Issue Discussion - Angelique Lokeni

I think a big reason why YA Lit features so many more alternative formats than other genres is because for a lot of readers, the format sort of adapts with the reader. If we assume that most YA Lit readers are actually young adults (which we know isn't exactly the case, and we also know that there isn't really a specific age for YA readers, but for our purposes let's narrow the age group down to people roughly ages 12-26), then it would be pretty safe to say that anyone reading right now in that age range grew up during the time when we quickly transitioned out of dial-up internet and into the age of smart phones, myself included. For a lot of people in that generation, the transition for the changes in technology was easy because we grew up with them, whereas people who were part of an older generation had a harder time with it.

Why does this matter? I mean, technology and literature aren't exactly the same category.

But the effect that one has on our brains and the way we process information is caused by the other.

With the change in technology and the speed at which we were able to access and gather new information, I think that we sort of came to expect that with everything in our lives, reading included. And what better way to condense and deliver information quickly than to write books in alternative formats?

While books in verse and graphic novels can be just as long as traditional novels, they don't deliver their messages the same way because, let's be honest, most of our attention spans aren't what they were before the age of iPhones and most YA authors know that by now. Saving Red was on the shorter side as far as number of pages goes, but with each page being written in verse, it seemed to deliver only the essential information (which, in my experience, most of us have also learned to scan for since we have shorter attention spans anyway, resulting in us skipping over what we view as extraneous details). In graphic novels like Nimona, most of the information the author wants us to get is delivered in dialogue and the rest is in the pictures. Both formats hold readers' attention and still tell the story the author wants to convey, and in many cases are more fun to read than traditional books.

I think alternative formats are especially effective today because technology and people are constantly evolving. If the rest of the world is advancing, why shouldn't the things we read and how we read them advance and evolve, too?