In December 2022, a photo of a Target bookshelf labeled “Young Adult Books” went viral because not a single book on the shelf was actually YA; indeed, the section was primarily steamy and explicit adult romance. This, of course, caused some consternation. Personally, I don’t think it was a weird conspiracy of store employees trying to get teens to read these books, as some people were arguing. I think the most plausible explanation I saw was that an employee was rearranging the shelves, put all the books that were meant to go there up, and simply forgot to change the sign. (Probably to something like “BookTok Books”?)
However, I think the wrong signage is a mistake that deserves to be fixed because there are people who are not familiar with the book industry who rely on such signage and shelving to choose books to buy. Yes, teens can read adult books, but the fact remains that some people might be specifically intending to buy an adult book and some might be specifically looking for a young adult book, and it should be obvious to them from the way the books are labeled and categorized in a store which one they are getting.
I raised this idea on Twitter, and I was met with some disagreement; more than one person told me that the onus is on the buyer to “do their research” before buying a book, and it’s completely their own fault if they buy a book for a twelve-year-old child that is actually BDSM erotica. But I don’t think that someone shopping in a physical store should need to either 1) spend 30 minutes researching popular YA books online to buy before they show up (something someone actually suggested) or 2) pull out their phone in the middle of the store to Google all the titles they see. If nothing else, this diminishes the convenience of a physical store; if I spent a significant amount of time researching before driving to the store, I might as well buy the book online! It’s also advice that pushes readers away from physical bookstores (yes, Target is not a bookstore) because it takes away the idea of serendipity and discovering books by browsing.
And I think one of the most important reasons that books should be correctly categorized in stores is because people who do not read themselves may buy them. I think the idea that some people don’t read at all, or that some people read but aren’t obsessively following the book industry and new releases, seem foreign to those of us who are Very Online in the book community. But it’s true! I think back to my grandmother, who knows I like to read, and when I was a child I would frequently receive books from her for my birthday or holidays. The selections were strange. One year in high school, I got a middle grade book I felt was too young for me. When I was twelve, I got The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. I haven’t figured that one yet, except maybe my grandmother thought it was a kid’s book because there was a kid on the cover?
The point is that my grandmother is exactly the type of person who might have known, “Oh, my granddaughter says she likes reading young adult books,” walked into this Target with the incorrectly shelved books, and bought me a book that was entirely inappropriate for me. (I don’t care if you think steamy romances are appropriate for teenagers; I would not have wanted to read one in high school and would have been upset. And if my mother had found out about it, SHE would have been upset with my grandmother and started an entire family feud.) Similarly, parents who don’t read much themselves might take their kid (who may be a teen or even a tween) to a store and let them loose in the young adult section and tell them to pick something out, assuming that since the books are for teens they will be “age appropriate.” They are not going to pull out their phone and Google the book to make sure it’s not really accidentally erotica for adults because why would they expect that to happen? They might have no conception it’s a thing that could happen, and reasonable people don’t walk into a store assuming the employees are incompetent and that they must double-check every decision the employees have made.
Clearly differentiating young adult books from adult books (and doing the same for other age categories) is helpful to consumers in a variety of circumstances, but it is most helpful for those who aren’t intimately familiar with the book market as a whole but would still like to buy books. The Target bookshelf seems obviously like an accident, but it’s one that could have led to a very poor purchase for a buyer!
Pages Unbound | Book Reviews & Discussions 
You got that right! Since we spend so much of our time talking about books and keep track of everything that happens around them, it’s sometimes a little hard to even consider the fact that there are people who don’t do this, we are simply the tip of a huge iceberg..
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I am probably guilty of assuming people “know” things about books, too, but I see it all the time. Something that is “obvious” to me, like whether a book is middle grade or YA, is definitely not obvious to some of my friends or family.
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That’s a really great point! It’s definitely helpful to differentiate if a book is YA or adult.
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Thanks for reading!
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You’re very welcome. 🙂
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On the one hand, I definitely agree with this! Like, accurate labeling is important for discovery and inclusivity. On the other hand, surely someone can read the book summary before purchasing something for someone else? Or like, ask a bookstore employee for help? Stuff shouldn’t be shelved inaccurately – than what’s the point of the labels – but also, there are many other bookstore affordances to avoid this exact problem.
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I think reading the summary is obviously a good idea, but I also think it still might be obvious what age category a book is based on that. Some books will definitely have a tag line that screams adult like, “This sensual romance will get you hot and bothered!”
