There seems to be some rather apparent inconsistencies in the definition of the YA genre. Particularly with whether it is books about teenagers, or whether it is books aimed at teenagers. I find that it is usually always defined as the former, as every YA book I have ever read features a teenage protagonist, although a number of exceptions exist that do revolve around children. Now I do understand that readers like to read about protagonists they can relate to, that struggle with the same issues that they do. That’s perfectly understandable. Teenagers are not adults. They are teenagers. There is a vast amount of psychological data that shows teenagers are different to adults in many capacities. It’s why we, as humans, have such a long period of adolescence, which is absent from almost all other animals. Almost all other animals reach maturity quite young. But because of the huge amount of information humans need to learn, we go through a prolonged period of childhood, followed by a very distinct period of adolescence. There are profound …