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SMACK: Age limits...
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 09:33:09 -0500
Thanks, Michael, for clearing things up for me. I hadn't realized that Andersen was a children's publisher.
How do you define "young adult" in the U.K.? Here in the U.S., our young adults, by definition, seem to be getting younger every year. Many here consider 11 and 12 year olds young adults. I'm all for being inclusive but the net result seems to be that the literature gets directed toward the 11 year old group and there is very little published specifically for 15 year olds. That may be part of the reason why a book like "Smack" is making such a splash here.
Kathleen T. Horning (khorning at facstaff.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706
(608)&3930
Kathleen wrote... the U.K. "Smack" was originally published as an adult book,
That's not quite correct, and I've been misleading the group if that's the impression I gave.
'Junk' was published in hardback by the Andersen Press. This is a specialist CHILDREN's press. So it was very much a Young Adult book on a children's list. But when the title was bought by Penguin UK, instead of publishing it as a PUFFIN TEENAGE FICTION novel, which would be usual practice, they published it as a PENGUIN paperback. There are two ways of looking at this. Either it was sensible marketing aimed at getting the book shelved and displayed with adult fiction (as many have long campaigned for YA books). Or it was anxiety about the 'adult' material contained within. Wouldn't mind betting it was a bit of both, which is why I've said that Andersen Press should have been given much more credit for having published the book in the first place
(Penguin having basked in all the Carnegie publicity).
Interestingly, Penguin have issued Burgess's latest paperback
(also originally an Andersen hardback), Tiger, Tiger as a PUFFIN TEENAGE FICTION book. Actually, I think this book is hardly teenage fiction at all. It's the kind of book that some 11/12 year olds could readily handle. To my mind it would have been much better to market Burgess properly as a Young Adult novelist, and to wait until he'd come up with another title which could have been aimed at the 14 - adult public.
As for age bracketing Junk, the general consensus in UK HAS been that it's for around 13/14 plus -- in other words, a genuine piece of teenage fiction.
I've been following the responses to the book with a great deal of interest. The teenage reviewer quoted by someone on the list seemed very sharp. Wonder if he'd like to write something for ACHUKA?
In general it seems to be going down well in US. Although I have noticed that others have remarked on the sameness of the narrative tone.
Michael ACHUKA Children's Books UK achuka at webplus.co.uk http://www.webplus.co.uk/~achuka
Received on Tue 23 Jun 1998 09:33:09 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 09:33:09 -0500
Thanks, Michael, for clearing things up for me. I hadn't realized that Andersen was a children's publisher.
How do you define "young adult" in the U.K.? Here in the U.S., our young adults, by definition, seem to be getting younger every year. Many here consider 11 and 12 year olds young adults. I'm all for being inclusive but the net result seems to be that the literature gets directed toward the 11 year old group and there is very little published specifically for 15 year olds. That may be part of the reason why a book like "Smack" is making such a splash here.
Kathleen T. Horning (khorning at facstaff.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706
(608)&3930
Kathleen wrote... the U.K. "Smack" was originally published as an adult book,
That's not quite correct, and I've been misleading the group if that's the impression I gave.
'Junk' was published in hardback by the Andersen Press. This is a specialist CHILDREN's press. So it was very much a Young Adult book on a children's list. But when the title was bought by Penguin UK, instead of publishing it as a PUFFIN TEENAGE FICTION novel, which would be usual practice, they published it as a PENGUIN paperback. There are two ways of looking at this. Either it was sensible marketing aimed at getting the book shelved and displayed with adult fiction (as many have long campaigned for YA books). Or it was anxiety about the 'adult' material contained within. Wouldn't mind betting it was a bit of both, which is why I've said that Andersen Press should have been given much more credit for having published the book in the first place
(Penguin having basked in all the Carnegie publicity).
Interestingly, Penguin have issued Burgess's latest paperback
(also originally an Andersen hardback), Tiger, Tiger as a PUFFIN TEENAGE FICTION book. Actually, I think this book is hardly teenage fiction at all. It's the kind of book that some 11/12 year olds could readily handle. To my mind it would have been much better to market Burgess properly as a Young Adult novelist, and to wait until he'd come up with another title which could have been aimed at the 14 - adult public.
As for age bracketing Junk, the general consensus in UK HAS been that it's for around 13/14 plus -- in other words, a genuine piece of teenage fiction.
I've been following the responses to the book with a great deal of interest. The teenage reviewer quoted by someone on the list seemed very sharp. Wonder if he'd like to write something for ACHUKA?
In general it seems to be going down well in US. Although I have noticed that others have remarked on the sameness of the narrative tone.
Michael ACHUKA Children's Books UK achuka at webplus.co.uk http://www.webplus.co.uk/~achuka
Received on Tue 23 Jun 1998 09:33:09 AM CDT
