Alison Doherty writes: “When did young adult books first begin? Some people would probably say in the 2000s with the massive success of Twilight and Hunger Games. Others might point to the late 1960s and 1970s, often called the first Golden Age of YA, with The Outsiders. Or people could even go back to Catcher in the Rye with its teenage protagonist. We often think of genres and literary categories beginning with certain books. And that isn’t wrong. But until recently, I didn’t know what a big role librarians had in forming (and naming!) this category of books about teenagers and written for teenagers (even though now YA is widely read by adults as well).”