Introduction

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When I think about YA or teen literature, I find it helpful to consider David Levithan's definition:

YA is the genre that mines emotional trenches and examines the experience of becoming.*

This definition widens the scope of YA considerably, but does not dilute its essence.

While people often talk about teens as one demographic, when we are talking about teen literature, we need to think not of demographics but of individual kids and what kinds of stories will help them through their teens and into adulthood, whether they need challenge, comfort, entertainment, or escape. They need to find themselves in the stories we display on our library shelves and also found a safe place to engage with those who are not like them.

Not every book will appeal to every reader, so we need to make an effort to include diverse books in our YA/teen collections. We need diversity in terms of race, culture, and background as well as sexual orientation and gender identity. We also need books to be diverse in format: some teen readers enjoy a dense textual narrative that challenges and brings new insights; others are reluctant readers and would find graphic novels more welcoming (though that is not to say that graphic novels are only for reluctant readers). For some, realistic fiction that portrays the world more or less as they experience it will appeal, but for others, fantasy or science fiction will be more accurately portray the emotional truth of what they are feeling.



* Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/p/3q0wqKqo9r/

All book cover images were downloaded from goodreads.com.