But, for example, I have a friend (who is a reader but tends to read more classics rather than follow today’s market) who CANNOT tell books apart. They will pick up one of my books, read the summary, look at the cover art, etc. and then very confidently decide one of my adult SFF books is YA, or one of my middle grade books is YA, or one of the YA books is middle grade. It actually drives me a little crazy. :p
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Totally agree with you on that! Plus, it’s not always easy to see exactly what the book contains. Even though I’m a big reader myself, I’ve already been surprised by the content of some books I bought, despite making my own research before!
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I have definitely picked up books where I thought I knew what I was getting . . . and I was very wrong! I do think it’s possible to carefully read a book summary and flip through a book before buying and still be kind of surprised!
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I completely agree with you. I don’t think it is necessarily clear by looking at a book — even by reading the blurb — whether it’s YA or adult, especially to someone less familiar with the book community and tropes, etc. I think young adults can be trusted to make their own decisions about what they can read — but they can only make those decisions if they’re properly informed about what the books in front of them actually are. We also shouldn’t expect someone stopping into Target to jump through hoops to figure out what the book they’re buying for a teen actually is.
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I was just thinking about one of my friends who simply CANNOT tell books apart, even by looking at the cover art or reading the book jacket. They have on more than one occasion tried to “help” me by putting a book away I left lying around, and I always have to go hunting down the book to move it because they will put YA books on the adult shelf and adult books on the YA shelf and MG books on the YA shelf. It will be 100% obvious to me a book is MG or YA or adult, and somehow it is not obvious to them.
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I completely agree with you as well. I find it hypocritical of people to say the casual book buyer should look up every damn book and research it when I wouldn’t be surprised if those people saying that don’t apply that philosophy to other aspects of their lives (I’m making broad assumptions here). I think it’s just good form to put a general age range label on books so the casual buyer knows what they’re getting into. End of story. I don’t know why this needs to be a debate. Those who are super worried about buying a YA book that has some level of non-graphic spice will do their own research. I personally don’t think high schoolers, especially upperclasspeople, need to be so protected from sexual content because it’s a fact of life (I’m not talking about dark fantasy/questionable relationship stuff); but I understand that some might not want to read it.
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I think it’s completely crazy to imply I need to do 10 minutes of research before I buy something. What is even the point of going into a store if I am going to be standing there reading the Amazon reviews or whatever?
Yes, I think there’s a range of what teens want to read, so if they want to read more explicit content and are able to deal with it, that’s fine, but some specifically do NOT want to read that, and the YA label is supposed to be a good shorthand to help them find the kind of material they do want. So mixing up the labels and then claiming it’s not a big deal seems weird to me. It IS a big deal to some people.
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I agree completely! Bookstores should be accessible to people who want to buy books! It should function almost as a library, label books by category so that people can find what they want. Besides, if a person wants to purchase a book outside their age range, nothing is stopping them from walking to that section and making a purchase.
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That’s what I think is funny about this whole conversation. There were all these people like, “Oh, no, so a 13 year old reads some erotica. Big deal!” Well, it actually might be a big deal to that kid if they didn’t want to read that and ended up with it accidentally? Anyone who DOES want to read it can go to the section of the store that has it and buy it, just like you said!
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Exactly, and I know that in my teens I didn’t want to read erotica nor would I want a family member to accidentally gift me a copy.
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I found the responses to this photo truly incredible. A non-negligible amount of people sincerely believed that stores have no responsibility to label their merchandise properly, and the consumers carry the entire burden. But I think asking a store to label items correctly is really the bare minimum I ask, as a shopper.
It’s not unreasonable. People were acting like the Target employees had to choose for themselves the appropriate age range and we should pity them for having to do so much work. But retail employees typically receive a planogram from corporate telling them where to place things so every store is uniform across the company. They don’t actually have to look, as individuals, at every single item that arrives and decide where to put it, without anyone checking their assessment.
I feel like this conversation would have gone differently if books weren’t involved. Because wrong signage can vary from the mere annoying (ex. “I can’t find what I’m looking for,” or, “Why are there indoor items in the outdoors section?”) to the dangerous (“No, this isn’t gluten-free, like the sign says!). Consumers do expect stores to label merchandise accurately and stores should, if they want to provide a good shopping experience that will encourage people to come back. If I can’t find what I’m looking for without doing twenty minutes of research in the store, I’m going to a different store that knows where to put their signs. It’s that simple.
