If you remember my discussion from last week, I discussed how YA is not a genre, it’s a category/age group. In this short post, I’m going to further that discussion and go a little deeper, and even break down what ages I feel belong to certain age groups.
Genre: “a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.”
Category: category is defined as “a class or division of people or things regarded as having particular shared characteristics.”
Genres= Fiction and Non-fiction and the sub-genres of each. (I have a separate post coming soon about the subgenres).
Category= Age groups which include:
Baby= 0-3
Children= 4-7
Middle-grade/Tween= 8-12
Teen= 13-17
YA/NA= 18- 25
Adult= 18+
When someone says children’s fiction, they mean that children’s is the category/age group and fiction is the genre, this goes for every other age group too. YA Fantasy (I’m using this as an example because I feel like YA Fantasy is one of the most popular subjects), YA is the age group and Fantasy is the subgenre of fiction.
These are my opinions on what ages correlate to the different age groups. It’s important to remember that books can be read by anyone even though books are marketed towards specific age groups.
Please discuss your thoughts in the comments, and if you haven’t commented on my post from last week, please do so, I would love to hear your thoughts.
*Disclaimer: I learned some of this working towards my Bachelor’s in Information Library Science degree.
Inside My Minds 
I guess my only thought when it comes to your discussion of age groups would relate to YA. Putting YA with NA and targeting it toward 18-25 doesn’t really fit the current market, since YA is considered part of the current children’s market as a part of the SCWBI. Typically the audience is expected to be 15-18+ (since it is so popular right now among adults). Protaganists are usually 15-17 year olds. Swear words are kept at a minimum and sexual content is not supposed to be only hinted at, when it happens.
I get that, but when you’re 18 you’re considered an adult but you’re still a young adult. I think a lot of the issue and confusion is how publishers choose to market books. For example, ACOTAR was marketed as YA (as in 15-17) but it’s more YA/NA (as in 18-25). Another example could be Kerri Maniscalco’s new series, I think that’s more YA/NA as in 18-25.
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