Young adult books then and now …

• Posted in About Books, Black Blade series, On Writing

Note: This post will also appear tomorrow at Magical Musings.

Several months ago, one of the ladies in my yoga class asked me about my young adult books, including Bright Blaze of Magic, the third and final book in my Black Blade young adult urban fantasy series.

We started talking, along with the other ladies in class, and they mentioned something interesting — that their kids and teens in general these days just don’t seem to read the same books that their parents did. Specifically, that it seems like teens prefer to read fantasy books instead of the Nancy Drew mysteries and other classic books that their parents read when they were teens.

The Secret of the Old ClockI keep thinking about this conversation because I loved reading Nancy Drew when I was growing up, and I specifically remember the cover shown at left. I read several different versions of Nancy Drew, and I also loved reading Trixie Belden, Sweet Valley High, the Baby-Sitters Club, and just about any other book/series I could get my hands on. I checked them all out from the library and read and re-read them time and time again.

Looking back, it seems like I read more mysteries and contemporary books when I was young. I don’t remember reading a lot of fantasy books until I was in high school. That’s when I discovered authors like Terry Brooks and David Eddings.

But once I started reading fantasy, I fell in love with the genre. I just loved all the fantasy books with all these characters going on these epic adventures and trying to save their kingdom, world, etc. from the bad guys. I like to read books with a little bit of everything in them, and to me, fantasy books were the perfect combination of action, adventure, magic, danger, and romance. And they still are today. Discovering fantasy books when I was a teen is probably one of the reasons why I write fantasy books today.

Oh, I still read mysteries, romances, westerns, spy thrillers, and more, but fantasy books definitely hold a special place in my heart. And the more I think about it, the more I think that my yoga ladies are right. Just browsing through the young adult section at my local bookstores, it seems like most of the young adult books are fantasy books. And it seems like most of the big books that all the book blogs are talking about are often young adult epic fantasy books.

So why is that? I think that maybe as teens get older and start becoming more independent, that they want to read about characters who are doing the same — folks who leave the safety of their homes/towns behind, go on these epic adventures, and use their magic for the greater good. I think there’s something that’s universally appealing about that, no matter how old you are, but that it really resonates with folks when they are in their teens and trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do in life.

What do you guys think? Do the teens that you know prefer to read fantasy books? Or do they read a wide variety of books?

Bright Blaze of Magic finalBright Blaze of Magic is out now. You can order the book at all the usual sites, including the following:

Amazon Kindle / Amazon print / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / Google Play / iBooks / IndieBound / Kobo

The audiobook is available through Audible and Amazon, and Brittany Pressley is once again be the narrator.

And here is the book description:

BAD THINGS ALWAYS COME IN THREES…

As a thief, I’m good at three things: hiding in the shadows, getting in and out unseen, and uncovering secrets. I put these skills to work for the Sinclair Family, one of the magical mobs that run the tourist town of Cloudburst Falls.

Everyone knows Victor Draconi wants to take over all the other Families—and kill every last Sinclair. What they don’t know is that I’m on to him, and no way will I let the man who murdered my mom get away with hurting all the other people I care about. Especially when I’ve got places to break into, stuff to steal, and Devon Sinclair fighting right by my side…

I hope that everyone enjoys the book. Happy reading! 🙂

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4 Responses to “Young adult books then and now …”

  1. Jen Twimom says:

    I agree with your assessment of YA and fantasy books. I too read the likes of Trixie Belden and The Three Investigators. But I think it was more a product of what was available at the time. I loved watching fantasy and sci-fi, but the only books I recall finding were A Wrinkle in Time series and Narnia books. It wasn’t until I was in HS and could read/comprehend more complex stories and mature themes, that I found a wider variety of books.

    While I agree with your reasons for more YA fantasy, I also think there is a feeder system in place. My kids had available to them a number of fantasy-lite books as young readers and multiple fantasy books at the middle grade level. With that in place, it reasons that there will be more interest at the YA level. Also, I think gaming plays a part. There are so many role-playing and fantasy apps available for the iPad, etc, kids are exposed earlier on. Also, parents like me who craved it when younger, pass that love of fantasy on to their kids, who in turn want to read it. It’s also more culturally accepted now, where as in the past, fantasy was for geeks. Finally, there are a number of adults who prefer YA, fueling the market even more.

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      Some very good points. I hadn’t thought about gaming, but that probably does contribute, since all the fantasy games (and movies and TV shows) are so popular. Fantasy is definitely a more popular and accepted genre in all mediums these days.

  2. Amie Doughty says:

    Peter Hunt has a great article about children’s lit (and applicable to YA, I think) called “Passing on the Past: The Problem with Books That Are for Children and That Were for Children” in which he discusses how reading tastes change and how expecting kids today to read and love the “classics” (or even just what their parents/teachers loved as kids) is problematic. Tastes change, times change, even if we want kids to enjoy the stuff that we did when we were their age. That’s not to say that they won’t like the older stuff (regardless of genre) once they’re introduced to it. I also think a lot of the trend in fantasy (esp. the YA dystopian now) is publisher and bookseller driven. They see something that sells well and then glut the market with those same types of books.

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      That’s very true about times and tastes changing, as well as publishing trends. If a certain type of book sells, then you suddenly see dozens of those same types of books being published.

      I don’t think it matters what kids read, just as long as they are reading.

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