Defining the young adult novel

This week on The Daily Circuit, we're doing a series featuring young adult novels and their authors.

As part of the series, we're asking our audience to vote for the best young adult book of all time.

Author Pete Hautman wrote a piece criticizing our list, arguing many of the books in the poll aren't actually YA.

"Generally, YA novels are books about teens putting on adult shoes for the first time," he writes. "In other words, coming-of-age stories. In its broadest sense, this would include books like "Hatchet," or "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," or "A Wrinkle in Time" — all of which appear on the MPR list. But wait! Young Adult novels are also defined by their audience, and at this point in the history of naming things, that audience is mostly kids in grades 7-10."

Some argue YA novels also need to talk about the adolescent experience, Hautman said.

"MPR chose to embrace the broadest definition of YA, and include middle-grade books," he wrote. "I was disappointed (though not surprised), but mostly I was glad they made the effort to deal with YA/MG novels as serious literature."

Hautman joins The Daily Circuit to discuss what fits into the YA genre.

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