Though this week's group of "genres" all seem very different, they all have in common the fact that many people don't feel that they are legitimate literary choices and libraries shouldn't be spending money on them or promoting them to adults. The common belief is that adults still don't or shouldn't read that stuff. How can we as librarians, work to ensure that we are able to serve adults who enjoy YA literature or graphic novels? Or should we?
I completely disagree with the idea that we shouldn’t spend money on or promote young and new adult materials and graphic novels. I know plenty of adults who prefer to read young adult books over adult fiction for the main reason that they are quick and easy reads and completely entertaining. I myself recently found myself completely consumed by the Hunger Games trilogy and then the Divergent trilogy (prior to this I was a huge Twilight fan). These books may be written for a younger audience, but why should that mean that an older audience can’t enjoy them too?
Another reason I feel that these young/new adult genres can apply to an older audience is for parents who want to have something in common with their younger teenagers. I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough where we can read these young adult books (together or separately) and have discussions about this issues that arise in them and how we would handle the situations in the book.
I haven’t personally read a lot of graphic novels, however, I did just absorb My Friend Dahmer and absolutely enjoyed it. Why should there be an age limit on any genre? I don’t believe there should. I believe adults should be able to read the books they want, regardless of the age group they were written for. I think that libraries should keep the Young/New Adult sections at the library near the Adult section, and allow patrons to read whatever they want to read.
