From: Marc Aronson <75664.3110>
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 09:21:20 -0500

Sorry if I'm late on this, I've been away on vacation.

YA lit has two different meanings. In one sense it is the set of books reads by YAs. (which of course then opens up the question of who YAs are, but for the moment let's go by the YALSA definition of readers 12). Of course that set of books includes everything from picture books to adult books. And it is this wide, descriptive, term that BBYA uses.
        But there is also a subset within that larger group: the set of books written, or published, for teenagers. It was our feeling that that subset of books is least often reviewed in the general media, most-often has a "taint" of being somehow lesser -not as sweet as books for younger readers, not as
"good" as books for adults. One piece of evidence of the way in which this particular brand of book had been ignored or slighted was that there was no singular award for it. While the library world felt it necessary to select the best text and art for readers up to 14, as well as best book in translation for those readers, and now best book by a Hispanic author (CSK rules are different), no one seemed to notice that this left out a whole area of publishing for younger readers: readers 12. So we simply added that group of books into the mix.
        No one expects teenagers to limit their reading to YA -- personally I wouldn't limit their reading at all -- but we thought it worthwhile to select the best of YA.

Marc Aronson
Received on Wed 01 Mar 2000 08:21:20 AM CST