Frontmatter and Editorial

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the editorial: The field of children’s and young adult literature seems haunted by a deep-seated contradiction: while this field arguably constitutes one of the biggest, thriving and continuously growing literary markets, the global YA market does not at all reflect the diversity of children and young adult readers that form its audience. The issue of who is represented and who can see oneself represented – who can and who cannot relate to characters in a story and on which grounds – are powerfully foregrounded in Gail Gauthier’s (2002) question: “Whose Community? Where Is the ‘YA’ in YA Literature?”