First timeline

[Darkandus]

That's a tad harsh don't you think ewuvi? I have a seven year old cousin who reads Dostoevsky. A creepy, arrogant seven year old who's too smart for her own good but seven none the less.

[ewuvi]

A creepy, arrogant seven year old who's too smart for her own good

Therefore my point stands. Also, I think I was in that subset of the population.

ANYway, expecting that sort of complexity from YA is setting yourself up for disappointment and making yourself look like an ass complaining about it.

[SLAMU]

Okay, I'm missing something. YA?

[Calinero]

I assume she means Young Adult. And yeah, Harry Potter is Young Adult, but I would say it is definitely on the more complex end. Still, it definitely stays away from some of the more adult themes, such as the theological implications of dementors and magic and some of the ethical aspects of memory wipes. Young Adult is a bit of a vague term--wouldn't that technically only include people 18 and over, since younger than that isn't legally 'adult?'

[WarriorDrgnMage]

With the way 'kids' think today I usually interpret Young Adult to me translates to 13 or 14 all hte way up through the early 20's.

[Calinero]

Eh. I took advantage of the vagueness in the definition of Young Adult to enter a novel I wrote into a contest's Young Adult category when I found that the only other category, General Fiction (which I had wanted to enter in) had filled. I figured that the worst that could happen would be that they threw it out, and hey: I'm 18, that's technically a young adult. And I read Ender's Game in fourth grade, i have a very skewed concept of what reading is age appropriate. I'll just see if they like it.

[serbii]

*Walks past the young Adult section in the library*
"Oooh, hey a new Garth Nix book. *takes* hey that looks interesting, ugh vampires, this might be ok... go look at the big-people books Nic."
I'm 22 but I can pass for 18, that counts right XD

I read Ender's game... somewhere between 11 and 14?
Late primary/early high school.

[Calinero]

I'm haven't read Garth NIx in a while, but I remember liking some of his stuff....did he write the Keys to the Kingdom series?

[Tempest Kitsune]

Yep, that was him.

[WarriorDrgnMage]

I'll read YA almost exclusively and I'm 25 so maybe YA means less grim and dim of a subject...
or well maybe not considering some of the YA books I've read in the past. I think perhaps the best way to describe it is that YA's have happy endings and adult fiction books don't have to...?

[Random_fan]

As a rebuttal I point you to Animorphs.

[viridian]

I was reading Heinlein in grade school, so what do I know? (And not the Podkayne stuff either. I had *such* a crush on Friday.)

[Calinero]

I think Young Adult usually refers to lighter subject matter and slightly less difficult reading levels....though there is a lot of room for variation.

[WarriorDrgnMage]

::clears throat:: Harry Potter is not exactly light and fluffy...
I'm not entirely sold on the whole 'it's about lighter subjects' thing:
The Little Mermaid (not disney here) Ariel turns into seafoam and dies because the prince didn't love her back
Julie of the Wolves Julie gets raped
Animorphs didn't read it but someone said it...
The Pied Piper all the kids get kid napped
Pollyana She get Paralyzed
Bridge to Tarabitha The little girl dies
The Light in the Forest the whole damned book is depressing A boy was kidnapped and raised by Native Americans then gets forced back into the white man's world and then he gets exiled from them by helping his adopted cousin out
I can't think of anymore right now
....so yeah maybe not happy endings for YA either. Maybe the difference is length...?

[Calinero]

Perhaps it's just the raw difficulty of the reading material. But yeah, come to think of it, 'children's' books are full of some pretty messed up stuff.

Also, Animorphs was awesome. Except the end.

[MrRigger2]

Also, Animorphs was awesome. Except the end.

I disagree. The end was awesome. It wasn't desired, and it was one of the biggest cliffhangers I've ever personally read, and I screamed in frustration after reading it and realizing I wouldn't get a conclusion to it, but it was still awesome. And at the very least, the story we had been reading was finished and given a proper epilogue. We get to see what happens with everyone. And after that, then the aggravation happened.

MrRigger

[Greybane]

The end was awesome. It wasn't desired, and it was one of the biggest cliffhangers I've ever personally read, and I screamed in frustration after reading it and realizing I wouldn't get a conclusion to it, but it was still awesome. And at the very least, the story we had been reading was finished and given a proper epilogue. We get to see what happens with everyone. And after that, then the aggravation happened.

Concur

[Calinero]

All right. I revise my statement. It was awesome. The ending was also suitably epic, and in fitting with the style of the series...but incredibly frustrating.

I liked it better than the end of Everworld, though--at least we got to see the result of the Animorphs' war.

[ewuvi]

::clears throat:: Harry Potter is not exactly light and fluffy...
I'm not entirely sold on the whole 'it's about lighter subjects' thing:
The Little Mermaid (not disney here) Ariel turns into seafoam and dies because the prince didn't love her back
Julie of the Wolves Julie gets raped
Animorphs didn't read it but someone said it...
The Pied Piper all the kids get kid napped
Pollyana She get Paralyzed
Bridge to Tarabitha The little girl dies
The Light in the Forest the whole damned book is depressing A boy was kidnapped and raised by Native Americans then gets forced back into the white man's world and then he gets exiled from them by helping his adopted cousin out
I can't think of anymore right now
....so yeah maybe not happy endings for YA either. Maybe the difference is length...?

Length and difficulty. Also, bad things may have happened, but they aren't graphic enough to warrant being in the Grown Ups section. I mean, Julie gets raped, yes? But that's nothing compared to the Iron Rod of Kushiel's Avatar. Or the Squick that is everything that Auel writes.

Okay, yeah, sure it's not all happiness, but it certainly lacks the grimness and the complexity of fiction targeted towards adults. It's all about the target group, I'm pretty sure. Also, you'll note a lack of graphic sex. XD anyway, if the book is easy enough for an average oh, 12 year old to read it, then it's YA. Not to say YA isn't good, but I tend towards the straight-up fiction section.

TP said that Tom and Roger were supposed to be lovers, but when she found out that it was going to be for a YA series she cut that out because the relationship was a bit too twisty (not their both being male. I mean, Roger was Alanna, Tom's identical twin's worst enemy and vice-versa and Roger ended up killing Tom parasitically so yeah.)

[jgkitarel]

Actually Heinlein's great for Middle Schoolers. My personal favorites back then were Stranger in a Strange Land and I will Fear No Evil. Read the other stuff more mature stuff when I was in High School.

Then again, his Juveniles novels were a bit grim at times, especially if you read the original versions that got published later.

[thrawnca]

As for the dairy perhaps harry thought because it was the first horcux that it was not as protected as the rest. I could be wrong.

There's also the fact that it's made of paper, and remember that magical protections often overlook non-magical methods (like the twins getting Bill with a water bucket over the door). It's actually more surprising that the diary was able to resist mundane fire at all.