Young Adult

I’ve classified all my published novels as Young Adult. What makes these books ‘Young Adult’? The characters are young adults, and that’s it.

When I write, I write to satisfy myself, and I’m not a young adult. But I love writing about young adults. In a story the main character should be acted upon and changed in some way; so a young adult, who is still discovering who he or she is, is a perfect subject.

So my main characters are typically young, but I don’t try to write to a certain reading level or try in any way to make my story appeal more to a certain age group. I just write what I like and what I think is entertaining.

Ender’s Game is one of the best Young Adult books of all time, but Orson Scott Card never set out to write a Young Adult novel. His original idea was about Ender as an adult, but after he started on the project he felt compelled to fill in the details of Ender as a child. Orson Scott Card went on to publish Speaker for the Dead and other books that follow Ender as an adult, and they are wonderful books, but I still like #EndersGame best.

What are your favorite books in the #YoungAdult genre?