I’ve read and loved Chabon (Summerland), Pullman (His Dark Materials), Gaiman (Coraline, Wolves in the Walls) and more, but I despair of finding more actual Science Fiction than Fantasy out there. Gould, Gerrold, probably a few more, but nothing like a few decades ago. And it’s worse for the younger set (my other boy is 7); I’d love to be able to get picture books that are SF instead of fantasy, or beginning readers that are legit SF instead of that namby-pamby mixture, like the dumb books whose titles I can’t remember where the protagonists use pseudo-science to solve mysteries involving ghosts. Indeed, I’m working on a picture book with Jim Beveridge, so we’ll see if there’s even a perceived market for it.

D

Another person who used to have his name misspelled a lot was Isaac Asimov, and much of his work, although marketed to adults, appealed to the YA market. (See what a good segue this is?) Asimov himself even wrote an essay about that, in which he said that he made a point of writing stories that could be enjoyed by an intelligent teenager as well as by an adult. I think it’s no accident that a lot of 12-year-olds got some of their first exposure to SF through Asimov’s works rather than through works explicitly marketed towards the YA niche.

That will teach me to blog before morning caffeine… And I was agreeing with you all – don’t persecute me for my spelling issues. Lest I am forced to speak at length about corpse fouling and undead time travelling nazis…

:-@

Eoin Colfer and Terry Pratchet both write books that are young adult fiction and are targetted for that audience that is in the 10 to 14 range. Artemis Fowl and The Supernaturals do a fine job of mixing action with a decent moral story. The Wee Free Men and Hat full of Sky by Pratchett involve a young girl as our protaganist, and are awesome books that I believe all kids should read since I felt it spoke alot about learning who somebody is.

Ultimately, I agree with what Kevin and Mr. Burnstein stated above – a good book is a good book, and where its shelved should not matter.

Now, when I am in the mood for incest, parricide, and bloody murder, there is always George RR Martin. I am not saying good books cannot be written on these themes. But the insider’s opinion in the industry seems to be that the label no longer means anything: YA does not mean PG.

OK, I know that’s a bit of a joke, but to be serious, it sometimes gets harder and harder to determine what is YA and what isn’t. For example, look at JUMPER by Steven Gould. An excellent novel, originally published as a regular Tor SF hardcover. A few years ago, they repositioned it in a new edition as a YA book. Now, had the book been released as YA from the start, how many of us would have heard about it and known to pick it up? It probably would have never been on our radar.

That said, there is a difference between stories for much younger children (such as up to age 8 or 9) and stories for the YA market. But a good YA book is generally a good book, period.

In short, it’s all marketing and categorization.

Otherwise…how do you define YA fiction? Some F/Sf classics from the past could be considered YA.

Is the Hobbit YA? Narnia?