« National Library Week, April 10-16, 2011. | Main | Free YA ebooks! »

12 April 2011

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Robin

Also, the awards are given by adults. As much as they might know from working with children, adults tend to award children's books that appeal to other adults. Very, very, good books. And there's usually quite a bit of interest in them from children. But still...

miss erin

You described Strings Attached perfectly in the way you worded how it paled in comparison to What I Saw, but it was still worth reading.

Lindsay

I have handed The Hunger Games to several adults without explaining that it is a YA book. None of them noticed until they went looking for the second book in the series, usually moments after finishing the first one.

:paula

I have a lot of overlap with you, but I swear I have changed lives when I've handed the Weetzie bat books by Francesca lia block to grown-ass women.

Fig

That's pretty funny, I actually have had Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You on my TBR list for a long time and finally picked it up at the library today!

Brooke Shirts

Not technically YA, but I've found that Louis Sachar's Holes gets 'em every time. Also Katherine Sturtevant's historical novels like A True and Faithful Narrative and Eva Ibbotson's historical books tend to attract adult readers (especially women).

Nancy Farmer's In the House of the Scorpion usually gets points from adult sci-fi readers, as well as Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go. And I've often found Garth Nix's Sabriel gets shelf space in adult fiction as well as YA.

Can I ask Paula what a "grown-ass" woman is? :-)

Celia

I second The Hunger Games.

When my sisters needed help with their homework when they were in middle school, my dad read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and liked it so much that he read the rest of them.

:paula

Ha! Here in the (sort-of) South, adding 'ass' to any adjective serves as an intensifier. Hence 'ugly-ass shirt' 'big-ass Slurpee' 'scary-ass lady' 'fun-ass party' 'stupid-ass software' and 'grown-ass woman'. But it does look kind of stupid typed out like this!

Leila

It occurred to me later -- even later than the awards realization -- that these are the books that I use to bring literary fiction fans into the fold. Genre readers already tend to be a bit more open-minded, and I'll give a responding YES to House of the Scorpion, Hunger Games, Patrick Ness and Garth Nix.

Ibbotson's historical romances were originally published for the adult market, weren't they? Either way, yeah, they totally go over well with the grown-ups.

Randomly, Gary Paulsen's How Angel Peterson Got His Name goes over well with adults, too.

Gillian Wiseman

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother is another good one. And Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. And Megan Whalan Turner's Thief. Robin McKinley's Rose Daughter.

Leila

I just recommended the Turner books to a patron -- who'd just blazed through Graceling and Fire -- so I'm looking forward to seeing what she thinks. And McKinley, yeah, is always a great choice. Love her.

I'm pretty sure that the Picoult, though, was originally published for the adult market, though it totally works as a crossover in the other direction.

The comments to this entry are closed.

GA

Blog powered by Typepad