Books: The YA Stigma

I grew up reading books that were well above my grade level and discovered the sci-fi/fantasy section of the bookstore pretty early on. Because of this, I never really picked up YA books. Part of this (I'm ashamed to admit) had to do with the stigma attached to YA--they're kids books, they're all the same story in different clothes, they're just kind of dumb. Luckily, I've been proven wrong. And then today I discovered this article and found out I wasn't the only one to go through this transition. Go NY Times! It makes me happy to see things like this being covered at all, but I think this essay in particular is fantastic.