When the Harry Potter books were first published in the UK, clandestine editions with ‘grown-up’ graphic design on the covers were introduced as a contrast to their more colourful, youthful counterparts. The intention was to allow grown-up readers to take them on the train or read them in public places, without hazarding the potential embarrassment of having to explain why they were reading something with a cartoon-like illustration of a youth contemplating a train on its cover. Of course, by this time, not only are the very words ‘Harry Potter’ about as clandestine as an elephant in a wading pool, but if you take one of the brightly-coloured books on the train you’re far more likely to receive knowing grins from the other passengers than searching glances of scorn.
The newest trend in adult reading is ‘young adult’ reading, and everyone is quick to cite Harry Potter as one of the reasons. “I hate to bring everything back to Harry Potter, but those books really brought many more adults to YA [Young Adult] reading,” said Jan Orts, who runs Philadelphia’s Joseph Fox Book Shop. “The same thing happened when Tolkien published the Rings. Harry Potter has blurred the lines.”
Unbeknownst to either of these women, Lisa Santamaria, manager of a Barnes & Noble children’s department across the city, was drawing a similar comparison. She explained that the growing number of adults making forays into YA fiction are drawn by the satisfaction of a cleaner resolution than adult literature generally provides. “Children’s books have a more upbeat ending, and a lot of people are looking for that,” she noted. “They want something a little more entertaining or fluffy, so they come to the kids’ section, only to find out that these books are not necessarily fluffy at all. Like Harry Potter - it makes you think.”
Because the trend doesn’t neccessarily have so much to do with a shift in the desires of adult readers as it does with an increasing gravity in Young Adult fiction. Not only do fantasy books such as the Harry Potter and His Dark Materials series tackle some weighty issues, but fiction about real-life teen concerns has seen a shift towards heavier topics and “racier material,” according to Cynthia J. Pasquale of The Denver Post.
Suzi Fischer, who buys books for the Denver bookstore Bookies, has noticed an increase in YA fiction dealing with “sticky subjects like sex, abuse, gay relationships and drugs.” Books such as It Happened to Nancy by Beatrice Sparks, in which the 14-year-old girl of the title is date-raped and contracts HIV, or Kevin Brooks’ Candy, in which a young boy is smitten by the seemingly-innocent Candy, and tries to rescue her from her life of heroin addiction and prostitution, are examples.
Teenagers grow up much faster with constant exposure to television and the media, and are ready to profit by considering these issues. Books published several decades ago that were once considered scandalous, such as I’ll Get There, It Better Be Worth the Trip by John Donovon, dealing with homosexuality, and Forever, by Judy Blume, a non-graphic account of the life of a sexually active teen, have paved the way for the newest set of candid novels.
Part of the reason, too, why such a cross-over market exists, is that the category ‘Young Adult’ is a fairly new one, and a tenuosly defined when previous classifications such as sexual content do not neccessarily make a novel ‘adult.’ Orts of Joseph Fox Book Shop explained: “Having worked at the bookstore for 15 years, we’ve always felt torn about even the category of YA. There never used to be a category.” Even within the publishing industry, companies vary on their own opinions of what separates YA fiction from children’s literature. Little, Brown defines it as books appropriate for age 12 and up, whilst Bloomsbury puts the classification at age 14 and up.
And cross-marketing continues. Mark Haddon’s book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time, has been published in the UK in an adult and a children’s edition, with only their covers displaying any difference between them. But even so, with more and more adults reading YA books, embarassment is becoming a thing of the past. “I feel entirely free to recommend YA books to our adult customers,” Orts said. Santamaria once again echoed her, opining that there is “not a stigma among people my age. I have no problem shopping in the kids’ section because there’s a lot of good books there.”