Lately, I've been seeing a lot of posts about appropriate content in YA novels. Over at Fangs, Fur, and Fey, for example,* Jackie Kessler had a post about how her new main character swears a lot , which she's wondering about. And then there's this insightful post from the delightful blog Hey, Teenager of the Year, wherein blog author Steph (an ACTUAL TEENAGER gasp ) talks about what she thinks is appropriate content for teenagers.** It's a tough question, right? Because there are essentially two audiences for YA literature--the YAs themselves and the parents and guardians of the YAs. And these two audiences don't always have the same ideas about what the YAs should and should not be exposed to in literature.*** Parents and guardians of YAs (hereinafter P&Gs) are often shocked by what shows up in YA literature. "There's so much swearing," they say. "And dirty parts!" They're right, at least about some books. There is a lot of
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