VaVeros

A Post for Young Adults, by Young Adults, about books Young Adults have to deal with

shallowreader 3 Comments

A tiny little thing that I find annoying is the misnomer that is Young Adult fiction. Last time I looked, an adult is someone who is over the age of 18. Therefore, a “Young Adult” is someone who is only just over 18 but is still learning, discovering and transitioning from being a teenager to the full blown adult responsibilities of a mortgage, a child or gaol.

Ben Elton back in the 1980’s took the mickey out of the term “Young Adults”

Which brings me to the baffling world of books and publishers. Just like any other retail company, publishers have staff/contractors (authors/content providers) developing products (books) targeting specific market segments. In publishing terms the YA market is aged between 13-17. This is out of sync with market segments followed by the rest of the retail world.

In the real world, this age group is called TEENAGE. And there is nothing wrong whatsoever with branding books aimed at this readership as Teenage. Just saying.

Looking not reading

shallowreader Leave a comment

Contraptions

by Heath Robinson

a shallow review

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I’ve just finished looking at the lovely illustrations in Heath Robinson’s Contraptions. It is a visually splendid book and was delightful to browse through. Now, I will not claim to have read this book. In actual fact – I can’t recall reading anything other than the captions to his illustrations.

There are some books where upon first reading them you don’t want to experience text. The images in their own right will tell you about the illustrator. At least, a well designed book who’s graphic designer leans more towards information design, will give you an appreciation of the journey or story.