The word is out - young adult books don't just serve a young adult audience anymore. Likely, it isn't a surprise for many avid YA readers to hear that "forty-seven percent of 18-24 year-old woman report most of their book purchases are YA" and that "the percentage of YA fans ages 25-44 has almost doubled in the past four years," according to the New York Times, surveys by the Codex Group, and a recent article on She Reads, which can be found in full here.
Somewhere along the way, people began to realize that the "YA" brand didn't directly translate to "lame" or "boring" or "you could do so much better than that." Young Adult books hold great power in their ability to guide as both role models and forms of informative and delightful literature. The young adult audience is expanding. Sure, some folks will continue to scoff at J.K. Rowling, Alex Sanchez, and Jessica Lee Anderson. But how many of those same people secretly pull out a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when no one is watching? It is refreshing to see that the YA genre, little by little, is being taken seriously in the public eye.
Now go buy a copy of The Book Thief, please.
Great new reads this week:
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
(read the full review on the Chicago Sun Times website)
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