American youth literature
The American youth literature ( English young-adult fiction, young adult literature, teen fiction ) covers all literary works that for the book market of the United States were written and especially youth to appeal to readers to distinguish between 12 and 18 years.
Although literary forms that were specifically addressed to young people already existed before, American youth literature emerged in the characteristic shape that it still has today, in the context of the socio-cultural upheavals of the 1960s with three developmental novels that, in their realism, depict the world of experience contemporary youth radically broke with what young people had usually read up to then: The Outsiders by Susan E. Hinton , The Contender by Robert Lipsyte and The Pigman by Paul Zindel . The literature written for adolescent readers shows young people from then on again and again unadorned in all the conflictuality and internal contradictions that are typical for old age. The protagonists are often faced with very special challenges, having to go through illnesses, psychosocial problems, difficult family relationships, social exclusion, experiences of violence or other extreme situations, and at the same time show that you do not break down in every case, but can also become resilient and mature .
The term "youth literature", delimitation
In 1980, the American literary scholar and temporary president of the National Council of Teachers of English G. Robert Carlsen gave an authoritative definition of the term young-adult literature :
“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 initiation into the adult world, or the surmounting of 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. "
“Youth literature is literature in which the protagonist is either a teenager or someone who approaches problems from the perspective of a teenager. Such novels are usually of medium length and are told by a first-person narrator. They typically describe the introduction to the world of adults, or the overcoming of a time-typical problem that is forced upon the protagonist by the adult world. Although they are usually written for teenagers, such novels - like any high literature - deal with the full spectrum of life. "
Youth literature also differs from adult literature in its use of narrative media . While the narrators in the latter often report from a distant or even omniscient perspective , in today's youth literature a very direct narration of what is happening at this moment predominates; Often, however, this narration is of a lyrical nature, namely less on the external event itself, but rather on what the narrator feels and thinks in the face of the event.
As a young adult fiction or teen fiction is known in English literature that intended for young readers from 12 to 18 years. In the English-speaking world, it is differentiated from middle-grade fiction , whose target group is between 9 and 14 years old. The background to this distinction is the horizontal division of the American school system into middle school (“middle grades”, for 11 to 13 year olds) and high school (for 14 to 18 year olds). The rule of thumb among authors today is that the protagonists of young adult fiction should be between 15 and 19 years old, while literature whose main characters are younger tends to be classified as middle grade fiction .
A very young segment on the American book market, which was first described in 2009, is New Adult Fiction : literature for 18 to 30 year olds. In contrast to young adult fiction , new adult fiction is mostly serial literature written mainly by women for women. Relevant authors include a. Jennifer L. Armentrout, Gemma Burgess, Cora Carmack, Katy Evans, Colleen Hoover, Elle Kennedy, Sarah J. Maas, Jamie McGuire, Jessica Sorensen, and Tammara Webber.
History of American Youth Literature
Traditional genres
Modern American youth literature (“Young-Adult Fiction”) took on its current form in the late 1960s, characterized by its realism and “explosive” topics. However, literature that was particularly appealing to, or even specifically aimed at, adolescent readers existed long before that. The most important genres included development novels , history novels , action- oriented novels, and horse novels.
- Development novels
Literary works that meet the criteria for defining youth literature listed here emerged as developing novels in the United States as early as the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Some of the most famous examples include Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868/1869), Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884/1885), Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925), Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) and JD Salingers First novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951). From the 1970s onwards, this genre, with its pronounced realism and frequent abandonment of conventional elements such as For example, a predictable happy ending forms the basis of evolutionary novels that are specifically written for adolescent readers.
- History novels
A second traditional literary genre that was used early on to target young readers was the historical novel . From 1922 onwards, a large number of examples can be found in the best lists of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), which in the first decades of its existence particularly encouraged efforts to impart historical knowledge in a lively and entertaining way. History novels have always easily asserted themselves in American youth literature, and to this day top authors such as Karen Cushman , Karen Hesse , Laurie Halse Anderson , Ruta Sepetys and Gene Luen Yang reach a wide audience.
- Adventure, western, science fiction and crime novels
Just as teenage boys in German-speaking countries devoured novels by Karl May for a long time, novels containing strong action elements, such as the Tarzan and Barsoom series (both of them), were popular with young Americans until the emergence of young adult fiction from 1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs , Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) by Zane Gray , The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and Shane (1949) by Jack Schaefer . Popular crime heroes were Nick Carter, Diamond Dick, Frank Merriwell and Old King Brady. Much of this literature was of a serial nature and appeared in the form of pulp magazines or dimnovels .
- Horse stories
Based on British models such as Black Beauty (1877) by Anna Sewell and National Velvet (1935) by Enid Bagnold , which appeared as a film adaptation in the USA in 1944 under the same title with 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor in the lead role, were written for young readers Horse novels also popular in the US. In the beginning, horses were mostly the focus of Wild West novels (Will James: Smoky the Cow Horse , 1926; Thomas C. Hinkle: Black Storm , 1929; John Steinbeck : The Red Pony , 1937; Mary O'Hara : My Friend Flicka , 1941; Walter Farley : The Black Stallion , 1941; Marguerite Henry : Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945) and Misty series (from 1947); Stephen Holt: Wild Palomino , 1946; Dorothy Potter Benedict: Pagan the Black , 1960; Joseph E. Chipperfield: Checoba , 1964; Albert G. Miller: Fury , 1959; Meindest DeJong : A Horse Came Running , 1970).
One of the first horse books specifically aimed at girls was The Gypsy Bridle (1930) by Lenora Mattingly Weber ; the success was so great that Weber had other, similar books follow. The same recipe was later followed by Dorothy Lyons ( Silver Birch , 1939), Betty Cavanna ( Spurs for Suzanna , 1947), Patsey Gray ( Heads Up ! , 1956) and Janet Randall ( Saddles for Breakfast , 1961). William Corbin ( Horse in the House , 1964), Sam Savitt ( True Horse Stories , 1970), and Patricia Leitch ( For Love of a Horse , 1976) published entire horse book series. As the examples of the Phantom Stallion series (2002) by Terri Farley and Linda Benson's novel The Girl Who Remembered Horses (2011) show, the genre of horse stories for young girls has survived to this day.
Change in the school system and emergence of teenage culture
Although the term teenager (for young people between 13 and 19 years of age) can be found in English as early as the 1910s, it did not become part of the general vocabulary until 1940. One of the reasons for the emergence of an independent American youth culture is the mass unemployment caused by the global economic crisis , as a result of which more young people than ever attended high school . Since this generation had pocket money or income from odd jobs, they were identified early on by business as a target group that began to produce radio programs and films for the young target group. In 1941 the first teenage magazine - Calling All Girls - came out; the product, which mainly contained comics, was discontinued in 1949. The girls' magazine Seventeen , which debuted in 1944 and covered a wide range of topics of interest to young women, was far more successful . Because the editorial team always picked up on current trends, Seventeen has remained the market leader to the present day.
In addition to magazines, the young women of this generation also read Junior Novels , a newly created genre of light romance novels (see below ) that reflected the lifestyle of teenagers in the Malt Shop Era . As the example of Amelia Elizabeth Walden shows, high-quality youth literature was also created during this time. Starting with Gateway (1946), Walden published a good 40 teenage novels until the 1970s, which offered more than just superficial entertainment to their predominantly female readership.
High schools reading needs
However, the development of a special youth literature did not just follow the laws of the book market. After the school system was rebuilt, high schools also had an increasing need for reading materials suitable for 14 to 18 year olds. Never before in the history of the country had so many young people received qualified literary lessons. However, high literature often seemed unsuitable for use in English lessons. For example, the literary scholar Reed Smith wrote in 1935: “High school students are mentally and emotionally not yet ready for high school literature. […] Better for a boy to read Nick Carter or Frank Merriwell than not to read at all, and much better for him to read and like Tarzan of the Apes and The Shepherd of the Hills than to read them Reading Vanity Fair and Moby Dick and hating them. ” His colleague Lou L. LaBrant had already described the new challenge that arose in English class as follows: “ Sometimes it is necessary to switch between children's books or short stories and an adult novel like Silas Marner to insert an intermediate step. "
American Library Association (ALA) influence
One institution that has been at least as important to the development of American youth literature as the school is the American Library Association . Pioneers such as Mabel Williams, Margaret Scoggin, and Jean Roos had worked in public libraries since the 1910s, working with local schools to identify literature that was particularly appealing and suitable for adolescent readers. Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), longtime director of the youth book program at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, spent her entire professional life bringing teenagers together through novel programs and training librarians to work with adolescent readers.
As early as 1944, teenagers were referred to as young adults in librarianship. The use of the language was formalized in 1957 when the ALA set up its new Young Adult Services Division (YALSA). However, this institution initially found hardly any high-quality literature that seemed sufficiently suitable for young readers. It is true that the ALA had drawn up lists of book recommendations under the title “Best Books for Young People” since 1930; however, in the absence of good books for young people, titles written for a general audience were also included here, such as Isaac Asimov's Fantastic Voyage (1966), Charles Portis ' True Grid (1968) and Ray Bradbury's I Sing the Body Electric! (1969).
