Comment by reverius42
7 days ago
"Young adult" fiction is supposed to be for like 11-15 year olds. By high school I'd think you should be reading regular "adult" material. I think the curriculum generally agrees and assigns what we'd call adult literature in high school English.
Not only that. The strict adherence to things like ESRB ratings dumbs down today's kids.
I'm firmly in the camp that I am a better person today because things like parental controls did not really exist in the world when I was a kid, and I was playing GTA at like 10. While kids today at that age are forced to read, listen, watch or play dumbed down crap.
Young adult is NOT 11-15 year olds. By literally any definition.
> I think the curriculum generally agrees and assigns what we'd call adult literature in high school English.
The curriculum assigns what they should read to get overview of history of literature and general education. You are not meant to like most of it, you are meant to learn about the writer and period from it. The curriculum does not assigns what they "should" read for pleasure or like.
"Young adult" in this context is a publishing industry marketing tactic. It doesn't refer to actual adults. The target audience is mostly children who want to feel like they're getting away with something they're not supposed to.
Young adult literature is not "books for target range of 11-15". OP made that claim up to make it sound terrible that people who finished high school report liking to read books literally written for their age bracket. Official young adult age range is 13-18, which means literally high schoolers. And yes, they are already grown a lot, so those books frequently end up being popular among reading adults too.
I am from generation that read a lot. Huge bulk of what people, both adults and teenagers, read was something called "junk literature". It is fascinating how the "kids don't read for pleasure" panic instantly jumps into "it is horrible that when kids read for pleasure, they report liking books that are age appropriate and written so that their generation likes them".
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If by 'publishing industry marketing tactic' you mean a demographic, age range and to some extent (you can argue with this one) a genre, sure.
It doesn't refer to "actual adults", no: The age range is usually said to be 13..18.
The target audience is largely teenagers who want to read what they want to read.
What's your problem with "kids" reading books, anyway?
Careful, if the YA fans could read, they'd be really upset at this.
What an odd insult to identify a group of people solely by the fact that they read (a particular subset of) books, and then say they can't read. The ability to read is one of the only things this group of people has in common!