Is Young Adult Fiction the “Slum” of Scifi?

By Annalee Newitz Published February 5, 2008 | Comments (0) |

Over the weekend, NY Times science fiction columnist David Itzkoff wondered “how any self-respecting author of speculative fiction can find fulfillment in writing novels for young readers.” This didn’t sit well with the Boston Globe’s Brainiac blogger Joshua Glenn, who writes: “I attempted to disprove . . . Itzkoff’s thesis that people who write speculative fiction are slumming when they write juvenile lit… by providing a hastily annotated list of over three dozen terrific examples of post-apocalyptic/dystopian juvenile fictions, from John Christopher’s Tripod trilogy to Jack Kirby’s Kamandi series to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.” Both Itzkoff’s column and Glenn’s response are a great read. [Brainiac]

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