Youth culture of the 1950s and 1960s
The 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye , which its 32-year-old author JD Salinger had actually written for an adult reading public, attracted a great deal of attention from younger readers. Its protagonist was a teenager who spoke like a teenager and told of crises that only a teenager can go through.
Since the end of World War II, many young Americans had formed a generation of rebellion that spawned subcultures such as the beatniks . The beatniks found their identity through beat literature and, since the mid-1950s, have also expressed their attitude towards life through rock 'n' roll . They rejected, as historian Stephen Petrus wrote, “virtually every aspect of contemporary American society, such as the traditional nuclear family, politics, organized religion, law, the casual men's suits of Ivy League students, higher education, and so on the hydrogen bomb . "
In the social mainstream, on the other hand, a discourse about juvenile delinquency flared up around the rebellious youth , which, as modern commentators have shown, was an artifact of the media and de facto did not even exist to the extent claimed. This discourse found its cultural expression in novels such as The Amboy Dukes (1947) by Irving Shulman, Knock on Any Door (1947) by Willard Motley , Duke (1949) by Hal Ellson, A Stone for Danny Fisher (1952) by Harold Robbins and The Hoods (1952) by Harry Gray aka Herschel Goldberg and in Hollywood films such as The Wild One (1953), The Blackboard Jungle (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Up the Down Staircase (1967), but also in Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story (1957).
American youth culture experienced another major development spurt in the 1960s. The most important driving force was now the civil rights movement , which had heightened public awareness not only of the societal disadvantage of African-Americans, but also, for example, of women's rights . The civil rights movement had also given new interpretations and promoted the American Dream and the idea of freedom enshrined in the constitution . The Vietnam War polarized the American population and, from 1964 onwards, united the young under a common political goal. Anti-establishment , anti-authoritarian and pacifist ideas flourished. New countercultural movements such as the hippie culture emerged, and their young members experimented with drugs and alternative forms of living together, such as communes , collectives and unmarried communities . The birth control pill, which has been available to all American women since 1972, enabled a liberalization of sexual morality (" sexual revolution "). Other factors that helped shape a group identity among the younger generation were the Free Speech Movement , the emergence of the New Left and the American anti-nuclear movement .
The upheavals did not affect youth culture alone, but extended to American culture as a whole. In the film sector, for example, the elimination of the Hays Code (1968) made the emergence of New Hollywood possible, its first productions ( Bonnie and Clyde , 1967; The Graduate , 1967; Easy Rider , 1969, MASH , 1970; Harold and Maude , 1971) particularly appealed to boys who were critical of the establishment. In the most widespread mass medium of the time, radio , VHF radio gained in importance and gave birth to the progressive rock format, which was replaced by the AOR format in the mid-1970s ; both aimed primarily at young listeners. In adult literature , countercultural works such as Joseph Heller : Catch-22 (1961), Ken Kesey : One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Anthony Burgess : A Clockwork Orange (1962), Truman Capote : In Cold Blood ( 1965), Kurt Vonnegut : Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Philip Roth : Portnoy's Complaint (1969), Charles Bukowski : Post Office (1971), Hunter S. Thompson : Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), Erica Jong : Fear of Flying (1973) and Robert M. Pirsig : Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974).
Creation of young adult fiction: The Outsiders , The Contender and The Pigman
| The Outsiders by Susan E. Hinton (1967) |
| 14-year-old pony boy Curtis and his friend Johnny are members of a gang that has had a bloody argument with a rival gang. Gang members are killed on both sides. Ponyboy and Johnny are actively involved in these confrontations, but on the other hand they also save a group of children from a burning church. Johnny sustains injuries during the rescue operation from which he later dies. Ponyboy is charged with the violent death of a member of the opposing gang, but is acquitted as the child's savior. |
| The Contender by Robert Lipsyte (1967) |
| Alfred Brooks, a 17-year-old African American high school dropout in Harlem , turns to boxing and learns that it is not about winning that matters, but about working systematically and hard to get ahead. With many setbacks, he gradually escapes the life that was previously mapped out for him: a life in the street gang, which is characterized by drugs and drug-related crime. Alfred makes his way, but his best friend James becomes addicted to heroin and ends up in prison after a burglary. |
| The Pigman by Paul Zindel (1968) |
| Lorraine and John, two teenage misfits, become friends with Mr. Pignati, an aging eccentric. A frequent meeting point is the cage of the monkey Bobo in the local zoo. The trust that both sides have built in one another is put to the test when the teenagers celebrate a wild party at Mr. Pignati's house during a hospital stay that they were not entirely innocent of, at which Mr. Pignatis loved one Collection of porcelain pigs is destroyed. Mr. Pignati is deeply disappointed but ready to meet Lorraine and John at Bobo's cage one more time. When the three find the cage empty and learn of Bobo's death, Mr. Pignati suffers a fatal heart attack. |
The two years 1967 and 1968 are considered to be the date of origin of today's young adult fiction , in which three works were published which differed drastically from traditional literature written for young people in that they adopted themes and forms from high literature and also the darker sides of the To be young.
Up until then, adolescence had almost always been portrayed as a carefree, happy phase of life in youth literature . The new authors broke this stereotype and shared the perspective of writer Robert Cormier , who said in an interview: "Adolescence is such a hurtful time that most of us carry this package with us all our lives." April 24th was published by Viking , the novel the Outsiders by SE Hinton , who was at that time not yet 17 years of age and as an author of a youth novel appeared more credible than most other writers of the time. The book was about tensions between two rival youth gangs. Half a year later, in the fall of 1967, HarperCollins published the novel The Contender by Robert Lipsyte about a young school dropout who turned his hopeless fate for the better by deciding against drugs and gang membership and turning to boxing. Lipsyte was a sports journalist and, like Hinton, was extremely credible on the subject. Lipsyte's hero Alfred Brooks was also one of the first Afro-American youths to be the focus of an American novel. A third book, which, like the two aforementioned titles, is part of the starting stock of the new young adult fiction, is The Pigman (October 1968, also with HarperCollins) by Paul Zindel . Again, the focus is on teenagers who have been abandoned by their social environment, which was supposed to support them.
Hinton succinctly summarized the unwritten program of young adult fiction:
“Teenagers today want to read about teenagers today. The world is changing, yet the authors of books for teenagers are still 15 years behind the times. In the fiction they write, romance is still the most popular theme with a horse and the girl who loved it coming in a close second. Nowhere is the drive-in social jungle mentioned. In short, where is the reality? "
“Today's teenagers want to read about today's teenagers. The world is changing, but teenage book authors are 15 years behind the times. In the literature they write, love is still the most popular topic, followed by you, followed by a horse and the girl who loves that horse. Nowhere is the social jungle mentioned [which is accessible by car for today's youth]. In short: where is the reality? "
The literary historian Michael Cart characterized the young adult fiction as “a series of inspired exercises in iconoclasm, of taboo busting, of shibboleth shattering” (German: “a series of inspired exercises in iconoclasm and breaking taboos and conventions”).
The storyline was also new. The Pigman ends tragically, and even in The Contender or The Outsiders , the happy ending is only half a half . The Contender suggests that the protagonist Alfred will master his life, but the novel closes with a preview not of him, but of his far less fortunate friend James. In The Outsiders , the first-person narrator Ponyboy gets off lightly, but his friends Johnny and Dally end up in prison or are shot. Such complex, problematic plot outcomes had rarely occurred in the older youth literature, where the plot had almost always led to a flawless happy ending, as in Fifteen (1956) by Beverly Cleary, where all the misunderstandings and conflicts that had existed between the characters up to then pass because the protagonist realizes that the boy she is in love with really likes her for who she is.
In high literature, as early as the 1920s, authors had refrained from sealing development novels with pleasing happy endings (Look Homeward, Angel) ; the youth literature often followed, z. B. also The Chocolate War (1974) by Robert Cormier , The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini , the series The Hunger Games (2008-2010) by Suzanne Collins and The Fault in Our Stars (2012) by John Green .
The "golden age" of young adult fiction
Within a short time, many other works followed that were not behind The Outsiders , The Contender and The Pigman in terms of realism and explosiveness , including My Darling, My Hamburger (1969) by Paul Zindel, I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip (1969) by John Donovan, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (1970) by Judy Blume and That Was Then. This Is Now (1971) by Susan E. Hinton. In the development novel, contemporary topics such as the social disadvantage of African Americans ( Virginia Hamilton : MC Higgins, the Great , 1974), alcohol and other drugs ( Go Ask Alice , 1971) or violent youth gangs (Susan E. Hinton: Rumble Fish , 1975 ) treated. In romance fiction, which in the 1950s was still an idealized portrait of the strictly regulated heterosexual dating culture , the admission that teenagers have a sex life can accidentally become pregnant (both in: Forever by Judy Blume, 1975; Teenagersex in Breaking Up by Norma Klein , 1980) and occasionally turning to members of the same sex ( Isabelle Holland : The Man without a Face , 1972). Family novels no longer only showed an ideal world, but also dysfunctional and broken families afflicted with everyday defects (Marijane Meaker: Dinky stool Shoots Smack!, 1972).