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i wholeheartedly agree! i also think that it’s important to denote for immigrants/ESOL (english as a second language) speakers who are parents/family members buying for kids, tweens, and teens and who might come from a totally different cultural perspective of thinking what’s appropriate and who might speak little english (but whose kids are fluent). for example, i come from a hometown with a lot of arab, east african, latin american, and south central asian, and southeast asian immigrants, and, quite naturally, those cultures vary in what they may think is appropriate for young readers. if, say, an egyptian or pakistani or vietnamese or eritrean or bolivian parent who speaks little english but understands the term “young adult” or “teen” walked into that target to buy a book for their teen, they might be varying levels of upset based on what their teen ended up reading—upset at their teen for reading it, at themselves for accidentally having purchased it, at the target employees for having shelved it at all/shelved it in the wrong section—and understandably so! i think often times americans are informed by being used to the level of violence, sex, and profanity in media and treat other cultures/religions as “backward” for not wanting their young folk exposed to such things when it’s not “backward” it’s just “different,” and that’s okay. hence the blasé americans express when books are mis-shelved. but it’s important to respect each other and our decisions, both individually and collectively, and that’s another reason why correctly categorizing books by age demographic can be really important.
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I do sometimes feel like the sex positivity culture in the U.S. leads to people, perhaps inadvertently, pushing certain content on individuals who don’t really want it. If people want to read it, that’s fine. It’s available. But the impulse to make reading erotica/steamy romantic scenes socially acceptable sometimes seems to turn into an argument that everyone everywhere has to be happy about reading it, and they’re somehow prudish or wrong if they prefer not to– or if they think their child is not developmentally ready for some content.
To me, this is just another instance where readers have to remind themselves that different readers prefer different content, and that’s okay. Reading it or not reading it is a personal choice that doesn’t harm others. And, yes, some readers are ready for certain content and some are not. That’s okay. There are plenty of books out there for all. I don’t think we need to start pushing our preferred reading content on other people, which happens far too often in the bookish community.
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I agree. I have picked up YA books by mistake. Now i check on #goodreads before i read a book. Goodreads is not great about labelling YA and neither is the library where i download books. Second hand books stores are better for sorting by target audience.
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I find the YA romance and the adult romance particularly confusing right now because publishers are giving them the exact same cover styles! I have seen multiple people say they accidentally bought something they didn’t want because of this.
And, yeah, Goodreads has some interesting labels for books. I see readers calling fantasy historical fiction and all kinds of stuff!
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I often find myself looking at the publisher site or checking what imprint published the book to verify the intended age range because people are so bad at discerning it! A lot of people seem to think, “I like X type of books and I like this book, so therefore it is X book.” That’s unfortunately not how age ranges work.
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I don’t see anything wrong in displaying age categories. But i think there shouldn’t be adult romance there in ua section. 15 yr old choosing to read Tessa Bailey books is her choice and i think even one display those book in specific section nobody is going to stop a teenager from reading what they want as they are going to get those books without parents or relatives knowing. They even can read it in library! But yes labeling them and displaying book as per age group is good and sensible thing and i agree with you, it save time from researching about books when all we want is browse book in book stores and buy them.
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Yes, I was confused people on Twitter were so against labeling books correctly. The steamy books are available in the store if people want them. Asking for the correct signage isn’t censorship. People just want to know what they’re buying, like with any other product. If I walk in the grocery store and see the sign for “Fruits and Vegetables,” I want to find fruits and vegetables, not fish and meats. If I want fish and meats, I’ll walk over to that sign. It’s the same concept, but people sometimes get weird about books.
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I’ve had this topic on my mind for a while and I’m glad you were able to put a discussion together. Another view I’ve noticed is that now on Booktok atleast, is that readers state an adult / new adult romance as “YA” or “Young Adult” because they see “Young adult” as more the age-range and *not the publishing category (which absolutely annoys the heck out of me as a YA blogger). Technically yes, age-wise readers in their 20’s are “young adult” but they often mean to imply it as the “category” or “demographic” of who its aimed for and while I’m for people reading whatever they want, they should atleast know the difference between YA and adult book content…because how adult vs. YA books present topics is very different. I believe its still important to categorize the books properly!
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I’ve seen this, too, people arguing that people in their 20s are adults on the younger side, so they’re “young adults.” But whether any of us agree with it or not, publishing means “teens” when they say “young adult,” so it’s confusing when people start saying “young adult” to mean people older than teens!
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my thoughts exactly!
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I totally agree! I think people who are so consumed in books forget that most people would have no reason not to trust the store signage, and might not even know where to look to find the age range for a book. One year when I was like 10, my parents told my uncle I wanted American Girl books for a gift, and instead he got me American Girl by Meg Cabot, definitely not age appropriate lol. Plus there is the whole other issue where bookstores incorrectly shelve adult books (usually written by women, people of color, or queer people) in the YA section. It drives me bonkers! Not because teens can’t read those books, but because it is not the correct age category! And especially when you are buying for younger teens, it is important to distinguish between the two
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Ah, this sounds exactly like something someone in my family would do! I really think it’s unclear to some of us avid readers how *confused* nonreaders can be about things that seem obvious to us!
I move around a lot and have belonged to a few libraries, but some have definitely been better than others about shelving things the way publishers have categorized them. I have certainly seen adult shelved as YA in some places!
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I often remember the time I was in the library and I heard an adult ask where the “Yaah!” section is. Not “Y-A” the letters, but, “Yah!” like they were spurring on a horse. And that was a real reminder that not everyone in entrenched in the world of publishing. This woman probably wanted something for her teen and was doing her best, and asking for help. But it’s not unusual that she wouldn’t know all about a hobby she’s maybe not into personally.
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I wonder if it’s also because the audience for YA has aged up quite a bit (or has always had a significant proportion of adults), so people just assumed that it was the same group of readers, rather than considering the fact that there are new, younger readers for whom explicit scenes may not be appropriate
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That hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s possible you are onto something!
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That makes sense to me. And I imagine some of the first avid readers of YA, when it really became a publishing category, are now old enough to be in bookish careers, as writers, editors, etc. They might still be into YA because they grew up with it and they see themselves as “young adults,” and so they actually think of YA as for young adults and not for teens??
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@Krysta and Briana (haven’t figured out how to reply to both lol), I was thinking along the lines of how the first Harry Potter book is upper-MG/lower YA but got progressively older and darker as the first audience aged up and that may be what’s going on?
Or… it could also just be a genre issue where people just assume anything YA is a catchall to hold the stuff they can’t easily categorise (especially since I don’t really recall NA taking off??)
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Could be! I do feel that there are quite a few books I would classify as NA (if it were a thing that had caught on) being published as YA. Offhand, maybe Rule of Wolves, Six of Crows, Nine Liars, and Stiefvater’s Dreamer trilogy. The characters read as older than teen to me (even if they’re called teens in the book) or are even older than 18 and are dealing with some more grown-up scenarios. It’s kind of like the publishers think the books would get lost in the adult section. But they’re not quite teen books, in my eyes.
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I agree with this! All movies and TV shows have ratings, so I think books should have something similar. I know in a bookstore, at least at my B&N, things are organized by YA and then basically everything else. But I think it would be helpful, especially for parents, if there was a little bit extra of a guide – like with movies. A movie may be PG-13, but why? Usually the rating will say “due to X”. I don’t think it’s that hard to do something similar for books. At the very least, a better indication of the appropriate age range. Sometimes that information isn’t easy to find. It’s sometimes on that page with all the publishing info – which, as you said, someone who is just gift shopping but not a reader, might not know that. Anyways, all that to say I agree lol
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Used book sales and stores are much more organizes. Every now and then I find a book misplace in the wrong age category. That could be from a volunteer not knowing where a book goes or someone pick it up and decide they don’t want it so they place it on some random shelf.
Years ago I was at my library’s used bookstore looking at the kids section and find this book with a dinosaur on the cover. At the time I have no clue that book have some adult content in it. Until look it up on GR. When I went back to that store the book wasn’t in the kid’s section or any other section. I assume someone brought it for their kid. Whoever place it in the kid’s section must of saw the dinosaur on the cover and assume it for kids. That rarely happens with adult books being place there.
It baffle me more to find more kids and teen books misplace in the adult section. Sometimes I find teen books in the sci-fic and fantasy section. Which is fine because it might draw teens over and encourage them to read a little outside YA.
Stores and book sales need to be clear with what age label the book has. I can understand if one book is misplace.
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I completely agree with you here!!
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