This post was written by 起点传媒member R. Joseph Rodr铆guez.
Across the country, young adult (YA) literature is a growing field in publica颅tion, research, and teaching, and includes youth and adolescent studies, literary criticism, and literacy education. In the search for a balance between the classics and contemporary classics, educators and scholars seek literary works that speak to the lives of adolescents ages 12鈥�20.
The adolescent protagonists and characters young people meet in these books help them cope with dilemmas and make sense of their relationships and their world, by shedding light both on experiences that resonate with and experiences that differ from their own.
The number of YA books increases each year; recent literary works joining the YA canon include:
- Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
- Us, in Progress: Short Stories about Young Latinos by Lulu Delacre
- All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell
- Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero and Zeke Pe帽a
- Iguana Lady: La Vida de Graciela Iturbide (Spanish-language version)
- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. S谩nchez
- La Hija Que No So帽aste (2018) (Spanish-language version)
- The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire S谩enz
- La L贸gica Inexplicable de Mi Vida (Spanish-language version)
- Dear Martin by Nick Stone
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The search for YA literary works such as those listed above can be revealing when it comes to questions about characters鈥� identity markers and portrayals and the authors who write the books. In fact, character and identity portrayals can support adoles颅cent readers and their abilities when they meet a strong, believable character with whom they can relate.
Moreover, the literary works educators select can sustain the everyday interests of students as they build trust while read颅ing and are transported to other times, similar or new dilemmas, timeless joys, and geographic spaces and back again, as they come of age.
These were guiding signposts for my writing the book .
I began writing the book in 2014 when I interviewed Benjamin Alire S谩enz in El Paso, Texas. Many moments were exhilarating while writing the book, especially meeting YA literature authors whose conversations revealed their own adolescent and adult lives and their decision to write the unspoken stories and truths faced by young people of all backgrounds and colors.
The connections made to authors鈥� lives and purpose for writing opened our dialogue on authorship, represen颅tation, and cultural knowledge.
Outsiders
Literary history and research on literature for young adults often positions the novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton as a seminal text and signpost to situate YA literary works in American letters, and as a literary work that continues to be banned and challenged across the United States. From its debut in 1967 to the present, the novel鈥檚 trajectory includes cinema and stage adaptations that also extend to a recent reissue of the novel.
In the author鈥檚 note found in the 50th聽anniversary edition, Hinton explains, 鈥淎pparently feeling like an 鈥榦utsider鈥� even in your own group is universal. 鈥楿s versus them鈥� and 鈥榣et鈥檚 understand each other, not hate each other鈥� are concepts everyone鈥攏o matter how old鈥攃an grasp鈥� (paragraph 7). Hinton鈥檚 perspective applies to the world of reinterpreting canonical works educators and researchers are rethinking and repositioning in middle school and high school classrooms across the country for adolescent readers.
The drive to challenge social norms and even to dispel myths about adolescence applies to many YA literature novels, which present protagonists searching for meaning about themselves in civic communities, community schools, and desegregation busing schools.
The essential questions young people face in the greater world of the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, can be noted as follows: Who am I? How can I belong or be me? What鈥檚 next? When does change happen? Why did this happen to me or us? Where am I meant to be?
Valuing Stories
聽which was founded as a movement at BookCon in 2014, ushered new voices and representation鈥攁nd even repositioning and reinterpreting鈥攐f works deemed as 鈥渃lassics鈥� and 鈥渃ontemporary classics鈥� for a young adult readership to reflect all Americans in editorial, publishing, and readership spaces.
In his Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech, Matt de la Pe帽a described the outsider roles often faced by both authors and readers alike in the making of stories for US readers: 鈥淎nd sometimes when you grow up outside the reach of the American Dream, you鈥檙e in a better position to record the truth. That we don鈥檛 all operate under the same set of rules. That our stories aren鈥檛 all assigned the same value in the eyes of decision makers鈥� (2).
Reinterpreting also calls for repositioning as one reads to experience points of view that challenge mindsets and values that can either hinder or support learning to create new knowledge. If a literary conversation or our own teaching privileges an exclusive literary canon over another, significant literary works can be overlooked if intentional inclusion and a wider net are not considered.
As readers, teachers, and teacher educators, we set the stage for our colleagues, students, and profession by valuing the inclusive YA literature contributions by US writers of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and identities.
Works Cited
de la Pe帽a, Matt. . Association for Library Service to 聽聽聽 Children, 2016.
Hinton, S. E. . Penguin Books, 2017.
Rodr铆guez, R. Joseph. . Routledge, 2019.
We Need Diverse Books. . WNDB, 2016.
Joseph Rodr铆guez joined 起点传媒in 1996 during his senior year at Kenyon College. Since then, he has taught English and Spanish language arts in public schools and universities. Currently, he teaches in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno. Joseph is the incoming coeditor of English Journal. Catch him via email at rjrodriguez@csufresno.edu or . Photo: California State University, Fresno, Office of University Communications.