Tonight during 4-year-old F’s bathtime — a typically long, agendaless process that allows lots of time for the parental mind to wander — I noticed that all three of the novels reviewed in the current issue of Texas Monthly have covers that announce, in tiny letters, “a novel.”

My subsequent, in-depth research — meaning I looked at online cover images of current New York Times chapter book bestsellers The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Elijah of Buxton, and The Luxe — suggests that this is not typically the case for children’s and YA novels.

It just seems to be the way it’s often done for novels geared toward adults. Why? Do those readers need a little extra help? Or are they even more averse to nonfiction than teens are supposed to be?