The genres that were rediscovered for young people in the 1970s include the fantastic, and within this in particular the high fantasy inspired by British literature . The first American authors to write such literature specifically for older teenagers were Ursula K. Le Guin and Lloyd Alexander . Since then, the subgenre has been one of the best-selling in youth literature, and to this day serial fantasy novels stimulated by JRR Tolkien are consistently at the top of the bestseller lists. Authors such as Megan Whalen Turner , Christopher Paolini and Laini Taylor , however, have also produced high quality literature.
In addition to the ALA, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), which was founded in 1911 and works closely with the libraries, had a major influence on the development of American youth literature . Its offshoot was the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), which, alongside the ALA, is now the only major organization that awards literary prizes specifically for young people's literature.
While all of the institutions mentioned here have always encouraged the use of the new young adult fiction in teaching, there are also many cases in which individual books have been controversially discussed and banned from school libraries and lessons by individual schools and school districts. The Catcher in the Rye is considered the most excluded book of the 1960s and 1970s . There is no state book censorship in the United States; the last book to see a federal ban was Fanny Hill (1748) by John Cleland .
1981 until today
Following the “golden age” of young adult fiction, various new forms of youth literature emerged, such as vampire romance , the earliest examples of which came onto the market around 1990; the new subgenre culminated in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer in 2005–2008 .
In the early 21st century, dystopian youth novels became popular. Often these were close to cyberpunk , a direction within science fiction literature that had been shaped by authors such as Philip K. Dick and William Gibson . The high point of the dystopian youth literature was in the years 2008-2010 Suzanne Collins ' Hunger Games trilogy, which became known in German-speaking countries under the title The Hunger Games . This was followed by many more dystopia series by other authors, the quality of which mostly did not come close to Collins' role model.
Controversies about individual book titles continue to the present day. To counter this, the ALA has been running an Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) since 1967 , in which objections to certain publications are collected. The most frequently challenged elements include the undisguised representation of sexuality, indecent language, unsuitability for the age group and depictions of violence. More recent youth book titles whose suitability for young readers has been questioned include The Kite Runner (2004) by Khaled Hosseini, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (2007) by Sherman Alexie, Thirteen Reasons Why (2007 ) by Jay Asher, Two Boys Kissing (2013) by David Levithan and The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas .
Genres and topics of the American youth novel
The genres and topics of the new young adult fiction are just as broad as American literature as a whole; However, some topics - such as identity , self-discovery , family , friendship , first love - are particularly explosive for adolescent readers due to their development and are therefore represented more prominently than others. American youth literature has seen several great waves of fantasy and science fiction, notably high fantasy (since 1968), vampire romance (since 1990) and dystopian novels (since 1993). However, it was based on realistic contemporary novels, and even today the great majority of books can be assigned to this category.
Realistic contemporary novels
The core of the realistic contemporary novels within young adult fiction are the development novels. Other major genres of sports novel , the family novel, school novel , the girl or woman Roman and those novels that ethnic diversity have on, or about the perspective of ethnic minorities and immigrants.
Developmental novels and their themes
The evolutionary novel is one of the oldest genres in American youth literature. In her girls' novel Little Women (1868/1869), which is still popular today , Louisa May Alcott tells the story of Josephine (Jo), a literarily ambitious tomboy who strives for personal independence and who gradually finds himself in his female role. With her pronounced stubbornness, her quick temper and her bluntness, Jo was, although she finally gave up her writing, a very unusual girl figure in the literature of the 19th century, who still provides her readers with suggestions for self-confident femininity.
Other examples of early American developmental novels are Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884/1885), Thomas Wolfes Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (1936), Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) , Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), Carson McCullers ' The Member of the Wedding (1946), JD Salinger's previously mentioned work The Catcher in the Rye (1951), James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), Saul Bellows The Adventures of Augie March (1954), John Knowles ' A Separate Peace (1959) and Irene Hunts Up a Road Slowly (1966). What all these works have in common is a highly developed realism , starting with Huckleberry Finn , who, in what he says or does, corresponds to the last detail of the person who would have produced the region and the social class in which his author anchors him.
A strong contrast to the aforementioned works are the serial novels that were written at the same time especially for young readers, such as the popular girls' book series that Janet Lambert published in the 1940s and 1950s, including the Penny Parrish Stories (1941– 1950) and the Tippy Parrish Stories (1948–1969).
With the first three works of the new young adult fiction - The Outsiders , The Contender and The Pigman - American youth literature was rebuilt in such a way that the strict realism that was previously reserved for high literature was now also found in such works, written for young readers. In all three cases it was a question of development novels. The term “development novel” can be applied to Hinton's novel simply because its protagonists are highly emotional and vulnerable, just like “classic” development novel heroes ( Tonio Kröger , Stephen Dedalus ), despite their external callousness and roughness . Lipsyte's hero, the young boxer Alfred, is prone to temptation and stupidity through and through, and yet in the course of the novel he develops into someone who knows how to achieve success. The protagonists in The Pigman learn the hard way how important trust and responsibility are in life.
Psychosocial Problems
Many of the new youth novels tell the stories of young people facing special challenges, such as psychosocial problems such as dependence on psychoactive substances , which have become increasingly common among American youth since the late 1960s. Lipsyte's protagonist Alfred smokes marijuana and witnesses his best friend James becoming addicted to heroin . Drugs also play a role in The Pigman (1968), in the anonymously published drug diary Go Ask Alice (1971) , which is now attributed to Beatrice Sparks, and in A Hero Ain't Nothin 'But a Sandwich by Alice Childress (1973). More recent examples are the Kerouac- influenced developmental novel Punkzilla (2009) by Adam Rapp about a teenage runaway and Out of Reach (2012) by Carrie Arcos about a young woman who has to watch her brother die of methamphetamine addiction. Still other youth novels are about alcohol (Linnea A. Due: High and Outside 1980; Tim Tharp: The Spectacular Now , 2008) and drug addiction (Isabelle Holland: Heads You Win, Tails I Lose 1973). Introversion is the central theme in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) by Stephen Chbosky . Another area often dealt with in American youth novels are emotional and mental disorders such as anorexia nervosa (Deborah Hautzig: Second Star to the Right , 1981; Sam J. Miller : The Art of Starving , 2017), self-harm ( Alice Hoffman : Green Angel , 2003), schizophrenia (Adele Griffin: Where I Want to Be , 2005, Neal Shusterman : Challenger Deep , 2015), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (John Green: Turtles All the Way Down , 2017).
Diseases and disabilities
In many youth novels, the young main characters have to face organic diseases or physical limitations, such as scoliosis (Judy Blume: Deenie , 1973), ICP (Jan Slepian: The Alfred Summer , 1980; Terry Trueman: Stuck in Neutral 2001), leukemia (Lurlene McDaniel: A Rose for Melinda , 2002), the loss of a body part (Kelly Bingham: Shark Girl , 2007), deafness (Teri Brown: Read My Lips , 2008), cancer (David Small: Stitches , 2009; John Green : The Fault in Our Stars , 2012), blindness (Priscilla Cummings: Blindsided , 2010), paraplegia (Chelsie Hill: Push Girl , 2014), Crohn's disease (Lucy Frank: Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling , 2014) or extreme allergies (Nicola Yoon: Everything, Everything , 2015).
Be different
In some works the protagonists are simply different from most of the others, for example as overweight people (Isabelle Holland: Heads You Win, Tails I Lose 1973; K. L. Going: Fat Kid Rules the World , 2004; Caroly Mackler: The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things , 2005), due to a disfigured face (Theodore Taylor: The Weirdo , 1991), as a synesthete (Wendy Mass: A Mango-Shaped Space , 2003), or due to an intellectual disability ( Marie-Aude Murail : Simple , 2007 ). Occasionally the more recent development novels deal with the search for sexual identity, for example in Middlesex (2002) by Jeffrey Eugenides , who was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for this book in 2003 . Middlesex is actually designed for an adult reading audience, but the first-person narrator - the hermaphrodite Calliope / Cal Stephanides - is a youngster for long stretches of the plot. In Luna (2004) by Julie Anne Peters and in If I Was Your Girl (2016) by Meredith Russo the stories of transsexual teenagers are told. In The Serpent King (2016) by Jeff Zentner, the protagonist who struggles to be treated just like any other teenager is the son of a radical preacher who is imprisoned for child pornography.
Extreme situations
Still other novels show teenagers in extreme situations in which they got themselves through external circumstances, but also occasionally through their own fault. For example, some young protagonists have to cope with the imminent or already completed death of a parent (Judy Blume: Tiger Eyes 1981; Isabelle Holland: Of Love and Death and Other Journeys , 1975; Paula Fox : A Place Apart , 1981; Chris Lynch: Freewill , 2004; Patrick Ness : A Monster Calls , 2011). In the Printz Award book Where Things Come Back (2011) by John Corey Whaley , a teenager loses his brother. Belzhar (2014) by Meg Wolitzer and And We Stay (2014) by Jenny Hubbard are about young women who have to deal with the death of their loved one.
The protagonist of Jean Craighead George's novel My Side of the Mountain (1959) finds himself in a completely different kind of extreme situation, who runs away from home and tries to survive in a forest in upstate New York without help. The orphan boy told by Ester Wier in The Loner (1963) is in a similar situation . In 1987 the highly acclaimed novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was published about a 13-year-old who had to survive in the Canadian wilderness all by himself after a plane crash. In other works, adolescents “only” have to deal with the fact that they are transplanted to a foreign country as migrant children (Jessie Ann Foley: The Carnival at Bray , 2014).
Experiences of violence
One extreme situation that is particularly common in American youth literature is experiences of coercion and violence. Already in the first two works of the new young adult fiction - The Outsiders and The Contender - rivalries between opposing gangs play a central role. The Outsiders author , Susan E. Hinton, took up the subject again in Rumble Fish (1975). Walter Dean Myers has written several novels about gang violence among African American youth, including Scorpions (1988) and Autobiography of My Dead Brother (2005). Long Way Down (2017) by Jason Reynolds has the same theme. A recurring theme is the racial hatred directed against Afro-Americans, as it was developed early on. B. in Words By Heart (1979) by Ouida Sebestyen. A very successful recent example is The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas; From the perspective of the childhood friend, the story of the young African American Khalil is told, who is shot by a white police officer. The background to this novel are cases of police violence against African-American youth, such as the death of Michael Brown (2014), which led to the founding of the Black Lives Matter initiative in the USA .
(Around 1990 in the US consciousness took for the everyday violence against individual people in school and work bullying ; Engl. Bullying ) to; many schools have since implemented extensive anti-bullying programs. The topic was also taken up in some youth novels, for example in Crazy Lady! (1993) by Jane Leslie Conly, Fade to Black (2005) by Alex Flinn , Thirteen Reasons Why (2007) by Jay Asher and Jumped (2009) by Rita Williams-Garcia. As early as 1974 Robert Cormier contributed a modern classic with The Chocolate War on the subject of school bullying.
Of sexual abuse , rape and date rape act Speak (1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson , Learning to Swim (2000) by Ann Turner, You Do not Know Me (2001) by David Klass , inexcusable (2007) by Chris Lynch, All the Rage (2014) by Courtney Summers and A Heart in a Body in the World (2018) by Deb Caletti.
Social disadvantage
Tales of young people who grow up under difficult economic conditions from which they seek to escape also have a tradition in American youth novels. As early as 1868 Horatio Alger had published his novel Ragged Dick about a New York street boy who made it to the middle class through hard work, honesty and willingness to help. An example from the “golden age” of young adult fiction is The Whys and Wherefores of Littabelle Lee (1973) by Vera and Bill Cleaver, whose title character, a 16-year-old orphan, is given the task of her grandparents in desperate times having to take care of. Young-adult fiction today includes a number of works on topics such as poverty (Daniel Kraus: Rotters , 2011; Rainbow Rowell : Eleanor & Park , 2012), homelessness (Coe Booth: Tyrell , 2006; Joan Bauer: Almost Home , 2012), juvenile detention (Walter Dean Myers: Monster , 1999; Stephanie S. Tolan: Surviving the Applewhites , 2002; Walter Dean Myers: Lockdown , 2010), and unequal educational opportunities ( Virginia Euwer Wolff : Make Lemonade , 1993).
Religious assessment
Many works of young adult fiction reflect the great importance that the topics of faith and religion have for the self-discovery of young Americans. This is true, for example, of A Fine White Dust (1986) by Cynthia Rylant . The focus of this novel is the 13-year-old Pete, who learns in the encounter with a charismatic but insincere evangelical preacher that true faith is not in formalisms, but much deeper. In Godless (2004) by Pete Hautman is about a teenager who struggles with his faith.
Certain other authors have a very different kind of answer to the need of their young readers for religious assessment. Here are especially Tim LaHaye - an evangelical Christian and former Baptist called and the writer Jerry B. Jenkins - -Prediger. Their joint Left Behind series (1995ff) tells of the end of the world as it corresponds to the dispensationalist interpretation of Christian eschatology . The book series was controversial in the USA, even among the Christian public, but some volumes reached millions of copies.
Sports novels
In keeping with the immense importance that sport has for many young Americans, this topic also often plays a major role in literature written for young people, beginning with works such as Iron Duke (1938) by John R. Tunis about a young athlete who a Study at Harvard begins. Lipsyte's literary historical important book The Contender (1967) broke with the conventions of the genre insofar as its protagonist was not a brilliant winner, but rather weak and imperfect and his boxing career had to work hard. In Center Field (2010) Lipsyte went even further and also showed the dark side of sport: the “ jock culture” with its racism, homophobia , sexism , doping , as well as overzealous coaches, business people and parents.
Further examples of literarily demanding or commercially successful sports novels for young people are Hoops (1981) by Walter Dean Myers, Second Stringer (1998) by Thomas J. Dygard, Dairy Queen (2006) by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Crackback (2005) by John Coy and The Boys in the Boat (2015) by Daniel James Brown. In The Running Dream (2011), Wendelin Van Draanen tells the story of a 16-year-old who doesn't give up running when she loses a leg in a car accident.
Friendship novels
Friendship is a traditional theme in American youth literature and already plays a role in the work of Mark Twain. A novelty in young adult fiction were novels in which complicated and dysfunctional friendships were shown, such as The Best Lies (2019) by Sarah Lyu , in which the protagonist's best friend shoots her boyfriend. The subject of the peer group gains great importance in the new young adult fiction, beginning with The Outsiders , where the peers appear in the form of the youth gang . As the example of Catherine Bruton's book I Predict a Riot (2014) shows, the gang has never completely disappeared from youth literature.
That the peer group can also be something positive has a. a. Ann Brashares made it clear in her bestselling novel series The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001ff). More recent examples of stories of friendship are the verse novel Keesha's House (2003) by Helen Forst, Skinny (2012) by Donna Cooner, We Are Okay (2017) by Nina LaCour and When the Truth Unravels (2019) by RuthAnne Snow.
Familystories
In American children's and youth literature, families had traditionally been a sheltered space in which young people could grow up more or less carelessly until they fledged (Louisa May Alcott: Little Women , 1868/1869; Laura Ingalls Wilder : Little House on the Prairie , 1870–1894; Sarah Lindsay Schmidt: New Land , 1933). In 1969 Bill and Vera Cleaver published a novel Where the Lilies Bloom , in which a 14-year-old promised her dying father to keep his death a secret and keep the siblings together. The book was nominated for a National Book Award and filmed by United Artists .
In its “golden age”, however, American youth literature began to break with the unwritten rule that family should be portrayed positively and, on the contrary, to show them as a breeding ground for conflicts and problems. As the journalist Julie Just has pointed out, after the parents mostly remained in the background or completely invisible in the old children's and youth literature - in young adult fiction there appeared for the first time in large numbers parental figures who were thoroughly self-centered, insane and when parents were simply insufficient. An early example is John Donovan's book I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip (1969). Its main character, 13-year-old Davey, is an orphan who has been divorced ; Davey is first raised by his grandmother and after her death has to live with the alcoholic mother who has become a stranger to him.
The literary historical significance of I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip is mostly attributed to the fact that this work introduced the topic of homosexuality into youth literature. In addition, however, the work also marks the beginning of a whole host of youth novels in which the young protagonists suffer from the fact that at least one parent fails or falls out as a stable caregiver. This failure has been carried out in all possible variations in young adult fiction: the parents of the young main characters are all too one-sidedly oriented towards their professional life ( ME Kerr : Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack ! , 1972; Barbara Wersba : Run Softly, Go Fast , 1972), go through a midlife crisis (Norma Klein: It's Not What You Expect , 1973), drink (Mary Stolz: The Edge of Next Year , 1974), are addicted to drugs (Jarrett J. Krosoczka: Hey, Kiddo , 2018 , Graphic novel) or emotionally disturbed ( Sue Ellen Bridgers : Notes for Another Life , 1981; Sarah Weeks: So B. It , 2004), leave their children to their own devices ( Cynthia Voigt : Homecoming , 1981; Paul Fleischman: Breakout , 2005) , escape through separation and divorce (Walter Dean Myers: Somewhere in the Darkness , 1992; Joan Bauer: Hope Was Here , 2000; Ellen Wittlinger: Hard Love , 2001; Joyce Carol Oates : Freaky Green Eyes , 2003), abuse their children sexual (Hadley Irwin: Abby, My Love , 1985; Al ex Flinn : Breathing Underwater , 2001) or through physical violence (Nancy Werlin: The Rules of Survival , 2006), deprive them of the air to breathe through excessive severity ( Jeffrey Eugenides : The Virgin Suicides , 1993) or die ( Han Nolan : Dancing on the Edge , 1997).
The relationships between siblings are also presented in a more complex and less schematic way in the new youth literature than in many comparable older works, for example in The Summer of the Swans (1970) by Betsy Byars, Tex (1979) by S. E. Hinton, Jacob have I loved (1980) by Katherine Paterson , in the autobiographical comic Blankets (2003) by Craig Thompson, I'll Give You the Sun (2014) by Jandy Nelson and Far From the Tree (2017) by Robin Benway.
