The National Book Award & Other YA Kerfuffles

You probably heard about what happened with the National Book Award announcements. If not, Libba Bray will catch you right up. I don't have anything original to say about this; I'm just joining the chorus of others in the YA community who are outraged at the way the NBA has handled the whole thing. So, two things: 1) Lauren is an extremely classy lady, as you can see from the first interview she's given about this, and 2) You should all go buy her book right now. I did.

And last week, we had this incoherent Salon piece about YA. (I didn't have the energy to deal with it then.) Let me break down this argument for you:

1) There have been a rash of stories about people being worried about "dark" YA.
2) They shouldn't be worried, because "dark" storylines are good for kids.
3) All YA is light and fluffy, so...
4) Teens should just read adult books and YA shouldn't exist.

This is so obviously internally inconsistent that I'm not sure I can be bothered to point out how objectively dumb it is, as well. (Authors Beth Revis and Zoe Mariott do a good job in the comments.) But seriously, HOW DUMB. And the worst part is that the writer's points about heavier themes being okay and necessary are good ones, but they're lost in his obvious ignorance of the genre he's writing about.

IN BETTER NEWS, you should read Malinda Lo's "Why I Write Young Adult Fiction" and Sarah Rees Brennan's first Gothic Tuesdays post.