9.3: Young Adult (YA) Literature

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chapter 9.2: young adult (YA) literature

Young Adult Literature is a pretty new genre, and there are many ways to define it. The ALA (American Library Association) says YA Literature includes books written for people 12 to 18-years-old.

start with the setting:\(^{98}\)

YOUR TOWN:

To show the kind of region this your characters are living in, give the town a name that reflects its character. Place names in Massachusetts and Connecticut sound straight out of England; you can use a name like Suffolktown, Studham or Foxboro. A city in the South could have stolen a Native American name like Matchagokie, while your British Columbia town could be named Quappasett or something else that reflects the First Nations history of that province. Something French-sounding like Guyet could set your story in Quebec. Towns in Southern California often have Spanish names like Los Higos; consider using one of these if you are writing a story about your SoCal teens. If you want to give the reader the idea that your town is right in the middle of nowhere in Middle America, try a name like Janesville or Oakville.

YOUR SCHOOL:

You will most likely make some mention of the characters' school in the story, and if you bring the school in the story often enough, you will probably have to come up with a name. Many high schools just take their name from the town they are in: Fairsprings High School, Elmtown High School. In New York city there are schools named simply by P.S. and a number: P.S. 132. Your Southern California high school will often have a Spanish name with a pretty meaning: Robles Lindos. And many high schools named themselves after public figures: Eisenhower High or William Randolph Hearst High School.

The names of schools can carry a symbolic meaning. A high school could be named Sweet Groves while the students there have struggle-filled lives that are anything but sweet. The school in The Escape is named Lincoln High, which reflects the faculty's hypocritical proclamations about freedom.

A school's mascot can give you some idea of what the faculty of the high school aspire to. A mascot like the Trojans would show that they hope to give teens a classical education, and if the mascot is the Spartans it would hint that the school is pretty strict, and the sports teams have a "go merciless" on the enemy ethos. A feline mascot (the lions, the cougars, the jaguars) could be more playful, but would still be a sign that the principal hopes his students will "claw" rival schools. Mascots can be ironic: after all, in real life, the mascot for conformist Columbine High School was the Rebels. Choice of mascot can also set the tone for your story: if your students are known as the Turkeys, your story becomes light-hearted and even silly.

creating your characters:\(^{99}\)

The character’s external aspects include factors such as age, race, gender, physical strength, health, disability, clothing, and jewelry.

A character's appearance is probably the most basic technique of characterization and individualization: what a person looks like reveals a great deal about who that person is, their attitude, perhaps even their mental state, their economic and social status, and so on. We sometimes form our initial attitude about a person based on their appearance, and we either like or dislike them; we either take them seriously or we dismiss them.

Although some stories rely on external character aspects in their plot—for instance in the film Speed, the antagonist is caught because one of their fingers is missing—not all stories do so. This does not mean, however, that the author does not need to know what the character looks like. The author should know his character's external aspects even if none of these will make it into the story, even if the plot will not rely on them. When the author does include external aspects of character in the story, he must make sure that every aspect mentioned serves a purpose. No aspect should be brought up unless it will be paid off; the external aspects must have story consequences. External aspects of character matter: they are the significant details that reveal character nature and past, they affect the formation of character, they can create a need, have thematic significance, serve as motifs, limit and create opportunities for action, and be consistent or contrast with the character's story function.

EXTERNAL ASPECTS:

The most obvious external factors of a character that influence their formation as a person are gender, race, and physical appearance. This is because gender, race, and physical appearance influence the formative experiences a person will go through, experiences that determine who they become and affects their way of seeing the world as well as themselves.

Race is another external factor that affects the development of a person's nature because race determines what kind of experiences a person will have, how they will be treated, and it comes with expectations, like gender, of what is acceptable and what is not. An African-American or Asian or Arab child experiences different things than does a white child, even if they live in the same neighborhood. Of course, a Hispanic teen attending a predominantly Hispanic high school in Southern California has different experiences than a Hispanic teen who attends Beverly Hills High School.

Besides race and gender, physical factors have a great deal of influence on the formation of a character. A fat kid lives in a different world than a slim kid, even if they live in the same neighborhood and are the same gender and race. An attractive person lives a different kind of existence than an unattractive one.

Of course, gender, race, and physical appearance are not the only external factors that can affect a character's formation. Take for instance a teenager who can’t afford the right clothes and has to wear clothing from a thrift store instead.\(^{100}\) This will have an impact on them, one way or the other. It will affect how they feel about themselves, and it will motivate them to do something to fit it; perhaps they will take a job at the expense of academics. It may force them to compensate by focusing on being a perfect student. Whatever happens as a result, their clothing will affect them in a way that will have consequences.

themes to consider for YA literature:

Teen Pregnancy
Body Image
Suicide and Depression
Academic Pressure
Drugs
Dealing with Loss
Bullying
Sexual Orientation
Teen Angst
Poverty and Socioeconomic Status
Eating Disorders
Growing Up Different

items to note about YA:

Since YA is the newest genre, there’s much more buzz about it, and here’s what people are saying…

Students who read YA\(^{101}\) are more likely to appreciate literature and have stronger reading skills than others. YA also allows teachers to talk about "taboo" or difficult topics with their students. For example, a 2014 study shows that using Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak aided in discussions on consent and complicity. Those who read about tough situations like date rape are more emotionally prepared to handle the situation if it arises. It is important to use diverse literature in the classroom, especially in discussing taboo topics, to avoid excluding minority students.

Literature written for young adults can also be used as a stepping stone to canonical works that are traditionally read in classrooms, and required by many school curriculums. In Building a Culture of Readers: YA Literature and the Canon by Kara Lycke, Lycke suggests pairing young adult literature and canon works to prepare young adults to understand the “classic literature” they will encounter. YA can provide familiar and less alienating examples of similar concepts than those in “classic literature.”

Diversity

English language young adult fiction and children's literature in general have historically shown a lack of books with a main character who is a person of color, LGBT, or disabled. In the UK 90% of the best-selling YA titles from 2006 to 2016 featured white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, and heterosexual main characters. Between 2006–2016, eight percent of all young adult authors published in the UK were people of color.

Criticism

Criticism has been put forth against YA fiction for being heavily commercialized and marketed and reinforced by capitalist institutions such as Hollywood, the media and a publishing industry lacking diversity. Others have critiqued commercial YA novels and franchises for implicitly promoting capitalism and reactionary ideologies even when the books may seem progressive. Author Ewan Morrison says: "The dystopian narratives which are currently consuming the minds of millions of teens worldwide are now communicating right-wing ideas." Andrew O'Hehir, describing commercial YA novels, wrote: "They are propaganda for the ethos of individualism, the central ideology of consumer capitalism, which also undergirds both major political parties and almost all-American public discourse."

student example(s):

questions / activities / exercises.

\(^{98}\)"Writing Adolescent Fiction/Setting." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 9 Jun 2019, 20:58 UTC. 22 Jun 2019, 14:49 <https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Writing_Adolescent_Fiction/Setting&oldid=3551328>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{99}\)"Writing Adolescent Fiction/Creating your characters." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 31 Dec 2014, 04:28 UTC. 5 Dec 2016, 18:24 <https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php? title=Writing_Adolescent_Fiction/Creating_your_characters&oldid=2750830>. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{100}\)Unless they grew up in the 1990s when wearing secondhand stuff was super cool. Just saying.

\(^{101}\)Wikipedia contributors. "Young adult fiction." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Dec. 2021. Web. 9 Dec. 2021.