It has been discussed somewhat in the YA realm, although less by librarians and more by readers (teen and adult). My mom pointed some blog posts out to me about the fact how teen readers and adult readers interpret books differently mainly from the romance aspect (TWILIGHT and HUSH, HUSH). I think this something that is coming into our librarian minds right now.

I also find it to be a true issue in graphic novels. Case and point is the Printz winner AMERICAN BORN CHINESE. It is a GREAT graphic novel and I can see why it won, but in the last few years, this book has not circulated. In fact, I doubt teens are even interested in this book. Don’t get me wrong. I liked the book, I liked the message, and I like what he writes, but it doesn’t appeal to teens (I didn’t read it until I was an adult). In my last library and in my current library, this book has made it to my weeding list (no circs in two years). I also take a look over the Great Graphic Novel lists every year and am disappointed in the titles that made the cut and those that didn’t. Often, I find there is a huge disconnect between what librarians think are good for teens and what teens think are good for teens. The latest list was still a 50/50 (teens will/teens won’t like it) This is certainly something that needs to be looked into and discussed further.

A child reader, who might have the view that adult behavior is often unpredictable, might not think twice about the believability of Doug’s dad’s behavior, because at that point they’re probably much more invested in Doug’s own story.

The question to my mind is, is the plot believable (does it fit?) given the world that the author has created for it? In the case of Okay for Now, I see one path going upwards, in which so many things that seem unlikely are going Doug’s way, and one downwards in which his father’s behavior gets worse and worse, and the turnaround is where those meet. By the time it happens, is the reader willing to take it in stride, like so many recovered Audubon prints?

And isn’t one of the great things about any type of art that our interpretation of a piece changes over time? I love to reread, and I’m always finding “new” things in the words, depending what’s going on in my life. The most dramatic personal example I can think of is Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s THE WITCHES OF WORM. As a child, I believed the cat in the book was magic. As an adult, I have a completely different interpretation — one that makes the book much stronger, and which is probably closer to what Snyder intended. But I still enjoyed it as a child, and it made enough of an impression on me that I remember it years later… so where’s the problem?

Arguably the best books are the ones that *can* be appreciated on multiple levels. And if kids are are missing the subtleties you’re discussing here, perhaps it’s not a “flaw” so much as an entry point for discussion. That goes for adults and adult books as well. Some books require more synthesis than others to fully appreciate them.

To my mind, what would be “wrong” is a book in which there is no ambiguity, no room for (mis)interpretation, no place for readers to insert themselves into the story and experience it their own way.