Adults Reading Young Adult Books?

This is a response to this article by Joel Stein, who clearly doesn't know what awesomeness he's missing. I do, I suppose, see his point about children's books, but sometimes people want to see what they missed by not reading a certain book as a child, and certainly there are some people who even in adulthood could learn a few things about being kind etc etc etc from children's books. And I agree that an adult reading a kids book in public can seem weird and embarrassing. My problem with this is that he doesn't seem to quite get the distinction between "children's book" and "young adult book".

Now, what do you think of as a children's book? The thing that comes to mind is a cardboard full-colour picture book, or, for older children, a not-very-thick book with large print and the occasional cartoon illustration, usually filled with great adventure in which nobody gets hurt and gets home in time for tea, or has at least some form of happy ending. And what about these books Mr Stein is referring to as children's books? Twilight; The Hunger Games - and now you'd all better pay attention because I won't be defending Twilight again anytime soon.

Fair enough, Twilight may seem melodramatic and some of the whole love triangle thing unappealing to many people over say fifteen, but vampires, werewolves, that level of romance, all topped off with the odd bloody battle - is that for children? Fantastic for "tween girls" - yes (it wasn't that long ago that I myself was a Twilight-obsessed "tween girl") - but maybe not so great for adults (especially adult males), but most definitely not for children.

And what about The Hunger Games? Well, I'm sure an innocent eight-year-old would absolutely love three full-length illustration-less novels documenting at best heartbreak and a bittersweet ending, and at worst the gruesome slaughter of teenagers forced by a violent dictatorship, followed by a political campaign to overthrow the corrupt government.

What I am saying is that, as I hope is obvious by now, young adult books are not children's books. Did Mr Stein not notice the bit in the title of the genre that uses the word "adult"? To me, a young adult book doesn't have to only be read by the young adults in our world. It is not fair to look down upon them simply because of those who happen to connect with them best due to the age of the characters. Because in my view, a young adult book simply is a book that deals with young adults, and who understands being a young adult better than real young adults themselves?

I am going to use the example of Kristin Cashore's The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy here, simply because it was through looking through Kristin Cashore's blog that I found her response to this article, and thus found this article itself; also, these fantastic books are most certainly not well-known enough.

The trilogy is in the Young Adult genre, so how serious is it? Could a more mature reader stomach this stuff that is enjoyed by younger audiences? I'd like you to read this blog post by Kristin Cashore herself about why she wrote the second book in the trilogy Fire and tell me yourself. Tell me that it doesn't contain adult themes and a message that Ms Cashore wants to get out to the world - the world of adults.

And if, despite this, you automatically think that because of the series' genre, the storylines are simple, there are no underlying morals, the characters are immature or are stock characters, then think again. Let's take a look at Ms Cashore's third book Bitterblue, which has won awards for children's books. Its protagonist is an eighteen-year-old queen of a fantasy world. So far it's sounding like a children's book.

But now let's look a bit deeper - which basically would mean reading past the first page. Firstly, when I gave it to my mum to read, I had to try and explain half of it to her. The plot got that complicated. I already mentioned the protagonist is a queen - she has a kingdom to rule - therefore there are going to be some politics involved here. Then her late father was a sick, power-hungry psychopath, and eight years after his death, she's still finding evidence of his cruelty and trying to fix the many, many things he did so badly wrong. So she's confused, she's overwhelmed - but she's strong, strong enough to fight back and survive assassination attempts, and she's clever, with a good mind for numbers and ciphers. And that romantic interest who in teen books are always so perfect - he's a thief, but a good thief, although he acts rather too rashly at times. Oh, and sexual acts may or may not be hinted at throughout the course of the novel. Still sounding simple and stereotypical and "dumbed down"? Still sounding like you'd give it to your kids as a bedtime story? Or maybe it sounds like something you'd prefer to read yourself?  Are you believing me that Young Adult books such as this one can be read by more mature people yet?

So what is it that Mr Stein has a problem with? Is it the fantasy worlds that many of these books seem to take place in? Are they too childish? That, my friend, is called escapism, and any person of any age is entitled to it. Or is it the genre? Now, tell me Mr Stein, what do parents tell their children? Don't judge a book by its cover? Yeah. Go figure.

There is one last thing I would like to say. I don't find it at all fair the way Mr Stein not only condescends these books and their writers (which completely undermines the ginormous effort and the fantastic skill on their part to actually write a book - an eight hundred page first draft and four years for Ms Cashore to complete Bitterblue.) but openly admits to not actually having read ANY of the books he is complaining about. I have read Twilight. I have read The Hunger Games. I have read Harry Potter. So I think I am perfectly justified in saying that he should go home and actually do his research. He's missed some great stuff by being judgemental and condescending (I'm sure he could find some great children's picture books to help him with that). He has some serious catching up to do.