How Reality Became the Hot New Thing in YA

Contemporary, realistic YA fiction is, of course, as old as YA itself: S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders (1967) is frequently cited as the book that kickstarted the category. 
But just as "Harry Potter threw open the door for fantasy," says literary agent Jill Grinberg, "one could argue that John [Green] and Rainbow [Rowell] have done the same for contemporary fiction.” more   at PW