Mundane secrets of the YA-YA authorhood

[prog]

Here is a troll for my kid-lit friends: What defines a young-adult (or even childrens') novel? I mean, what makes a given work of fiction YA versus, er, "grown-up"? Is it just a matter of PG-13-or-lower content with (usually) young central characters?

Comments

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Although these seem like (perhaps) necessary but not sufficient conditions to identify YA books. For instance, "YA books usually have a narrative viewpoint that is not too far in the future from when the narrated story took place"--are all YA books from a limited narrative view? If not, does, say, Hitchhiker's or Stranger in a Strange Land meet this criterion, since the "viewpoint," such as it is, is more or less simultaneous with the story?

And of course I can name any number of books that end on optimistic notes, which I would not think of calling YA. (Stranger, say.)

[ex-colorwhe.livejournal.com]

And of course I can name any number of books that end on optimistic notes, which I would not think of calling YA

No, it doesn't work in the other direction: I didn't mean that most optimistic endings are YA, I meant that that most YA books have optimistic endings. And it may not be "most," just "more than not." Of course there are exceptions -- much Cormier, Postcards from the Edge, etc. But since there are no hard and fast rules, I was trying to identify general trends.

I don't know Hitchhiker's or Stranger well enough to comment on them -- and don't quite understand your question about them anyway...