Young Adult Fiction

Young adult fiction has a composite theme which was first recognized as an autonomous genre since the late 1960s. This literary genre has a wide spreading of styles from science fiction and fantasy books to autobiographical and history books. The genre is described as a conglomerate of works that may be of interest to teenagers or young people. The American Library Association considers young adults, or teenagers, people aged between 12 to 18 years. The identification of this separate classification from others such as the books for children or adult fiction started in 1960. Initially, librarians arranged this kind of literature on separate shelves and publishers followed the initiated trend. Young adult fiction genre contains many text types such as novels, short stories, diaries, poetry or autobiographies.

Some notable examples include 'The Yearling' by Marjorie Rawlings, 'Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas, 'Catcher in the Rye' by JD Salinger and 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain. A special mark and a huge influence on authors of this kind of literature had Salinger’s novel with his highly problematic protagonist.

In the United States there are being published over 400 young adult fiction books every year. The pioneers of this genre include names such as Judy Blume or SE Hinton. Overall, the trend is expanding and there are many well-known authors of adult literature that have published at least one title in this genre. Among these as significant examples are easily noted the names of Michael Chabon with 'Summerland', Joyce Carol Oates with 'Big Mouth & Ugly Girl' or Francine Prose with the novel 'After' and even thriller or horror literature such as Stephen King’s 'Carrie'.

One of the most bestselling books of young adult fiction of all times is 'Harry Potter' written by J.K. Rowling. She had become the first billionaire author as her books in a series were sold in more than 400 million copies in the world and translated in more than 63 languages.