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Young Adult Literature

Young Adult literature is a fast-growing genre of literature. This genre of literature is

making more of a splash in the media; kids and adults alike are reading more and more YA

books. Young adult literature is becoming more appealing to kids and adults alike; its dealing

with real issues, while keeping up good stories.

YA Literature is very hard for people to define. John Green says, All of us together are

making up what YA means as we go along. (Green) Robert Carlsen also does a really good job

by describing it this way: "Young adult literature is literature wherein the protagonist is either a

teenager or one who approaches problems from a teenage perspective. Such novels are generally

of moderate length and told from the first person. Typically, they describe a contemporary

problem forced upon the protagonist(s) by the adult world. Though generally written for a

teenage reader, such novels--like all fine literature-- address the entire spectrum of life." (Robert

Carlsen, 1980)

YA literature was not a real genre until about 1942, when the book Seventeenth

Summer came out, written by Maureen Daly. According to the Young Adult Library Services

Association, this is the first book to be written and published explicitly for teenagers. The term

"young adult" was coined by the Young Adult Library Services Association during the 1960s to

represent the 12-18 age range. (Strickland) Young Adult Literature has had two golden ages.

The first golden age is associated with the authors who the parents of today's teens recognize:

Judy Blume, Lois Duncan and Robert Cormier. (Strickland) Judy Blume wrote a number of

books on the good times & the hardships of growing up, Lois Duncan basically started the YA

suspense genre, and Robert Cormier wrote The Chocolate War, which is argued by some to

be the best Young Adult novel ever written. The Chocolate War is a story about saying no to
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peer pressure and the misuse of power. Its a great book that teaches a lesson to the teens reading

it.

After this great age of the 70s, the reading of YA novels died down. The second golden

age began in the 2000s. The book world began marketing directly to teens for the first time at

the turn of the millennium. Expansive young adult sections appeared in bookstores, targeting and

welcoming teens to discover their very own genre. J.K. Rowling's well-timed Harry Potter

series exploded the category and inspired a whole generation of fantasy series novelists, Cart

said. The shift led to success for Stephenie Meyer's Twilight vampire saga and Suzanne Collins'

futuristic The Hunger Games. (Strickland)

The Young Adult genre has changed significantly since it first began. The YA authors are

adapting to the times. They went from writing stories about things prevalent in the 1960s, to the

topics discussed by teens now. YA literature of the 90s and the first decade of the 21st century

has become grittier and edgier in language, topics and genres. (Meads) YA literature is not

just one genre. The dystopian novel has become popular in the YA section. The flood of

dystopia, science fiction and steam punk novels mirror sociological and technological

advancements. (Mead) This is proof that the novels are changing with time. Because of where

the world is technologically, these books have become very popular to teens and adults reading

them. This is not to say that dystopian novels are the only YA. There are fantasy books, like

Harry Potter and Twilight , written by Stephenie Meyer. Young Adult authors write about

everything from Coming of age novels to Sci-Fi. The young adult audience is such a large,

diverse group of people that there is little to no-limit of what genres can be written.

Romance books are also extremely popular in the YA section. Romance in YA is argued

to have better plot content and characterization without worrying about the explicit content that
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is portrayed in some Adult romance books. Authors like Sarah Dessen, John Green, Jenny Han,

and Gayle Forman have mastered the YA romantic story category. There have been quite a few

young adult romance stories that have made it to the big screen in the past few years, which has

led more people to buy and read these books. Popular movies like, If I Stay, The Fault in

Our Stars, The Princess Diaries, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants are

some young adult novel- turned movies. So, why do people love these stories meant for young

adults so much? A spokesman for Waterstones explained: At their heart they are about young

people turning into adults, struggling with their emotions, figuring out who they are, searching

for their own identity, trying to fit in and be noticed, or indeed not noticed, and of course, first

love. (Thomas) The answer is, most people can relate to the everyday struggles that teens in

these books or movies face.

There are Young Adult books with stories so good and purposeful, that they surpass

decades. These are books that hit certain topics hard and are still read well after they were

written. There have been books in every decade to come out with strong topics and lessons that

are still read today. The Outsiders by S.E Hinton was one of the first Young Adult books to

ever be written, being published in 1967. This book is still popular to teens today. It has the

universal idea of the grass is always greener on the other side, but this book proves that its

not true, which is a good lesson to learn, especially for young adults growing up in the world.

My Brother Sam is Dead, is another one of those books that has surpassed its time. It was

written in the 1970s. This book was banned in numerous schools when it was written for being

unpatriotic, yet it still won awards and is still being read today in schools. This is a popular

historical fiction novel about the American Revolutionary War. Jacob Have I loved was

written in 1980. This book is about two sisters; one learning how to overcome from behind her
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sisters shadow. This is a great story of learning to not compare yourself to others. Nothing But

The Truth was written in 1991 by Avi. This book teaches that lies get distorted and out of hand

very quickly. The book of the 2000s is The Fault in Our Stars. This book hit the topic of

cancer. Its written about a girl who has cancer, and how she falls in love with another boy who

also has cancer. The two main characters, Augustus and Hazel, have two completely different

views on life, which is what makes this novel so great. These 5 books have taken topics and

made them lasting stories, that continue to have an impact on readers lives.

Books like the Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, were written in such a way that as

the readers got older, the books did too. Her first book in the series was very short and an easy

read compared to her seventh. These books definitely helped in the boom of YA literature. In six

years alone, young adult literature sales have jumped up 150%. (Thomas) Books like Twilight,

The Hunger Games, and Divergent have hooked readers on the Young Adult genre. Once readers

have read the mainstream books, they start to look for other books of the same idea, and thats

what is making YA so popular right now. "When I was a teen in the '90s, there were probably

three shelves of teen books I wanted to read," said Shannon Peterson, former president of the

Young Adult Library Services Association. "Now, I feel like it's evolved from three shelves to

whole hallways of books." (Strickland)

Some people have said that they prefer young adult novels to regular adult novels. Lois

Duncan, who wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer, helped pioneer a new genre,

young adult suspense, because she didnt want to do stories that were drenched in sex and

violence an almost mandatory component of adult thrillers. (Stelloh) Young Adult Literature

has quality stories, in every genre, without the adult components that would not be fit for

younger readers.
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So, what is the future of young adult literature? Will it continue to adapt and change as

the world does? What will happen when the Dystopian era dies down; will there be a new theme

that takes over bookshelves and media? John Green writes a paper about the future of young

adult literature, and in the paper he explains that he worries about what will become of it. He

ends with this, We need to grow the breadth and diversity of YA literature. We need to get more

books to more kids so that publishing doesnt become a business driven entirely by blockbusters.

And we need to preserve the roles critics, librarians, professors, teachers that contribute so

much to the continual growth and change in our genre. None of this will be easy, of course, and

its all intensely worrying. (Green)

As long as books are read, YA will be a popular genre to teens and adults alike. This

genre will continue to expand and touch on topics that are real and relatable to teenagers of the

time. Young adult literature will live on, it just may be different than it is now.
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Works Cited

Aguilera, Paula. The Art of Words for Young Adults. Prezi. Prezi, 24 Jan. 2015. Web. 28 Oct.
2015. <https://prezi.com/dw9l0_7cmjw1/the-art-of-words-for-young-adults/>.

Green, John. "Does YA Mean Anything Anymore?: Genre in a Digitized World - The Zena
Sutherland Lecture - The Horn Book." The Horn Book. N.p., 27 Oct. 2014. Web.

Haight, Jenn. "What Does the Future Hold for Young Adult Literature?" What Does the Future
Hold for Young Adult Literature? PulsePoint, 10 Nov. 2014. Web.

Meads, Kat. "Young Adult Literature-Not Just Entertainment." Washington Square The Stories of
San Jose State. N.p., n.d. Web.

Stelloh, Tim. "Who Killed Lois Duncan's Daughter?" BuzzFeed. Buzzfeed, 30 May 2014. Web.

Strickland, Ashley. "A Brief History of Young Adult Literature - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News
Network, 15 Apr. 2015. Web.

Thomas, Liz. "Boom in Young Adult Fiction as Sales Jump 150 Percent in Six Years Thanks to
Hits like Twilight and The Hunger Games." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 03 July
2012. Web..

Zickuhr, Kathryn, Lee Rainie, and Kristen Purcell. "Younger Americans' Library Habits and
Expectations." Pew Internet Libraries RSS. PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE
PROJECT, 25 June 2013. Web.