It is important to remember that “Young Adult” is a label that is attached largely for marketing purposes. The most interesting example is The Book Thief which was considered an adult book in Marcus Zusak’s native Australia, but YA in the U.S. It is dark — about Nazi Germany and narrated by death — but has deservedly spent years on the NY Times best seller list.

I, in my mid-50s at the time, thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy: thought provoking, highly engaging, and well written for its genre, but also disturbing and violent. When it became very popular among older teens and people in their 20s and 30s, younger high schoolers wanting to emulate their elders were interested in reading it. Then middle schoolers. Then 4th and 5th graders. Parents, as always, have to set limits.

There are lots of great relatively new YA books out that have some dark content that are far more likely to engage and challenge readers than the classics mentioned by Meghan Cox Gurdon. (Sherman Alexie’s The Absolute True Story of a Part-Time Indian and and Tom McNeal’s Far Far Away to name two; keep in mind that I’m more into guy books).

Dave
Little Shop of Stories