Against Ruth Graham

You know, if Slate’s Ruth Graham had said “I don’t like YA” and left it at that, I would say she’s completely entitled to her opinion and her tastes. We all like different books, different genres, different authors. And that’s great! There’s never been a time when we’ve had so many alternatives at our fingertips. You can read anything from Beowulf to the latest Patterson thriller and even have it at your fingertips in seconds.

But.

She didn’t stop there, as this delightful piece on CNN.com indicates. (Yes, I know I just used the words “delightful” and “CNN.com” in the same sentence. It boggles my mind too.) Nope, if you’re above the age of 18 and you’re reading a YA novel, not only should you not be reading that novel, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Can you just picture the wagging finger?

I’m not going to link to Miss Graham’s article, because I don’t really think Slate needs more traffic and unlike Miss Graham, I know that my readers are intelligent and can use Google and find it on their own if they really want to. Apparently, she thinks that if you’re reading YA you’re doing so at the expense of “serious” literature or books for grown-ups. Apparently, it also never occurred to her that a reader could read both YA and “grown-up” literature (whatever that is) and enjoy and appreciate both.

And even if some adults are reading YA instead of Graham-approved choices, so what?

I could go on and on about how YA novels can present a unique point of view about characters outside of our own narrow set of experiences, how they can tackle themes and situations that are often all too real, and how they can, yes, be entertaining and provide a bit of escapism. I could also point out that I’m not completely unbiased in this since, you know, I write YA.

But I won’t do that, because I have another novel to work on, a story to edit, and so many books to read, one of which happens to be a YA novel.

So! To make this long story short, here’s the best response to someone saying you should be ashamed of reading anything:

As for Miss Graham, she’s still entitled to her opinion! As for the whole pathetic attempt at lit-shaming, well, bless her heart.