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

[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.