The debate regarding whether adults should read YA literature began this past summer when the critic Ruth Graham argued in an article published at Slate that “adults should feel embarrassed about reading literature written for children,” claiming that YA books “are at odds with the way that adult fiction is pleasurable…[they] present the teenage perspective in a fundamentally uncritical way.” She cited The Fault in Our Stars as an example of a book that has “shame[fully]” replaced “literary fiction.”

In response to Graham’s article, S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders, said to the New Yorker, “Of course, I disagree. Under similar criteria, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn could be considered a young adult novel, and who would want to miss reading that? If you enjoy reading something, read it.”

She added, “There is so much variety in young adult now. Any writer who gives a reader a pleasurable experience is doing every other writer a favor, because it will make the reader want to read other books. I am all for it.”