You Say It's YA; I Say It's for Everyone

March 25, 2010 Not every novel featuring a young protagonist is appropriate for young readers, but Silas House didn’t want to exclude anyone when he wrote Eli the Good. As House tells Darnell Arnoult, “I just wanted to write a book that anyone could read, so I made sure that it was suitable for high school and on up.” But an open-armed welcome to teen readers doesn’t mean the book is boring for adults, he adds. “Often people think a young adult novel means that it won’t be as heavy or there won’t be cursing or things like that, but ultimately what makes a book able to be marketed as YA is the voice … if the editor thinks the voice can speak to young adults as well as all readers, then they market it that way. I’ve met more adults who have read it than kids, and if no one told them its YA they don’t even know.” Read the far-ranging interview at Arnoult’s blog, Dancing With the Gorilla, here, and read Susannah Felts’s review of Eli the Good for Chapter 16 here.