Some other works simply show families realistically and with all the imperfections and quirks they have, such as: B. Don't Look and It Won't Hurt (1972) by Richard Peck , Figgs & Phantoms (1974) by Ellen Raskin, A Formal Feeling (1982) by Zibby Oneil, and After the Rain (1987) by Norma Fox Mazer . In Gentlehands (1978) ( ME Kerr ) pushes the boundaries of the genre by telling the story of how the young protagonist discovers his family's Nazi past. Where family is portrayed positively, it is often unconventional, as in Honey, Baby, Sweetheart (2005) by Deb Caletti, about a divorced librarian who dissuades her growing daughter from a destructive love affair by introducing her to an old ladies' book club .
High school stories
In the United States, all teenagers outside of homeschooling , regardless of talent, attend high school ; different from z. For example, in the German-speaking area, where club sports play a major role, young Americans also receive all of their sports training at schools. As a result, for the vast majority of American teenagers, high school is the center of their extra-family social life. Youth literature often reflects this, for example in Bright Island (1937) by Mabel Robinson and more recently, for example, in John Green's award-winning debut novel Looking for Alaska (2005), whose plot derives its dynamic from the complex and stimulating relationships within one Group of boarders wins.
At the center of other high school stories are young outsiders who, as a result of their development, struggle with personal problems, with the help of the high school, which makes up for the deficits of family, for example, but then finds them on the right track. Examples are Tunes for a Small Harmonica (1976) by Barbara Wersba , Vision Quest (1979) by Terry Davis, Whale Talk (2001) by Chris Crutcher , Boy Proof (2005) by Cecil Castellucci, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) by Sherman Alexie , The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008) by E. Lockhart and The Poet X (2018) by Elizabeth Acevedo . Some high school novels are real developmental novels, such as I, Claudia (2018) by Mary McCoy, about an outsider who is unexpectedly elected to the student council, who gains a piece of real power for the first time in life and has to discover the moral burden associated with it. Outsiders are the central theme in Daniel Pinkwater's work .
Avi paints a negative portrait of school in his novel Nothing but the Truth (1992), in which clumsy teachers try to keep the ninth grader Philip out of the sports program and thus drive him into an escalating rebellion. Laurie Halse Andersen shows a dysfunctional environment of peers in her widely acclaimed novel Speak (1999); its protagonist, Melinda, is raped by a schoolmate at a party and calls the police, who break up the party; Melinda doesn't mention what happened to her. The friends then turn against her, and only when the art teacher helps her in class to find her own voice through painting does she start to speak and defend herself. A jet-black likeness of school-based peer pressure also has Jerry Spinelli in his novel Stargirl submitted (2002). Morton Rhue broke the boundaries of the genre in 1981 with his internationally acclaimed work The Wave , in which a history class studying fascism succumbs to this concept itself.
The feminist perspective
The historical starting point of literature for adolescent women in the USA was the Victorian novel ( Charlotte Brontë , Elizabeth Gaskell , George Eliot , Margaret Oliphant , Mary Elizabeth Braddon ), in which young girls always ended up in marriages. Even Little Women had this scheme can not escape.
One of the first American youth authors to show young women in relative freedom - here as girl scouts in tents and in the open air - was Janet Aldridge ( Meadow Brook Girls series, 1913–1914). After the women's movement had fought for women's suffrage in 1920 and a completely new image of femininity had appeared on the scene with the flapper , novels for girls emerged that contained even more far-reaching emancipatory elements, such as encouraging not only women to work, but also to set course to take a dream job. A relevant example is Jane's Island (1931) by Marjorie Hill Allee; the novel tells the story of 17-year-old Ellen, who spends a summer in Woods Hole , Massachusetts and not only enjoys the coastal world there, but also comes into contact with the local oceanographic research facility. Helen Wells and Julie Campbell Tatham wrote two series together in which they advertised the professions of nurse ( Cherry Ames , 1943–1968) and stewardess ( Vicki Barr , 1947–1964).
The third wave of the women's movement brought literature for teenage girls that reflected the female perspective in a variety of ways against the backdrop of contemporary discourse, such as Speak (1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008) by E. Lockhart, The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend (2010) by Kody Keplinger, The Lightning Dreamer (2013) by Margarita Engle, Glory O'Brien's History of the Future (2014) by A. S. King, Not Otherwise Specified (2015) by Hannah Moskowitz and What Girls Are Made Of (2017) by Elana K. Arnold.
Diversity
It has always been a particular concern of the American Library Association (ALA) to use fictional literature to educate young readers about foreign cultures, immigrants and ethnic minorities in their own country. As early as the 1920s, with her Newbery Medal, she had books such as The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik Willem van Loon, Tales from Silver Lands (1924) by Charles Finger (on Latin America), Shen of the Sea (1925) by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (China), Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon (1928) by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (India) and The Trumpeter of Krakow (1928) by Eric P. Kelly (Poland). After the immigration spurt of the First World War, books about the migrants followed, and following the American civil rights movement also books about ethnic minorities in their own country, especially the African Americans, but also the Native Americans.
The African American perspective
Afro-Americans were hardly present in American children's and youth literature until the 1960s. Robert Lipsyte set the standard when he published his novel The Contender in 1967 . The National Book Award novel M. C. Higgins, The Great by Virginia Hamilton followed in 1974 , and in the 1980s Walter Dean Myers became one of the most articulate writers of youth novels that show the African American perspective ( Hoops , 1981; Monster , 1999) . In 1976 Mildred D. Taylor's widely acclaimed historical novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, was published about an African-American family who lived in the racist American South during the Great Depression. Notable recent examples are Tears of a Tiger (1994) by Sharon M. Draper , Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (1995) by Bebe Moore Campbell, The Coldest Winter Ever (1999) by Sister Souljah, Flyy Girl (2001) by Omar Tyree, Sag Harbor (2009) by Colson Whitehead , All American Boys (2015) by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, The Sun Is Also a Star (2016) by Nicola Yoon, Allegedly (2017) by Tiffany D. Jackson, and the two Books The Hate U Give (2017) and On the Come Up (2019) by Angie Thomas .
The Indian perspective
Early on, he also produced works that told of the North American natives (Alice Alison Lide and Margaret Alison Johansen: Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer , 1931; Mari Sandoz: The Horsecatcher , 1957); In the newly created Young-Adult Fiction, these also received socially critical tones (Scott O'Dell: Sing Down the Moon , 1970; Gary Paulsen: Dogsong , 1985; Ben Mikaelsen: Touching Spirit Bear , 2001; Sherman Alexie: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , 2007). Since 2006, the AILA American Indian Youth Literature Awards have been presented every two years as part of the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color .
The Immigrant Perspective
The American population is ethnically extremely strongly influenced by post-colonial immigration. 90.9% of Americans living today have neither Native American nor English ancestors, and 25.7% are either children of immigrants or immigrants themselves.
Many American books for young people tell of young Hispanics , including the National Book Award novel Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida (1996) by Victor Martinez and Esperanza Rising (2000) by Pam Muñoz Ryan , The Red Umbrella (2010) by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (2017) by Erika L. Sánchez. The protagonists of American Street (2017) by Ibi Zoboi (National Book Award) and Touching Snow (2007) by M. Sindy Felin are young Haitians . In A Step from Heaven (2003) by An Na and American Born Chinese (2006) by Gene Luen Yang, young Asian immigrants are the focus of the action; both books received a Printz Award.
Look into foreign cultures
American youth literature is traditionally rich in stories about young people in foreign cultures and distant lands. Early examples are Pran of Albania (1929) by Elizabeth Miller, Dobry (1934) by Monica Shannon; The Good Master (1935) by Kate Seredy, Banner in the Sky (1954) by James Ramsey Ullman and The Black Pearl (1967) by Scott O'Dell . More recent examples are Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind (1989) by Suzanne Fisher Staples , Homeless Bird (2000) by Gloria Whelan and Sold (2006) by Patricia McCormick, all of which tell of the precarious living conditions of young women in Pakistan and India. The scene of Many Stones (2002) by Carolyn Coman is South Africa ; In the midst of her homeland, which has still not achieved peace and where her sister was murdered, young Berry struggles for inner peace. In two novels that tell stories from Afghanistan , the dramatic events develop from the difficult relationship between Hazara and Pashtuns : The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini and The Secret Sky (2014) by Atia Abawi . In Written in the Stars (2015), Aisha Saaed tells the story of a young Pakistani-American migrant who is sent back to Pakistan by her parents for an arranged marriage.
Romance novels
Most of the romance fiction written for teenagers can be classified as realistic contemporary novels; In addition, there are also romance novels that belong to historical fiction or fantasy. The vampire romance in particular is to be mentioned as an example of love fantasy .
Junior Novels
Until the 1960s, literature for adolescent women had been dominated by romance novels . An early example is Seventeenth Summer (1942), the author of which Maureen Daly - still a student at the time of publication - tells the story of a young woman who begins a love affair with someone of the same age in her senior year, knowing full well that they will both be in the coming year Year to college and going their separate ways with it. The 1940s and 1950s were then the time of the junior novels , a genre of pleasing serial romance novels with characters whose thoughts partly revolved around their professional future, but especially around dating and the problem of finding a partner who they could Prom would accompany. Relevant authors have been Janet Lambert, Betty Cavanna, Lenora Mattingly Weber, Anne Emery, Mary Stolz, Rosamond du Jardin, and Beverly Cleary. Case in point is Beverly Cleary's Fifteen (1956) , whose plot revolves around the misunderstandings that arise between two teenagers in love because the boy has the decency to tacitly fulfill commitments previously made to another girl.
