sfwa_admin
in
sfwa
The Pirate Code of Children’s Literature
by Stacy Whitman
Editorial Director, Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the SFF community among those unfamiliar with children’s literature about just what is children’s literature and what is young adult. Outside of genre circles, when I introduce myself as a children’s book editor, most people assume I edit picture books-and they often also think that means I’m a copyeditor, but that’s another story for another day. Inside of genre circles, “YA” seems to be taking hold as a catch-all term for anything written for anyone under 18, at least for people with whom I get into discussions at cons. Being at cons, sometimes these “discussions” get rather heated! When “YA” SF award nominees come out, the books on the short lists might be either middle grade or young adult-for example, Garth Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series, solidly middle grade, was nominated for the 2007 Locus Award. Very seldom do these awards have a “children’s” category, so “YA” becomes the default.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA