The Balancing Act of YA Romance

In my high school English class I was one of the few fourteen year olds left who still liked to read. I was, therefore, the obvious choice to be offered the chance to take a day off lessons and represent our school as a regional judge for a children’s’ book competition. The fourteen-year-old me jumped for joy at the opportunity and I was given a collection of the half-dozen nominated books to take home and devour. The books were aimed for British high school children between the ages of 12 and 17, much like today’s YA catchment area, and most of them were exciting adventure tales in foreign lands with magic and mystery.
One of these, books, however, was very different from the others. "The Shell House" by Linda Newbury told a tale of love, faith and sexuality, and about half-way through the story, the main character lost his virginity on the page. As a child raised on Dickens, Dahl and Harry Potter, I was suitably horrified by what I had just read. I put the book down, and it was the only one that I did not finish before I entered the judging event some weeks later. I listed it as my last choice to win the book prize, despite never having finished the tale.

Read the entire article in the March 2015 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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