Entry of realism
In the late 1960s, romance novels for teenagers also changed radically. The authors began, among other things, to write about human sexuality and its consequences. Paul Zindel caused a stir with his book My Darling, My Hamburger (1969), in which the main female character's best friend, Liz, becomes pregnant and has an abortion during her senior year at school . Abortion law was very strict in the United States at the time; Liberalization did not take place until 1973 ( Roe v. Wade ). Also in 1969 was John Donovan's I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip , believed to be the first youth novel to be read by a large audience that deals with homosexuality ; 13-year-old Davy does more than make friends with a new classmate. Same-sex relationships have since become a fixture in American youth literature (Isabelle Holland: The Man without a Face , 1972; Rosa Guy: Ruby , 1976; Nancy Garden : Annie on My Mind , 1982; M. E. Kerr: Deliver Us from Evie , 1994; Jacqueline Woodson: From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun , 1995; Jean Ferris: Eight Seconds , 2000; Alex Sánchez: Rainbow Boys , 2001; Sara Ryan: Empress of the World , 2001; Garret Weyr: My Heartbeat , 2002; David Levithan : Boy Meets Boy , 2003; Benjamin Alire Sáenz: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe , 2012; Becky Albertalli : Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda , 2015).
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In the 1970s, Judy Blume led topics such as menstruation ( Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret , 1970), masturbation ( Then Again, Maybe I Won't , 1971; Deenie , 1973), and teenage pregnancy ( Forever , 1975 ) a. In 2000, Sarah Dessen published a novel about intimate partner violence (Dreamland) . Angela Johnson's novel The First Part Last (2003) about a 16-year-old African-American child raising an infant won a Printz Award. In the early 21st century, novels such as Looking for Alaska (2005) by John Green and King Dork (2006) by Frank Portman caused a stir because they explicitly described teenage sex. In Story of a Girl (2007) Sara Zarr tells the story of Deanna, who was caught having sex by her father at the age of 14 and who two years later earned the reputation of a "school slut".
One type of romance novel for young readers that emerged only in the 21st century as the public became more aware of Asperger's Syndrome is those works that tell of the difficulties teenagers on the autism spectrum encounter when they fall in love (Emily Franklin : The Half-life of Planets , 2010; Hilary Reyl: Kids Like Us , 2016; Francisco X. Stork: Marcelo in the Real World , 2008).
Representation of sexuality
Although teenagers are portrayed in young-adult fiction as people who fall in love, have sexual feelings and occasionally have sex, scenes with expressly described sex practices are untypical in this literature to this day; sexual acts are usually only presented cursory. Some literary scholars have seen a rigid sexual morality at work here. With regard to the Twilight novels, which she describes as "abstinence porn", the literary scholar Christine Seifert has even speculated that the readers of these books get their erotic tickling precisely from the fact that sexual intercourse is repeatedly postponed.
Other commentators, on the other hand, have suggested that unexperienced teenagers may want narratives that reflect not sex, but rather their own complex feelings about the sexual world.
Vampire romance
As literary scholars have repeatedly pointed out, the vampire's bite was already interpreted as a subliminal sexual act in Victorian literature . Inspired by Anne Rice's very popular Vampire Chronicles (1976), a subgenre of romance novels arose in the USA in the late 20th century, in which the vampire is not only depicted as a deadly monster, but also as an object of love. This "Vampire Romance" is aimed especially at female readers and was written specifically for teenagers from the start. The Silver Kiss (1990) by Annette Curtis Klause is considered the first significant example . It followed u. a. The Vampire Diaries (1991ff) by Lisa Jane Smith , the Dead-Until-Dark novels (2001ff) by Charlaine Harris and the series Vampire Kisses (2003ff) by Ellen Schreiber.
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One of the most commercially successful youth book series ever became the Twilight series (2006ff) by Stephenie Meyer , which was also adapted as a film soon after its publication. A special feature of this series of novels is that the depiction of the relationship between the two main characters - Bella and Edward - is strongly influenced by the Mormon philosophy of marriage and family and amounts to a description of the sealing . The series and concept of vampire romance found numerous imitators, including Lisa Jane Smith : The Vampire Diaries (2007), Claudia Gray : Evernight (2009) and Abigail Gibbs: Dinner with a Vampire (2012).
Pluralization of forms
Furthermore, romance novels emerged that break the boundaries of all literary schemes, such as An Abundance of Katherines (2006) by John Green about the highly gifted Colin, who, after 19 disappointments in love, sets off on a road trip with his best friend Hassan. Steve Kluger's award-winning romantic comedy My Most Excellent Year (2008) features a web of love stories told in letters, instant messages , emails and other media. In Why We Broke Up (2011) Daniel Handler unravels the story of a teenage love from its end. Other unconventional younger romance novels for teenagers include Eleanor & Park (2013) by Rainbow Rowell, the bestseller Once and for All (2017) by Sarah Dessen and What Girls Are Made Of (2017) by Elana K. Arnold.
Star-Crossed Lovers
In some very successful young adult novels in recent times, love affairs are at the center of the plot, which are difficult or doomed to fail because of their special circumstances. With Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1597) at the latest, the astrological- inspired attribute “star-crossed” became established in the English-speaking world for such couples . In Laura McNeal's Dark Water (2010), for example, a young woman falls in love with an illegal Mexican migrant worker. Nicola Yoon's bestseller The Sun Is Also a Star (2016) has a similar theme . In John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (2012), two teenagers with severe cancer fall in love, and Rachael Lippincott's bestseller Five Feet Apart (2018) focuses on two young lovers who have cystic fibrosis and are about to to avoid any risk of infection, not to get physically close. Atia Abawi , who spent several years in Kabul for American television , presented her novel The Secret Sky (2014) in 2014 about a young Hazara who begins a forbidden love affair with a young Pashtun .
Detective novels
Detective stories
Detective stories had been popular with teenagers since the advent of serial crime fiction ( Diamond-Dick series, since 1878; Old King Brady , since 1885; Nick Carter , since 1886; Frank Merriwell , since 1896). In addition to the male novel detectives, this text corpus, which was also intended for adult readers, had also included female investigators early on ( Lytton Wheeler : Nell, the Boy-Girl Detective since 1854; Nicholas Carter : Nick Carter's Girl Detective , since 1898); these should primarily appeal to young women. As Whodunits , these novels were heavily influenced by British detective fiction ( Wilkie Collins , Charles Warren Adams , Arthur Conan Doyle ). L. Frank Baum , who at that time was already famous for his Wonderful Wizard of Oz books, began writing serial crime fiction especially for teenagers in 1911 ( The Daring Twins , 1911; Phoebe Daring , 1912; The Bluebird Books , 1916-1924). Grace May North alias Carol Norton ( Bobs: A Girl Detective , 1928) followed in the 1920s .
The publisher Edward Stratemeyer made the most significant contribution to the popularization of youth crime novels . Stratemeyer had published books for children and young people in serial format as early as 1899; To maintain the uniformity of the series, the changing authors were given fixed guidelines. In 1927 Stratemeyer started a detective series for male readers ( Hardy Boys , until 2005), which was soon followed by three series for girls: Nancy Drew (since 1930), Kay Tracey (1934–1942) and The Dana Girls (1934–1979). The character of Nancy Drew became extremely popular and the series continues to this day; In 2005, Priya Jain stated that the figure had become an icon of feminine independence and a confident feminine appearance thanks to its “perfect balance between hardness and femininity”. Many authors tried to imitate the recipe for success, including Margaret Sutton ( Judy Bolton series, 1932–1967), Clair Blank ( Beverly Gray series, 1934–1955), Mildred Benson ( Penny Parker series, 1939–1947), Helen Wells ( Cherry Ames series, 1943–1968; Vicki Barr series, 1947–1964), Betty Cavanna ( Connie Blair series, 1948–1958), Julie Tatham ( Trixie Belden series, 1948–1986 ), Sam and Beryl Epstein ( Ken Holt series, 1949–1963), and August Derleth ( The Mill Creek Irregulars series , 1958–1970). Another crime series, which under the title "Die Drei ???" also won a wide readership in German-speaking countries, was the Three Investigators series (1964–1987) developed by Robert Arthur, Jr.
The most important award for detective novels in the USA, the Edgar Allan Poe Award , has also had a category for juvenile fiction (children's and young adult literature) since 1961 . The first outright book for young people to receive this award was The Mystery of 22 East (1965) by Leon Ware, about a 15-year-old who clears up all sorts of small and large puzzles on board during a sea voyage from the USA to England. Other Edgar Prize winners with teenage protagonists were The House of Dies Drear (1968) by Virginia Hamilton, Deathwatch (1972) by Robb White, The Long Black Coat (1973) and The Dangling Witness (1976) by Jay Bennett, Are You in the House Alone? (1976) by Richard Peck, The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore (1979), The Séance (1980) and The Other Side of Dark (1986) by Joan Lowery Nixon, Taking Terry Mueller (1981) by Norma Fox Mazer, Night Cry (1984 ) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and The Sandman's Eyes (1985) by Patricia Windsor.
