that drives them to action throughout the book.
Riveting stories: They grab you from the get-go and don’t let you go until you’ve turned the last page.
Language: Writing that uses language to paint pictures in the mind — writing that has style (which we delve into in detail in Part 3).
Voice: A truly unique, standout voice. We talk about voice in Chapter 12.
Cliffhangers: Make every chapter ending leave them begging for more.
Audience: A clear grasp of the audience and their concerns.
Perspective: An ability to go back in space and time and put yourself into the shoes of a protagonist of that age without ever sounding like an adult or a younger child — a balancing act of the highest order.
Young adult books
Young adult (YA) books are just what they sound like: books aimed at readers age 12 and up (you can see an example in Figure 2-12). The common belief that young adults read only teen magazines and grown-up novels has fallen by the wayside, and bookstores now offer separate sections devoted to material that they believe addresses the issues, concerns, and interests of young adults, usually labeled Teen sections.
From The Dressmaker’s Daughter by Linda Boroff, reprinted by permission of Santa Monica Press © 2022.
FIGURE 2-12: The Dressmaker’s Daughter, a young adult book.
We don’t mean that bookstores and libraries never had YA sections before. They did. But the bookstores and libraries usually mixed the YA titles right in with the board and picture books — the “baby” books. Now these venues often physically separate out the books and the space to give teens their own hangouts.
Go Ask Alice, by the no-longer-anonymous Beatrice Sparks (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) — now in its 50th anniversary edition
Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger (Little, Brown and Company)
Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat books (HarperCollins)
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier (Ember)
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Square Fish)
King of the Mild Frontier, by Chris Crutcher (HarperCollins)
Forever, by Judy Blume (Atheneum Books for Young Readers).
Diving into YA basics
Young adult books fall into two main age groups: YA appropriate for children ages 12 and up and YA for children 14 and up. Although each YA novel differs from the next, we can attribute the split in age ranges most of the time to five issues:
Sexual intercourse
Foul language
Drug use
Extreme physical violence
Graphic abuse
Those YA novels that overtly and unashamedly deal with these topics are aimed at the older end of the YA age range, 14 and up.
So can you find an official section or publisher designation separating these two YA age ranges? Nope. Parental guidance and a child’s individual maturity level determine which books are appropriate for what ages. Do we think YA books should include age labels? Certainly not; the First Amendment is sacrosanct, labels are too infantilizing, and if a child decides they want to read or do something no matter what the consequences, adults can truly do little to prevent it.
Regardless of the specific age target (if they have one), YA novels are for those 12- to 18-year-olds who want to read novels about issues they face every day — or ones they merely wish they did.
With anywhere from 128 to 300-plus printed pages, these books usually come in 6¼ x 9¼ size (about the same size as standard grown-up hardcovers).
Young adult books are often cross-shelved with grown-ups’ books, and sometimes the only distinction between the two is that the protagonists of YA novels are usually teenagers. The issues confronted in YA novels often center on
Coming-of-age issues of socially, economically, spiritually, emotionally, or politically marginalized kids.Gay teenagers, straight teens in gay-parent families, cross-gendered teenagers, pregnant teens considering their options, teens experimenting with drugs and not completely messing up their lives or dying because of it, teens falling in love with older adults and acting on it, and the like.
Kids who seem to live perfect lives until you look under the surface.
Teens in complex situations (but not always weighty or incendiary).Sometimes just being a teen at an exclusive prep school can present abnormally difficult situations, especially if it turns out your peers are all the walking undead.
In YA novels, the protagonists don’t always win at the end. Whether they’re human or not human, their issues often parallel those of human teenagers: trying to fit in; making a difference; finding love; scouting out acceptance; breaking out of their parentally imposed limitations; seeking independence; proving their worth; conquering physical, emotional, cultural, and spiritual demons; and so on. With few exceptions today, the protagonists of YA novels have lost their innocence (different from losing their virginity), but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost hope, strength, or their ability to imagine a better life, a better self, and a better world.
Writing YA books
Young adult books are filled mostly with words and rarely have any illustrations. So if you’re hankering to break into the young adult field, be ready to write well for 200 pages or more. The criteria are similar to those required for writing good middle-grade fare (discussed in the section “Writing for the middle grades,” earlier in this chapter), with some real differences noted:
Characters: Strong, interesting, uniquely drawn characters who have a problem — only they might not try very hard
