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What do you consider YA?
What separates YA from Adult fiction?
What features must YA have to BE YA?
Are there books about teens or children that you feel are NOT appropriate for young adult or teen readers?
Or certain topics?

Please provide your input, I am curious as to what everyone's opinion is on this.

Man, I already said this in the wrong place!

As far as story goes, I think ANY topic that will interest young adults can be YA.

What seperates adult from young adult fiction to me, is the amount of detail in regards to violence and sex.

Fiona said, in another forum, that "YA is a great story, minus all the bullcrap." Young readers don't have the patience to wade through pages and pages of descriptions of waterfalls.

I don't think there's so much separation anymore. For example, Messenger had a little too much sex & violence for me for a YA book, but I found it in the YA section.

It's still great, but when I suggested it recently to my nephew, I don't think he was too much for those parts....

I think the main difference in a YA and Adult book is usually the age of the main character. Obviously this is not always true, but generally in a YA, the character will be a teen.

I think in Messenger, the m/c was early 20's. hmmm.. But I think generally that's true about the YA genre as a whole.

I would classify YA as books aimed specifically at adolescents, so 13-18 years of age. Generally, the books feature a character of that same age group. I think at 16 years old you are mature enough to make reasonable conclusions about books. I mean, I know some people who read Flowers in the Attic in 7th grade and that dealt with incest, and they turned out alright.

April wrote: "I would classify YA as books aimed specifically at adolescents, so 13-18 years of age. Generally, the books feature a character of that same age group. I think at 16 years old you are mature enough..."

Yeah, for real, I think I read that series in 5th grade!

Fiona wrote: "Not all YA were specifically aimed at adolescents though and many do cross boundaries.

Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time (is that right) I believe was written for adults but in the UK appe..."

So many of them are crossovers, I think.

I did a Children's Literature subject last year at uni, and (digs out notes) they defined children's literature (this included YA) as books that have been written with children in mind. An interesting point is that despite being written for children, they still have to appeal to adults, as they are the ones buying the books...

I read Flowers in the Attic when I was in high school. But it's definitely not a book that I would let my future kids read at a young age. Probably about 15/16 sounds right. As for the ages of the main characters, that does seem to muddy the waters a bit in regard to classifying books as Adult or YA. For example, take the book The Secret Life of Bees. I found it in the adult section of my library, yet the main character is 14, so would this be considered YA?

Fiona wrote: "Not all YA were specifically aimed at adolescents though and many do cross boundaries.

Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time (is that right) I believe was written for adults but in the UK appe..."

I think I read somewhere that J.K. Rowlings originally intended Harry Potter to be for adults, not children, but it struck it big with that age group.