YA books: ARE THEY TOO DARK? (Yes, again.)

From the Guardian:

A blogpost by children's author Shoo Rayner has challenged the concept of YA fiction, arguing that "children want to read [young adult books] as a peek under the covers of a teenage world. They find them in the children's section of the bookshop or library after all. But that's not what they get. Young adult books are really the books that adults crave so much but can't find."

Rayner described a "slow moral decline", consisting of violent video games and books and serial killer TV series. He implied that such content being so readily available for children can result in children "join[ing] gangs and shoot[ing] each other on the streets".

He commented specifically on Patrick Ness's novel Monsters and Men, branding the trilogy "adult books disguised as children's books".

A few relevant links: The Carnegie Medal – Can children have their prize back please?, So – What is a Children’s Book?, Why YA is not a Scam, Twitter search for Ness & Rayner.

ETA: Why Kids Join Gangs (Hint: It’s Not for the Books).

And while I'm at it, let's link back to some of the #YASaves stuff, which isn't exactly the same issue—it was focused on YA, while this discussion is about YA and children's literature and the line between the two and what sort of line that should be and on and on—but the two topics are definitely related: Another day, another ill-informed article about YA, A round up of WSJ #YASaves responses, And the WSJ #YASaves uproar continues..., In Defense of Darkness, 

Comments

[marjorie]

sigh.

[cc]

I refuse to take seriously a person complaining about a book when he can't even get the title right.

[Emily]

Oh yes, people who read, especially books that make them think, are far more likely to join gangs than people who don't engage themselves mentally in anything. Good grief.