Pluralization of forms
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In 1962 Lois Duncan had published her first youth thriller - Game of Danger (1964). The work broke with the conventions of the subgenre: the two young protagonists were not cool investigative detectives, but rather frightened participants in a melodrama from which they can only free themselves at the end. Thrillers had enjoyed great success in adult literature in previous years ( Patricia Highsmith : A Game for the Living , 1958; Robert Bloch : Psycho , 1959; Richard Condon : The Manchurian Candidate , 1959). Duncan followed up with other teenage thrillers, including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1975), in which the young protagonist is blackmailed by an unknown person for a fatal car accident . In Duncan's work Killing Mr. Griffin (1978), a group of students prepares to kidnap an unpopular teacher. Both of the latter books were also made into films. Duncan's later thrillers The Third Eye (1984) and Gallows Hill (1997) also contained the paranormal in addition to the pure elements of tension .
Ellen Raskins Whodunit The Westing Game (1979), conceived in the style of an Agatha Christie chamber play, won a Newbery Medal and is considered to be one of the best books for young people ever written. Crime investigation has also returned to the foreground in some of the more recent popular crime novels for teenagers, such as Twisted Summer (1996) by Willo Davis Roberts, The Body of Christopher Creed (2000) by Carol Plum-Ucci, in the Minerva-Clark series ( 2005–2007) by Karen Karbo, the Enola Holmes series (2006–2010) by Nancy Springer and in the Matthew Livingston series (2007–2010) by Marco Conelli.
In order to better appreciate works for teenagers, the organizers of the Edgar Allan Poe Awards created a special category for teenage crime novels in 1989. The first prize winner was the book Incident at Loring Groves (1988) by Sonia Levitin , which combined a murder story with elements of a development novel. The only author to date to have won the Edgar twice in this category was the chiropractor Herbert "Chap" Reaver , who did not write until he was 90 ( Mote , 1990; A Little Bit Dead , 1992).
Some of the most successful recent youth thrillers include the National Book Award novel What I Saw and How I Lied (2008) by Judy Blundell , Please Ignore Vera Dietz (2010) by AS King , Shine (2011) by Lauren Myracle, das Printz Award book Bone Gap (2015) by Laura Ruby , as well as the bestselling A Study in Charlotte , (2016) by Brittany Cavallaro and Stalking Jack the Ripper (2016) by Kerri Maniscalco .
History novels
One of the oldest genres in American youth literature are the historicizing novels, which are intended to provide entertaining history lessons for young readers. The genre was very popular with the American Library Association , whose sub-organization, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), has awarded books of special quality with its Newbery Medal every year since 1922 . Many of the early winners and finalists were historical novels, and they continue to have a place in young adult literature to this day.
American History
According to school curricula, the history of the United States has been and continues to be a large part of literature written for young readers , beginning with the colonial era - Rachel Field : Calico Bush (1931), Elizabeth George Speare: The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958) , Patricia Clapp: Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth , (1975) - and the Atlantic slave trade ( Paula Fox : The Slave Dancer , 1973). Many novels cover the period around the Revolutionary War : Cornelia Meigs: Clearing Weather (1928), Elsie Singmaster: Swords of Steel (1933), Rebecca Caudill: Tree of Freedom (1949), Esther Forbes : Johnny Tremain (1953), James Lincoln , Christopher Collier: My Brother Sam is Dead (1974), Laurie Halse Anderson: Fever 1793 (2000), MT Anderson : The Pox Party (2006), M. T. Anderson: The Kingdom on the Waves (2008) and Laurie Halse Anderson: Chains (2008).
The first half of the 19th century is a time that has been dealt with many times, for example in Caroline Dale Snedeker: Downright Dencey (1927), Cornelia Meigs: Swift Rivers (1931), Armstrong Sperry: All Sail Set (1935), Stephen W. Meader: Boy With a Pack (1939), Mary Jane Carr : Young Mac of Fort Vancouver (1940), Mari Sandoz: The Horsecatcher (1957), Bruce Clements : I Tell a Lie Every So Often (1974), Walter D. Edmonds: Bert Breen's Barn (1975), Joan Blos: A Gathering of Days (1979) and Avi : The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (1990). High-quality youth novels that tell of slavery in the United States are noticeably underrepresented . On the other hand, stories from the time of the American Civil War are all the more common , including Harold Keith: Rifles for Watie (1957), William O. Steele: The Perilous Road (1958), Betty Sue Cummings: Hew Against the Grain (1977) and Richard Peck : The River Between Us (2005).
The period between 1890 and 1920, which was characterized by immigration and internal migration, is still strongly represented. Examples are Alice Dagliesh: The Silver Pencil (1944), Robert Lawson : The Great Wheel (1957), Jennifer Donnelly : A Northern Light (2003), Gary D. Schmidt: Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2004) and Kirby Larson: Hattie Big Sky (2006). About the misery years of the global economic crisis are u. a. Margery Williams Bianco: Winterbound (1936), Ouida Sebestyen: Far From Home (1980), Karen Hesse: Out of the Dust (1997), Pam Muñoz Ryan : Esperanza Rising (2000) and Richard Peck: A Year Down Yonder (2000) .
From the time of World War II tell Harry Mazer: The Boy at War (2001; about the attack on Pearl Harbor ), Cynthia Kadohata : Weedflower (2006; on the Japanese-born internment Americans ) and Bette Greene: Summer of My German Soldier (1973; about the love of a young American woman for a German prisoner of war ). More often, however, authors have been interested in the post-war era marked by racism and civil rights , such as Cynthia Kadohata: Kira-Kira (2004), Shelia P. Moses: The Legend of Buddy Bush (2005), and Bruce Brooks: The Moves Make the Man (1984). Out of Darkness (2015) by Ashley Hope Pérez also deals with segregation , but the plot of this book is set as early as 1937.
The Vietnam War and the 1970s form the background in Walter Dean Myers: Fallen Angels (1983), Cynthia Kadohata: Cracker! (2007), Jack Gantos : Hole in My Life (2002), John Barnes : Tales of the Madman Underground (2009) and Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock : The Smell of Other People's Houses (2016).
World history
Other American youth novels offer insights into international history. This is what Erick Berry: Winged Girl of Knossos (1933) and Olivia Coolidge: Men of Athens (1962) tell from ancient Greece , Caroline Dale Snedeker and Dorothy P. Lathrop: The Forgotten Daughter (1933) from the Roman Empire and Elizabeth George Speare : The Bronze Bow (1961) from the New Testament period .
The Middle Ages are represented relatively thinly . The Maya period forms the framework for Alida Malkus' work The Dark Star of Itza (1930). Karen Cushman's critically acclaimed The Midwife's Apprentice (1991) tells the story of a young midwife student in the English Middle Ages; Julie Berry's medieval novel The Passion of Dolssa (2016) is set in Provence . On the other hand, some time that has been discussed several times is the European Renaissance , with examples such as Eric P. Kelly: The Trumpeter of Krakow (1928), Anne D. Kyle: The Apprentice of Florence (1933), Elizabeth Marie Pope: The Perilous Gard (1974), Donna Jo Napoli : Daughter of Venice (2003) and Susann Cokal: The Kingdom of Little Wounds (2013).
Young adult novels about the 17th century often deal with international seafaring and in particular the Conquista including the Spanish slave trade, such as Charles Boardman Hawes: The Dark Frigate (1924), Elizabeth Borton de Treviño: I, Juan de Pareja (1965) and Scott O'Dell : The King's Fifth (1966). Tell us about the end of the 18th century. a. two fictionalized biographies: A Daughter Of The Seine: The Life Of Madame Roland (1929) by Jeanette Eaton and Young Walter Scott (1935) by Elizabeth Gray Vining. Deborah Heiligman's biographical novel Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers (2017) is set in the 19th century .
Topics from the history of the 20th century that have been dealt with several times are the genocide of the Armenians (Adam Bagdasarian: Forgotten Fire , 2000) and Europe during the Second World War, including the Holocaust , with works such as Johanna Reiss : The Upstairs Room (1972) , Myron Levoy : Alan and Naomi (1977), Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: For Freedom. The Story of a French Spy (2005), Ruta Sepetys : Between Shades of Gray (2011) and Elizabeth E. Wein: Code Name Verity (2012).
Another geographical focus of American historical novels is East Asia . Elizabeth Foreman Lewis: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (1932), Katherine Paterson : The Master Puppeteer (1975), Laurence Yep: Dragon's Gate (2012), as well as Gene Luen Yang and Lark Piens Graphic Novel Boxers and were particularly successful with the critics Saints (2013).
