There are a lot of stereotypes of YA books, but the books on store shelves are very different from most stereotypes. I know, because I’ve been a fan of YA since the mid-90s when I had three daughters of a lady friend to get Christmas presents for. By the time I’d picked three books that I thought would fit each very different kid I’d gotten hooked and have been ever since.
First, publishers don’t sell to parents or schools. They sell to kids, who won’t bother with any obvious brainwashing that parents or schools would force on them. Literally millions of Harry Potter and Twilight books didn’t get bought by parents or schools. Nor Gossip Girl or Princess Diaries or Judy Blume’s books about sexual awakening or … so much more.
YA books, for roughly ages 12-20, are about the problems of growing up – which appeals to me because, frankly, though I’m 60++ I’m still not 100% “grown up.” (And if you think you are – boy, are you delusional!) Except for very detailed sex scenes, YA has no taboos. Any problems a teen might face show up in YA books. This includes pregnancy, abortion, male as well as female rape, homosexuality, school violence, smoking, drinking, drugs, suicide, teacher/student sex, and “lesser” topics such as peer pressure, parental neglect, sibling rivalry, teen love, and so on.
Also, there’s plenty of action-adventure in YA books. An example is the Twilight series. A lot of commentators have emphasized the teen love side of it. But they are also superhero action adventures, which may account for the fact that about one-third of the series fans are boys.
There is certainly Character Development in YA books, but no more than you’d get in, say, John Ringo’s “Ghost” series – which I enjoy partly because Ringo tells us enough about Mike Harmon to get me interested in what he does and the problems he faces. One of which in later books is facing the pain of knowing that when you command others some of them will end up mutilated or dead.
Since about 2000, when the Potter book began to be really popular, fantasy began to show up more and more in it, till now about 80% of YA books are fantasy. There has been no such ramping effect for SF – at least in the books placed on YA shelves. Teen SF gets placed in the F&SF section. Examples includes the recent Fledgling and its sequel Saltation (due out next month) by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Also the Heinlein “juveniles” which were recently republished.
Lastly, I suspect a lot of people stereotype YA books as being poorly written. (After all, what would teens know about quality writing, and why would they care?) Those people would be wrong. There is nothing 2nd rate about YA writing. It includes some of the best around, in description, dialog, action, characterization, plotting, themes, or any other aspect of writing. I’d be proud to have one of my books on the YA shelves – and in fact am a third of a way through a YA contemporary and SF book (a Shapechanger story).
