should never be referred to as a lesser work because of their genre.  They are not simplified kid versions of adult books. 

Young adult novels appeal to young people because the themes and issues that arise in the story are what they are experiencing, so it’s relatable.  Being a teenager is hard!  Providing books about these issues are helpful and even more importantly it gets teens interested in reading.  I’m not going to stop reading young adult novels.  Instead, I will continue to suggest them.  I think as librarians we should promote young adult literature to young and old alike.  We can promote this genre during reference interviews and creating attractive displays that appear inviting to adults.