What do Tyra Banks, Hilary Duff, and Henry Winkler have in common? They’re all YA authors

POSTED BY tolly ON May 11, 2010

Photo credit: Flickr.com

As further evidence that YA (young adult) fiction is currently the hottest ticket in town, Tyra Banks has just inked a a three-book deal with Delacorte Press for a YA fantasy series entitled Modelland. It is a cross between Harry Potter and America’s Next Top Model, and will hit bookstores everywhere summer 2011. According to Variety, the story centers on a teen who manages to get into an exclusive modeling academy, where the models harbor superhuman powers! (But we’re willing to bet that invisibility isn’t one of them).

Banks isn’t the only celebrity to hop on-board the YA novel train lately. Last March, Hilary Duff announced a multiple book deal with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, about a famous photojournalist, the daughter of a politician and a doctor.  The first book in the series, Elixir, is coming to a bookstore near you in October 2010, and seems to be a cross between Carmen Sandiego, The Da Vinci Code, and a Hilary Duff song. Via GalleyCat: the main character is “in a race against time to unravel a centuries-old mystery that could unlock the key to her soulmate’s true identity.”

But if models and soulmates aren’t your cup of tea, perhaps you’d be interested in what The Fonz has to say to today’s youth. Henry Winkler’s series for 9-12 year olds has actually been out for a few years now, and draws on his childhood struggles with dyslexia and school life.  The Hank Zipzer Collection features titles such as Summer School! What Genius Thought That Up? and The Curtains Went Up, My Pants Fell Down. Both of which shoot an arrow straight to hardened, cynical heart, and make me want to be a preteen reader again.

So what can we make of the blazing YA book publishing trend?

Well, it could mean that J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer deserve the biggest high-five ever. In the past few years, these authors (and hundreds more) have helped revive a flagging literature genre, providing compelling teen entertainment alternatives to all those video games. It could also mean we’re about to witness an onslaught of preteen/teen franchise marketing (as Tyra hinted at above), with the book serving as flagship for TV and film series, clothing lines at Target, and eventually back to video games  – but let’s not think about that just yet!

Instead, I’d like to take a moment to ask what your favorite YA books are, as well as the ones you want to read, and start figuring out why this is such a killer genre right now. Ready? I’ll start:

FAVORITE YA BOOKS: The Baby-Sitters Club (Duh). I know, it’s not very original, but for a generation of girls born in the late ’70s/early ’80s, Kristy, Stacy, Dawn, and the gang were not only our pretend BFF’s – they demonstrated important lessons in proto-entrepreneuralism. These girls ran a business, made their own money, and operated an internship program (see: Margo and Jessi). Is it any wonder that the 2000′s welcomed a whole bevy of female CEO’s and business-owners? No, it’s not; we ladies were all reading The Baby-Sitters Club.

YA BOOK I WANT TO READ: Liar, by Justine Larbalestier. An unreliable narrator, a murder, and a compulsive liar all in one book? A YOUNG ADULT book at that? Gimme!

Larbalestier’s twisted sense of humor and brilliant mind (before her foray into YA literature, she authored Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century) make this title a must-read for me. I suspect Liar isn’t as cheeky as her other recent YA release, How to Ditch Your Fairy, but I appreciate Labalestier’s ability to foist dark topics on her young readers. No, her characters aren’t learning magic; no, they aren’t super-supermodels – they’re dealing with troubled, potentially homicidal teens, people. With just a touch of supernatural. Take THAT to Dumbledore.

Which YA books do you love, which do you crave, and why do you think this genre is taking off?

Tags: authors, baby-sitters club, book industry, Justine Larbalestier, YA, young adult

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