Young Adult and Graphic Novels

As someone who is a Real Adult (just turned thirty), I personally think it’s crazy to feel like young adult or even middle grade books are off limits! There was a time in my early 20s that I did feel a bit embarrassed to still be looking in the teen section of my library, but I got over that pretty quickly, especially when I realized it’s so much more common than I thought. I read a ton, and it’s probably about 50/50 young adult and adult titles. What’s important to me, as to most readers, are the appeals. I want something character-driven with a diverse cast and a decently fast pace. I’m just as likely to find those desires in each age group.

There’s lots of discourse online about the merits or faults of adults reading young adult fiction. There are still the people out there who condescend about adults reading YA literature, like this article by Ruth Graham for Slate. And certainly some people in real life have expressed negative and condescending opinions about adults reading books meant for children. If you ask Ruth Graham, all adults should be reading literary fiction and should be embarrassed and ashamed by anything else. This opinion seems to rely on the idea that the point of reading is to be challenged or have to think, which really is only one reason people read. A large portion of readers of all ages read for pleasure or escape, not some lofty ideal.

Thankfully, it seems like the Ruth Grahams of the world might be becoming the minority. More and more I’ve seen adult readers unabashedly checking out teen titles, excitedly talking about them, and posting defenses of reading “books for children” as adults. According to a Publisher’s Weekly survey, in 2012 55% of young adult book buyers were 18 or over. In the eleven years since, I can only imagine that number has stayed relatively similar or even increased. As a genre, young adult has remained profitable and popular even as physical book sales have struggled in recent decades.

This all points to the fact that adults reading young adult fiction aren’t going anywhere and they’re not going to be embarrassed by their book choices. Librarians, especially those providing Readers’ Advisory, have to be aware of this. When working with an adult reader, not ever considering young adult titles could be doing them a disservice. Of course this will vary reader to reader, but it would definitely be useful to determine if they’re looking only for books from the adult side of the library or if they’d be happy to read into young adult or middle grade fiction if the themes, characters, and appeals fit their desires. I think a great passive way to include adult readers of young adult fiction would be to add some relevant YA titles to book lists. If you’re making bookmarks with popular thrillers, why not add some great YA thrillers to the list as well? 

I wanted to mostly focus on young adult for this prompt response, but I’d be remiss to not give a mention to how important and ridiculously popular graphic novels are nowadays, for all age groups. Graphic novels represent a fun and accessible method of reading that may seem different than “regular” books, but they play just as important a role in many readers’ lives. Graphic novels can be hugely rich and detailed, with sweeping stories and diverse and dynamic characters. I recently binged through the entire Saga series and found it just as immersive and thrilling as any science fiction series out there.

And the data supports that graphic novels are exploding in popularity. Graphic novel sales more than doubled from 2020 to 2021. If RA librarians aren’t thinking about graphic novels or recommending them to patrons, they’re definitely missing out on a huge and growing market.