The central characters in Deb Caletti's books are teens. Teen readers devour her books.

Booksellers classify the Seattle writer's award-winning novels as "young adult" for readers roughly 13 to 18 years old.

Yet when Caletti writes, she doesn't target her stories to any particular age of readers. Especially not teens.

"I don't even know that that's the best thing for my teen readers," she said. "I don't want to end up with a caricature.

"I have quite a large adult audience, and a lot of college students. I'm fortunate I have this crossover appeal. My books are a little more layered and sometimes complex, so I think they appeal to a lot of other ages."

The critically-acclaimed author has much to discuss. Since 2002, she's had six books published. She travels the country for speaking engagements. She's received numerous writing honors.

Tacoma Public Library spokesman David Domkoski said teens like her books because she doesn't write down to them.

"Caletti does not shy away from exploring challenging subjects with honesty and compassion. Her books tackle coming of age, first love, heartbreak, trust and betrayal, mental illness, vocational passions, tortured familial relationships, and life's general messiness," he wrote. "She excels at getting to the heart of the issues teens face and the difficulty of making smart decisions and the pain of living with bad ones."