But problem novels aren't authentic, Feinberg argues throughout "Welcome to the Lizard Motel:" most of the narrators' voices sound like adults, not kids or teens, and the constant melodrama weighs too heavily on the readers. They're not "cozy," like Feinberg's favorite book growing up, Betty Smith's 1943 classic "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn." "The ethos of many of these books, if there is one," she writes, "seems not to be 'Love Makes the World Go Round' or 'There's No Place Like Home.' Instead 'Only Survive' or 'At Least You Have Yourself (since you can't rely on anyone else)' is more to the point."

Alex's required reading is seen almost as a household chore. "Just do it," Feinberg tells him. "I meant it in the same way someone might have once said, 'Just drink your milk,' or 'Just take your cod liver oil,' or, I realized suddenly, the way someone might believe that a child ought to endure a beating, because even though it hurt, it was 'a good beating,' would make him better, build character. Was this kind of reading akin to a 'good beating'?"

A writer and a mother likening children's lit to "a good beating"? It seems overly dramatic, but to children and Y.A. literature experts, Feinberg's reaction isn't unusual. Librarians and teachers are used to parents' complaints about problem novels by now -- that they're too traumatic, too adult, too provocative, etc. After all, most of the books challenged and banned in school libraries are problem novels, says Michael Cart, a professor of Y.A. literature at UCLA's school of education and the author of "From Romance to Realism: 50 Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature." "Any book that's tried to push the envelope of what material can be dealt with in a young adult novel -- like Judy Blume's "Forever," which contains the first explicit sex scene in Y.A. literature -- has routinely been challenged," he says.

"Welcome to Lizard Motel" has received a handful of positive reviews. Those who aren't among Feinberg's fans, though, are children's and Y.A. literature experts -- who were especially miffed by an Op-Ed she wrote in The New York Times in July, in which she slammed the required reading lists that many schools hand out to kids before summer begins. "I can't imagine how I would have fared if I had been asked ... to read the hard-hitting books on current summer reading lists," she wrote. "They depict children who must 'come to terms,' 'cope with,' and 'work through' harsh realities ... But should helping children face adversity be the main goal of children's literature?" After the piece ran, a popular teen reading listserv (run by YALSA, the Young Adults Library Services Association) was inundated with anti-Feinberg rants.

"There weren't too many people rushing to defend Feinberg," says listserv member Cart. "And once we realized she'd written a book, too, people started reading it and posting synopses and observations about what they saw as its deficiencies. It was the same old thing -- like, here they come again, attacking one small aspect of a field that they don't understand and don't know very much about."

Y.A. literature librarians take issue with Feinberg for not differentiating between children's lit -- technically for children up to 12 -- and books written for teens. "That's probably an apt criticism," Feinberg admits, "But the books trickle down -- it's a general erosion in our culture of the distinction between children and adolescents." Another complaint librarians have about "Welcome to Lizard Motel" is that problem novels are treated as the whole of Y.A. lit. The incredibly popular books that kids and teens read for pleasure -- the fantasy novels (Brian Jacques's "Redwall" series; 19-year-old author Christopher Paolini's "Eragaon") and teen chick lit books (Cecily von Ziegesar's wildly successful "Gossip Girls" series) that have made it onto New York Times bestseller lists -- are never mentioned.

But what gets Y.A. literature experts most up in arms, they say, is that Feinberg sees these serious books only as a heavy burden for kids to carry. She doesn't see the other side -- that reading books about someone else's problems can often help them vicariously work out their own. Some books might not be a good fit for a particular child or teenager, sure, but realistic books are good for kids, they say. "Problem" novels aren't, well, problems.

"Issues explored in these novels should be explored, and fiction is a safe way for teens to experience them," says Carlie Webber, a Y.A. librarian in Kennelon, N.J. "It's a way for readers to learn about different aspects of life."

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Compared to adult fiction, children's and Y.A. literature has always been relegated to second class: When was the last time you heard about a great Y.A. writer or a great teen novel? (J.K. Rowling and, more recently, Lemony Snicket, are, of course, exceptions.)

Most adults just aren't aware of these books. If you grew up during or after the late 1960s, when contemporary children's and Y.A. lit were born, you might have read a few Y.A. novels now considered classics, like Paul Zindel's "The Pigman," (1968) or S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" (1967) -- but they were most likely forgotten once you entered high school. And if you're the parent of a middle schooler or teenager, you probably don't spend time reading the books your kids bring home, as a recent Harper's article about the history of Y.A. lit (which called the genre a "secret garden") pointed out.

But there's a whole world devoted to books for and about kids and teens, made up of librarians and teachers, writers and academics, and the journals, newsletters and countless Web sites where they discuss it. Pairing the right book with the right child is part of their job; if it works, it can be a powerful match. If a child is having trouble at home or school, a book can be incredibly therapeutic in helping her come to grips with the problem.

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