I entered The Cat in the Cradle in the Lambda Literary Awards this weekend and am excited to see if anything good comes of it. Fingers crossed! One hurdle during the entry process was choosing a single category to enter under. It was a toss up between Debut Author, Fantasy/Sci-fi/Horror, and Young Adult fiction. In the end I opted for Fantasy. People often ask me if The Cat in the Cradle is Young Adult, or will occasionally call it such in a review. I don’t really mind, but I never considered the YA genre when first penning the story.

In fact, I’m not really a believer in the distinction between adult fiction and that for young adults. I’m reading Terry Pratchett’s latest novel, I Shall Wear Midnight, which is billed as being for young readers. In the story, a thirteen-year-old girl is beaten so hard by her father that she miscarriages. This is by no means the main plot, but it’s pretty dire stuff for any age group, and more serious than I recall any “adult” Discworld novel being. Mention is also made of an event in a previous “young reader” Discworld book where an old woman, suspected of being a witch, has her home burnt down and her cat stoned to death. Eventually she dies from exposure to the winter. Cheerful stuff for the kiddies.

Mr. Pratchett isn’t alone. Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials series,” (The Golden Compass and two other volumes) deals with hard hitting issues such as political and religious corruption, death, and separation. There are some truly disturbing scenes in those books that shook me as an adult. Bridge to Terabithia is pretty heavy too, since the death of a friend isn’t easy for anyone to handle, regardless of age. Some aren’t at all disturbing, but are simply great stories. What isn’t there for an adult to appreciate in A Wrinkle in Time? Are you ever too old for a fantastic adventure?

I’m not complaining about any of these books. I honestly love them all. I just find the category of Young Adult to be condescending to young people. Adults tend to forget just how aware they were when they were younger and how much they could really handle. Sex isn’t something that can truly be kept from younger people these days, and good ol’ Hollywood has been spoon feeding us violence for generations. Not even book length can be taken into account for why this category exists. Just look at the tomes the last couples of Harry Potter books became.

I’ll admit that I’m a big kid at heart, so maybe the truth is that my tastes are just immature, but sales and specialized versions (such as those silly Harry Potter covers for adults) suggest that I’m not alone. More likely is that adults have forgotten just how wonderful and wise young people can be, and how many lessons can be learned by revisiting the experiences and viewpoints of our younger selves.