Sunday, July 16, 2006

Speaking Of Reading And Age

I was in the car with a young relative for several hours this past week. We were talking about YA fiction and what ages that classification includes. I told him that some people suggest that YA should extend into the early twenties because eighteen- to twenty-something is a niche group that isn't being marketed to. I know. I should have said, "whose needs aren't being addressed" so as not to turn this young man into some kind of cynic.

Whoops! Too late. He's already there. His response was, "Well, the eighty-eight to death age group isn't being marketed to, either. How about publishing books for them?"

I thought he made an interesting point.

1 comment:

Liz B said...

Great point. When I was in HS/College, I would have killed for more books about kids in college/ just starting out. Instead I got my fix thru things like "Class Reunion." Now, while read a lot of YA & kids lit (obviously!) when I read for pleasure I prefer to read about people in my age group, give or take 5 or so years. For some reason, I find my age mostly in genre books, especially mystery.

People of any age need their age reflected in books.

Of course, we may chose to read outside that age -- but its nice to have my realities, concerns, etc in the books I read.