Comments on: Crossing over

By: beth

beth — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:04:53 +0000

Obviously, the Harry Potter books were a great cross-over. I've been noticing within the past five years or so, more of a push for a separate teen space on the shelves. My local Walden Books used to have a YA section, then children, IR, and adult books, but now there is a YA section, a teen section, and an entirely different section for graphic novels (another one of those crossovers that I think are going to continue to grow).

By: Joelle Anthony

Joelle Anthony — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:07:09 +0000

Well, I CAPTURE THE CASTLE comes to mind. I guess you could call it YA from the beginning, but Oprah picked it (didn't she? Or did she just say she loved it?) and she doesn't do YA as far as I know. Maybe I'm wrong, about this one though…
Others are the Harry Potter series with their two covers for each book. And…hmmm…I thought I knew of a few, but I guess not.
Oh, right. I've noticed they've started giving classics YA covers like WUTHERING HEIGHTS and JANE EYRE. I don't think you can really call those YA (excellent to read as a teen, but they weren't intended that way, I don't think).
I'm a big fan of Meg Cabot's YA, but except for the Heather Well's adult series, I'll take a pass on her adult stuff, so I don't think that just because a writer actually obtains cross over readers in this way, it always means that the cross over is successful. I feel the same way about Ally Carter's books. Love the YA, not so fond of the adult stuff. But maybe I like my adult lit to be more grown up.

By: Caryn

Caryn — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:05:21 +0000

How funny–I have The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on my TBR pile. Just brought it home from the library the other day, in fact, because I've heard it's wonderful. As for good adult books that young adults can love, I always read the new ALA awards, including the ALEX awards, which honor such crossover books. There's a good list here: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/alex...