Ramblings: The hypocricy of embracing literature for young people

This is something that has been bothering me lately, related to a larger issue of the age gaps and marketing in children's publishing. I should really make a big post about it, or perhaps a series. Regardless, I'm sure this won't be the last time I talk about it.

Here's what I don't understand. You have many adults (rightly, I expect) arguing that they deserve to read YA and it's relevant and important to them, but they get a book written for a slightly younger audience and all of a sudden it's too young and can't be considered just as good. Or when there's a middle grade book they like, they'll go around calling it YA because that sounds more sophisticated. (See: The Giver, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson.)

Yes it's not written for you, it's not going to have small print and fancy words and really complex sentences, but that doesn't make it any less valuable. It doesn't mean it can't mean something to you once you get past these trivial details.

You can defend your YA, but I'll always defend the books that got me reading and that continue to captivate,me unlike anything else, and I don't want that to be forgotten in the debate. And I don't care if you call something like Harry Potter YA, I'm going to stick to what the book was marketed for because we should just embrace them for what they are. Yes, the landscape of children's publishing has changed, but it may have lost something along the way.

(On the plus side though, our generation will not be looked down upon when we are adults rereading Harry Potter, because everyone else will share the same nostalgia in some way.)