How to Convert a YA Doubter into a YA Believer

Combat YA ignorance with a whole heaping of YA knowledge!

A couple of months ago, I agreed to meet a friend at the mall for lunch. I arrived before our scheduled meet time, so I, naturally, went to wait in the bookstore. When she finally showed up, a whopping fifteen minutes later, I, naturally, had found four books I wanted to buy. Being wise and frugal and all parts mature (ha), I asked her to narrow it down for me.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm never heard of them."

"Exactly!" I said. "Judge them purely by synopsis or the cover or because you hate the title font, I don't care. Pick for me."

She took the books in her hands, looked over them, and frowned. "Oh. These are, like... tweeny books."

 

And the tone of her voice pretty much said it all. I bought all four, JUST BECAUSE. (Okay, to spite her. Just a little)

For some reason I cannot figure out, YA gets a bum rap. The higher-ups and the powers-that-be and the Dead White Men who rule the Godly Pantheon of Literature (totally a thing) have decreed that things written for youths, for girls, by women, about kissing, about magic, and on and on an on, are lesser. And the truth of the matter is they simply aren't. For example, the Goodreads Awards nominations just went up. There are a walloping fifteen categories devoted to adult literature of all categories. YA has two. Two categories that combine numerous genres such as romance and contemporary and historical, or fantasy and science fiction and dystopian and paranormal. In the adult brackets, all these genres get individual chances to shine. Why?



I'm an English major, which means I talk to people every single day who think that if Hemingway didn't write it, it doesn't count. And that, of course, is crap, which is why I've put together a list of books to convert even the staunchest YA doubter into a YA believer.

Even if you don't agree with me on the books I've chosen (and you won't, because tastes vary, and also I haven't read all these books myself, as a bunch were picked by my Twitter followers), the point is, so many of you could replace every book on my list with five or maybe ten different books. There are dozens, no, hundreds, of amazing YA books, and they deserve the reputation and the respect given to "more legit" books..

Like there is such a thing as a "non-legit" book. "Does it contain words? Words put together in sentences? CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE A BOOK OF LEGITIMATE WORTH."

Books to Convert a YA Doubter into a YA Believer

If they say: "There are no books of literary value in YA!"
You fling at their faces:





If they say, "There are no fantasy books with really dense world-building and inventive magic!"
You fling at their faces:





If they say, "All the YA heroines are weak and whiny and dependent on boys!"
You fling at their faces:




If they say, "YA supernatural! Nothing but vampires and love triangles and these are obviously bad things for REASONS!"
You fling at their faces: 





If they say, "There's no legitimate science fiction in YA!"
You fling at their faces:

 



If they say, "There are no true wordsmiths in YA! No true masters of prose!"
You fling at their faces:

 

If they say, "Authors don't take RISKS in YA!"
You fling at their faces:




If they say, "There's no deep, profound, historicals in YA! It's all so kiddy-like! Kids don't get history!"
You fling at their faces:

 


If they say, "There are no good bildungsromans anymore. In my day Holden Caulfied blah blah all the phonies blah!"
You fling at their faces:





If they say, "It's all so girly and fluffy and... FUNNY! I am an enemy of humor and joy! I am an unparalleled specimen of testoterone and whisky and darkness and if I laugh my face will crack in two!"
You say, "SO FREAKING WHAT IF IT'S GIRLY AND FLUFFY AND FUNNY?" and fling in their faces:





If they say, "Most YA writers are women and this is bad for REASONS that have to do with testosterone and misogyny and stupidity!"
You fling a fist at their faces and say, "DARN TOOTIN' THEY ARE."

 

 Which YA books would you fling at the faces of YA doubters? Or, you know, hand them gently, but with an excellent withering stare?