After I finished reading The Book Thief and wiped away the last tear, I looked at some of the reviews inside the cover. One of them described it as a "young adult" book, which surprised me.

I'm well passed the "young adult" stage, and I really liked The Book Thief (even though it made me bawl crying!). I also enjoyed His Dark Materials, which I was aware was a "young adult" book but it covered a lot of adult themes. If the main character of a book is adolescent, does that put a book into the "young adult" category? Is the categorization related to language, length, lack of X-rated scenes? Or is the adult/young adult distinction more fluid than I thought?

Or is the line between "adult" and "young adult" more fluid than I thought?

Young adult is generally aimed at teens. YA can contain adult themes and still be considered YA. Its generally accepted as Teen fiction. Its not really organised in language/adult themes/etc, because some can be more racy/long/etc than adult books. Some arent.

Hope that helped.

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Hi Fiona,

I've been an adult for some time, too, but I still enjoy many YA books. Mostly fantasy I must admit.
It's hard to give a definition, but I guess YA books are not only suitable and enjoyable from approx. age 13 or 14 (because many books for adults are too), they are also written specifically for the teenage age group, and the main characters are usually in this age group. But these books can certainly strike a cord with many adults, especially the ones with a "larger" theme.
(the ones about f.i. American high school proms not so much, I suppose. Well, for me anyway).
Having said this, I realise that there are probably numerous exceptions to this attempt of a definition.
Anyone with a better definition is most welcome :o)

Hi! I'm a so called "young adult" and I generally seem to find for a book to belong to the genre it has a teenaged or 20ish protagonist and deals with themes at their level of development (whether it be love, loss, or taking over the world with your powers of magic). Some books written as series evolve into young adult (think Harry Potter) and others start of straight at that level. Many young adult bboks would roughly equate to a film rating of 12/15. Hope that helped!!

I think the transition from children's to young adults' books is when philisophical or moral themes are brought in. Children's books tend to be escapist, as indeed they should be; whereas young adults' books are for stretching the mind and introducing new (life) dilemmas. I firmly believe children should be stretched as far as possible and not treated like simpletons. Depending on reading age, etc, surely adult or classic books should be introduced at 13 or 14?

I read classics at a very young age - from 10 or so onwards. Only once was I disappointed by the book, and that was William Thackeray's Vanity Fair. It was only years later when I came across the book in a University course that I realised I had read a censored version in the 'childrens format' - I read the book with amazement at all the important elements that had been left out! Thankfully, I don't think they do that sort of thing these days. Or do they?

I read classics at a very young age - from 10 or so onwards. Only once was I disappointed by the book, and that was William Thackeray's Vanity Fair. It was only years later when I came across the book in a University course that I realised I had read a censored version in the 'childrens format' - I read the book with amazement at all the important elements that had been left out! Thankfully, I don't think they do that sort of thing these days. Or do they?

Thanks for all the replies. I found out that The Book Thief was marketed as YA in some countries and as adult in others. I guess there are a lot of "crossover" books that feature adolescent characters and coming-of-age themes, but also appeal to adults: Catcher in the Rye, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, The Birth of Venus, The Lovely Bones. Maybe the lesson is that readers should look beyond the label: adults shouldn't turn their noses up at YA books, and teenagers should look at the adult shelves.

C Lintern - Many young adult books are also escapist fiction, the early ones in this genre include Philip Pullmans 'His Dark Materials' - which can be read on different levels, the Abhorsen Books by Garth Nix and Lian Hearns Tales of the Otori. Young adult books can be realist, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, murder mysteries etc.

With books like The Book Thief, Curious Incident etc you will find that there are 2 editions, childrens and adult, same book but different covers. I would say don't worry about the category, it has been many years since I was a 'young adult' but I still read children's books from time to time. Where the YA term is useful is that it warns parents of younger children that it probably won't be suitable for them to read. A book with a protagonist of 15 is primarily aimed at age 14 upwards.

As for the question about children's versions of the classics, yes they still exist, I have even seen Dracula in this form and that is definitely not a children's book.

I noticed that Lovely Bones is cited as YA, it is actually an adult novel and has not been marketed otherwise.

I don't know what the official thinking is. Generally I expect young adult novels to either feature teenage protagonists or to have simpler structures and language than most adult novels. It's a fairly blurred line though.