once more into the breach

Jodi Picoult allegedly dismisses all YA as featuring unclothed girls on the covers, thereby being unsuitable for her 13 year old. If this is true (it's a secondhand account), I'd enjoy five minutes with Picoult to explain exactly how A. wrong B. ridiculous and C. potentially damaging to an entire genre (considering how wide-ranging Picoult's audience is) her comments were. I suspect this opinion/statement, if reported accurately, was formed by scanning the endcaps at her local Barnes and Noble. I'm guessing Picoult has a local independent bookstore, one that no doubt stocked and sold her books long before she became a bestselling sensation. Perhaps she could take her daughter there and get a little re-education on the actual state of YA literature.

Comments

[Janni]

Sigh. Just, sigh.

Even neverminding that I have no idea what covers she's talking about -- sometimes it seems I hear adults on the one hand complaining YA fiction is too simple and childlike and innocent and lacking in complexity, and on the other hand complaining because they've discovered YA fiction is neither simple nor childlike nor innocent nor lacking in complexity.

Sometimes it also seems it's the same adults doing both these things. Often without, as you say, actually reading the books they have such strong opinions about.