Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I've always felt that "Young Adult" is a particularly meaningly phrase. If a book is aimed at 14-year-olds, then (in my view) it's a childrens' book. Let me add that I say that as a big fan of children's books. I have a large collection of turn-of-the-20th-century childrens' books: Tom Swift, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc.
That's the category into which I'd place "The Hunger Games"; please do correct me if you disagree.
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I never am very clear on what constitutes "young adult" book, but I would not put The Hunger Games in the same category as the Hardy Boys or The Chronicles Narnia. The subject matter (and what happens to the protagonists) is much different and more "adult" in The Hunger Games. I don't think the Hunger Games is necessarily an "adult" book, but considering it a "children's" book is a stretch. It seems like there ought to be a different category for Narnia/HB/ND, etc. (Is there a "young reader" category? I thought I saw a section like that in our library.)
I know I started reading the Narnia books and Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew when I was in 2nd grade. I don't see ever letting a child that young start on the hunger games.
I tend to just categorized books by genre rather than age. So Hunger Games would be sci-fi (or post-apocolyptic/sci-fi depending on how detailed you want to get), Narnia/Hobbit are pretty clearly fantasy, Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew are mystery, etc.