The post below is based on a writing prompt from an MLIS Readers’ Advisory course. The prompt was: Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we?

Three cheers for YA & graphic novels

"I see now that dismissing YA books because you're not a young adult is a little bit like refusing to watch thrillers on the grounds that you're not a policeman or a dangerous criminal, and as a consequence, I've discovered a previously ignored room at the back of the bookstore that's filled with masterpieces I've never heard of..." (Hornby, 2008, p. 81).

I'm going to do my best to discuss the importance of YA and graphic novels in this post but I realize I'm worried I won't find the right words.

When I entered college, I tried to read Serious Books. I was in conceptual art school and there was this generally accepted notion that we would all make Serious Art influenced by all the Serious Things in our lives like our reading. I was maybe the only person that didn't subscribe to the New Yorker. I lived in fear of someone seeing the graphic novel in my bag or catching me on BART re-reading Harry Potter. During this attempt to jump into adult literature I didn't read much because I wasn't very engaged with what I was reading. Is there great, exciting, adult non-fiction out there? Absolutely! But I had this feeling that the fun books and the Young Adult books would not make me a Real Adult, I thought they would hold me back somehow.

Then I stumbled across the overstock sale rack at Green Apple Books (it's like the fairy tale version of a bookstore: creaky wooden floors and shelves, books piled everywhere so it's hard to move around but that only makes it more magical...) where some books with quirky title by Nick Hornby were up for grabs. They were collections of his articles from The Believer where readers follow him on many reading adventures and possibly even more reading misadventures. Across several essays he discusses the wonders of Young Adult books and I realized after reading Hornby's writings that you can think whatever you want to about books and read whatever you want to. It became my new reading mission. Everyone reads for different reasons but there is no reason any type of book can't contain good writing, a good story, a way to relate to characters and experiences like and unlike your own. Every type of book transports you somewhere else.

I believe some people think that Young Adult literature and graphic novels don't deal with big, important issues, that they are just fun and whimsical fluff. There's nothing wrong with fun and whimsical (or fluff, my cats are excellent examples) but many of these books use the fun and whimsy to deal with difficult topics. Lost in the Never Woods (YA) works through some of the most intense family trauma I've come across in literature and does it through a retelling of Peter Pan. The fairy tale base doesn't lighten or lessen the intensity but pads the impact for the reader making it more relatable and making the book feel like a safe space. Little Thieves (YA) has an entirely relatable and very morally grey protagonist trying to fend off a curse while also working through child neglect, child abuse, and sexual assault. Throughout everything the character is a survivor and she gets to have adventures, rescue a princess and a prefect, and choose her own fate. In Lore Olympus (graphic novel & web comic), Persephone is dealing with family secrets, an unhealthy relationship with her mother, and sexual abuse while Hades is managing depression and domestic violence. Both characters remain powerful and worthy of romance. As a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence myself, I have never had the experience put in a more relatable way than Rachel Smythe does with her comic. I have recommended the series to adult friends who I want to know about my experience but can't find a way to articulate them myself. These varied ways to tell complicated and difficult stories provide readers with alternative and valuable ways to understand traumas and experiences and show that our damages don't have to define us.

"And suddenly, I'm aware that there may well be scores of authors like David Almond, people producing masterpieces that I am ignorant of because I happen to be in older than the intended readership" (Hornby, 2008, p. 75).

Young Adult and graphic novels also have a habit of being more diverse earlier than adult fiction. While many queer and BIPOC characters in Adult fiction have often had tragic stories or "overcame the odds" stories or are relegated to side characters providing humor relief, YA and graphic novels make these characters heroes and protagonists worthy of remembrance and recognition. Because many YA stories deal with learning experiences and growing pains given the ages of the main characters, they provide learning moments for adults as well. I'm currently reading The Heartbreak Bakery (YA) and it was love at the first sentence. As a queer baker with a questionable gender, I am falling hard for Syd, the main character. Growing up in the 90s in suburban Connecticut I didn't have a wide a range of vocabulary to describe myself or queer role models. It took a long time for me to come out as queer because I didn't know what I was or how to talk about it. And then, in once short dialogue in The Heartbreak Bakery, Harley calls Syd an "agender cupcake" (Capetta, 2021) and I was shouting "that's it! That's me!" Reading about these youthful experiences helps me put my own past into context and better understand my own story.

How can we as librarians or, I'm going to add book recommenders here because I can't claim librarian, encourage these books to be in our spaces? Well, with ever decreasing budgets I think getting any material in a community space will be a challenge but representation matters. We all, no matter our age, need to see ourselves and our experiences reflected on the page or screen or sound recording. It makes us feel like we fit into the world. Young adults are part of the community as much as adults and also deserve to have literature created for them. To promote cross-pollination, displays and online reading lists could be handy. A display that mixes Young Adult, graphic novels, and Adult fiction with common threads would be a great way for everyone to see how these different modes of storytelling go together. Reading lists can similarly mix content and book annotations can offer read-alikes across age ranges. I've found that suggesting read-alikes with a sentence or two about how they connect to the original title summarized is a great way to get people to cross the reading age border. Organizations can also create displays and highlight books that are considered for ALA's Alex Awards. These awards feature Adult fiction that appeals to readers ages 12-18. Highlighting awards and professional organizations that recognize the crossover is a great way to legitimize titles for skeptical adults and adding YA titles to a display to expand on the connections is bound to get a few adults to pick up a title outside their normal reading zone. Ultimately, I feel like the major goal is to get books readers will enjoy into their hands and the more we recommend titles that cross divides with sound reasoning, the more that readers will be likely to branch out.

Citations

Capetta, A.R. (2021). The heartbreak bakery. Candlewick Press.

Hornby, N. (2008). Shakespeare wrote for money: Two years of reading begat by more reading, presented in easily digestible, utterly hysterical monthly installments. Believer Books.