Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18, and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth may be further categorized as social or coming-of-age novels.
Title page from Sarah Trimmer's The Guardian of Education, vol. I, 1802
Department with New adult books in a German bookstore (2023)
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader, from picture books for the very young to young adult fiction.
A mother reads to her children, depicted by Jessie Willcox Smith in a cover illustration of a volume of fairy tales written in the mid to late 19th century.
The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) is a canonical piece of children's literature and one of the best-selling books ever published.
Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, originally published in 1744
A woodcut of the eponymous Goody Two-Shoes from the 1768 edition of The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. It was first published in London in 1765.