From: Bren MacDibble <brenmacd_at_optusnet.com.au>
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:19:29 +1100

Do we have to choose a side of the crossover street?

I'm going to walk right down the middle of the road, bugger the oncoming traffic, and say: altho publishers usually call for books that have a clearly defined market, and each of these books was pushed

into being marketed for one side of the street or the other, the author wrote the book using the best viewpoint to tell the story. I'd

like to suggest that perhaps each of these books was so successful because the emphasis was on the telling of the story in the most engaging/empathic way. Perhaps only after the tale was done did the author look up and say, "Oh... marketing. Who the hell have I written

this for?"

Regards,

Bren

On 07/10/2009, at 7:31 AM, Megan Schliesman wrote:

Let's turn our attention to the discussion topic for the first part

of October: Crossover Books, Part II.

We first visited the topic of crossover books—titles that are marketed to both children and adult audiences, in June 1999. That discussion was inspired in part by the ever-growing popularity of "Harry Potter," which was already having noticeable crossover appeal. Today, it seems we think about crossover less in terms of marketing and more in terms of how the lines between children’s/ young adult and adult literature are not always easily defined, at least when it comes to appeal. From "The Book Thief" to "American

Born Chinese" to "Twilight" and beyond, we’ll revisit the topic of

“crossover books” in light of the past ten years of publishing

During our discussion in 1999 it was noted that fantasy and science

fiction have always been genres that draw readers of all ages to individual titles. (Today, we would no doubt add a particular

graphic novels/comics to that list.)

It seems the definition of crossover is something that is blurring as much as the books themselves blur the lines between youth and adult titles. Is a crossover book a book published for adults that children/teens find? (In which case, as Kathleen Horning noted in her introduction to the topic in 1999, all books read by children before the advent of children's pbulishing were crossover books ). (e.g, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon). Is it a children's/ya title that is also claimed by adults

(a la "Harry Potter," "Twilight," and others). What about books whose publishing histories vary? Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief" was

published for adults in Australia, for young adults here.

We invite your thoughts about books from both sides of the crossover

street.

Megan
Received on Wed 07 Oct 2009 09:19:29 AM CDT