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

[prog.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that a movie could contain all those things but present them in a way that wouldn't sink its MPAA rating past PG-13, but I'm not thinking about movies too much here so it's kind of a moot point. :)

Your first point is interesting to me, and not something I have considered. I imagine it applies only to first-person narratives, yes? Are these especially common in YA-lit?

[ex-colorwhe.livejournal.com]

Actually, it can apply to third-person and even second-person (a few of which have come out lately). It 's certainly about the character's point of view, but third-person limited can sometimes be as close as first-person. And even if the narrative voice sometimes includes other perspectives, when it gets back to that character's voice, there is still the question of whether or not there are years of hindsight.

Movies, well, I don't know from movies.