Fantastic
High fantasy and related
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In the United States until the 20th century, fantasy was mostly on the verge of horror ( Edgar Allan Poe : Tales of Mystery & Imagination , posthumously 1908 [individually from 1842]; HP Lovecraft : The Call of Cthulu , 1926) or science Fiction literature ( Edgar Rice Burroughs : The Land That Time Forgot , 1918) has been written. This changed fundamentally after the reception of JRR Tolkien's novel Lord of the Rings (Great Britain, 1954/1955). This work differed from the older fantasy, which was also home to alien beings, peoples and monsters, in that the author had created an opulent, detailed world that was culturally and socially based on an idealized Middle Ages. Another hallmark of Tolkien's high fantasy is the explicit contextualization of the supernatural and magical; this does not just happen in an unexplained and mysterious way, but in a consequent and logical manner because of a higher power that is accepted and authorized within the world of the novel.
In the 1970s, American authors took up Tolkien's suggestions and began to write their own high fantasy ( Roger Zelazny : The Chronicles of Amber , 1970ff; Stephen R. Donaldson : The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant , 1977ff; Terry Brooks : Shannara Series, 1977ff ; Piers Anthony : Xanth series, 1977ff). But even before this first high fantasy for adults, Ursula K. Le Guin opened her Earthsee Cycle in January 1964 with the short story The Word of Unbinding , the core of which consists of five novels that Le Guin published from 1968 to 2001. Alongside Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Le Guin's work marked the beginning of American high fantasy for young readers. The works of both authors were highly praised by the critics and received important literary prizes such as B. the National Book Award .
In 1973 William Goldman's novel The Princess Bride followed , which was also a romance novel beyond high fantasy . The book was so successful with the public that it was later made into a film under the same title . Patricia A. McKillip's novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974) was the first book to win a World Fantasy Award .
In the 1980s, Robin McKinley began her Damar series, which was also literarily demanding and consisted of two novels ( The Blue Sword , 1982; The Hero and the Crown , 1984) and several short stories. In the 1980s, teenagers increasingly read serial fantasy literature such as The Song of the Lioness Quartet (1983ff) by Tamora Pierce and the Unicorns of Balinor novels (1988f) by Claudia Bishop alias Mary Stanton; whether these qualitatively rather average works can also be classified as high fantasy is controversial. It was not until 1996 that the first volume of Megan Whalen Turner's series The Queen's Thief appeared again, a work that was highly regarded by critics. Some other works show many characteristics of high fantasy , but without following Tolkien's model of a quasi-medieval plot framework (Clare Bell: The Named -Romane, 1983ff; Diane Duane : Young Wizards -Romane, 1983ff).
Dragons are a recurring element in American youth fantasy . In 1968 Anne McCaffrey published the first episode of her very successful series Dragonriders of Pern . In 2003, the future Pulitzer Prize winner Christopher Paolini followed with his debut work Eragon . Paolini was only 20 years old when it was published, making it the first very young American to stand out with a successful and literarily demanding high-fantasy novel. Eragon grew to a tetralogy (Inheritance Cycle) by 2011 ; In 2006 a film adaptation was also released under the title Eragon . The Inheritance Cycle has to be compared with Cornelia Funke's low-fantasy novel Drachenreiter , which was first translated into English in 2000, but only became a bestseller in the USA in 2004 after a new translation. One of the youngest American dragon novels for young adults is the feminist-inspired work Damsel (2018) by Elena K. Arnold.
High fantasy is one of the most popular literary genres in the United States with adolescent audiences to the present day. The latest bestsellers include the series The Genesis of Shannara (2006-2008) by Terry Brooks , the Graceling Realm trilogy (2008ff) by Kristin Cashore , which has also won literary awards , the Grisha novels (2012ff) by Leigh Bardugo , the series His Fair Assassin (2012ff) by Robin LaFevers, Heartless by Marissa Meyer , the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard , the series An Ember in the Ashes (2016ff) by Sabaa Tahir , the series Three Dark Crowns (2016ff) by Kendare Blake , the Cararal novels (2017ff) by Stephanie Garber and the Folk-of-the-Air trilogy by Holly Black (2018/2019). The Scorpio Races (2011) by Maggie Stiefvater and Strange the Dreamer (2017) by Laini Taylor were also appreciated by literary critics . Matthew Tobin Anderson and illustrator Eugene Yelchin presented a variant that breaks the conventions of the genre in the form of their satirical and strongly political fantasy novel The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge (2018).
Further subgenres
In addition to high fantasy novels, American youth literature includes a number of other fantastic novels belonging to a wide variety of sub-genres. An early example is Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey (1977) by Jamake Highwater about a young Indian who travels back in time to the legends of his people. In 1989, Francesca Lia Block published Weetzie Bat, the first volume of her seven-part Dangerous Angels series (1989–2012), which has been assigned to magical realism , but also to myth punk . Weetzie Bat tells of a young girl and her gay best friend who hope to find love in hip Hollywood and bring a little magic into play here and there. In 1998 Louis Sachar's complex and very successful novel Holes was published about 14-year-old Stanley Yelnats IV, who freed himself and his family from a generation-old curse in a reform camp for criminal youth.
One of the most successful fantasy novels of recent times is Michael Scott's The Alchemyst (2007) about 15-year-old twins Sophie and Josh, who unexpectedly meet Nicolas Flamel in their hometown of San Francisco , the famous alchemist who discovered the secret of eternal life in the Middle Ages . Libba Bray offered a very creative kind of fantasy in her novel Going Bovine , whose hero Cameron falls ill with Creutzfeldt-Jakob and goes on an insane journey that never makes it clear whether he is perhaps just hallucinating. Other themes in recent fantasy include cases of devil possession (AM Jenkins: Repossessed , 2007), supernatural love ( Laini Taylor : Lips Touch 2009), the unexpected awakening of consciousness in other people's bodies ( David Levithan : Every Day 2012) and time travel (Alexandra Bracken: Passenger , 2016).
Some works are based on older works of fantastic literature and each give them a new twist, including the Cinderella story Ash (2009) by Malinda Lo, whose title character is reinvented here as a lesbian, and Tiger Lily (2012) by Jodi Lynn Anderson, an alternative History of the well-known character from the Peter Pan fabric.
Works such as the graphic novel Nimona (2015) by Noelle Stevenson and Akata Warrior (2017) by Nnedi Okorafor , which were used for this work, also bear witness to the versatility of the fantastic genre, which never shuts off eclecticism and a mixture of forms fusing mythology, fantasy, science fiction, history and magic, received the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book , which was presented for the first time this year, in 2018 .
horror
For teenagers in the United States, horror gained its greatest importance not in literature but in film. The first horror film specially produced for teenagers was I Was a Teenage Werewolf in 1957 . This was later followed by horror and slasher films such as Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Scream (1996) . Examples such as Truth or Dare (2018) or Polaroid (2019) show that horror films have not lost the attraction they exert on young people to this day.
In addition, American teenagers have always read horror literature :
Haunted and ghost stories
Ghost stories for children were published early in the United States . These did not go back to the English tradition, but to African-American folklore, in which ghosts had an extremely complex meaning.
One of the first North American authors to write Gothic novels for children based on the English tradition was the Canadian LM Montgomery ( Emily trilogy, 1923–1927). In the 1970s, the American began Lois Duncan , Gothic novels to be published, which were written specifically for teens, including Down A Dark Hall (1974) and Summer of Fear (1976); both books were so successful that they were also adapted as films. Gothic novels and ghost stories have their place in horror literature for young people to this day. Newer literarily demanding examples include a. Mary Downing Hahn: Wait Till Helen Comes (1986), Joan Lowery Nixon: Whispers From the Dead (1989), Meg Cabot : Shadowland (2000), Alice Sebold : The Lovely Bones (2002), Katherine Marsh: The Night Tourist (2007 ), Nancy Holder: Possessions (2009) and Vera Brosgol: Anya's Ghost (graphic novel, 2011). This genre is often about the fact that the deceased cannot find peace in the grave because they still have certain things to straighten out in the world of the living.
Carrie : Teenagers as monsters
The 1970s were significant for the development of horror in popular culture as a whole. Films like Duel , Jaws , Omen , Halloween and Amityville Horror found wide audiences, and in the blockbuster The Exorcist (1973), adapted from a novel by William Peter Blatty , a pubescent girl appeared as a monster and a victim at the same time. The young Stephen King took up the idea and published his debut Carrie in 1974 about a 16-year-old who is bullied by her classmates until she discovers she has telekinetic skills. Carrie made King suddenly famous, and his book was also soon made into a film with great success.
The motif of teenagers - especially female - who are victims and murderous tools of supernatural powers at the same time, later appeared in many other horror novels, for example in Boobs (1989) by Suzy McKee Charnas, The Blooding (1997) by Patricia Windsor and Blood and Chocolate (1997) by Annette Curtis Klause. Two examples from young adult fiction, which also focus on deadly young women, are Peeps (2005) by Scott Westerfeld , about college students who acquire a special SDI during sex , which turns them into cannibals with superpowers, and Chime ( 2011) by Franny Billingsley about a young witch who has the power to harm others and therefore goes through all the torments of self-hatred.
RL Stine
The core of American horror fiction for young readers includes the work of RL Stine , who published his first thriller for teenagers, Blind Date , in 1986 . Its protagonist Kerry gets to know an attractive young woman in a strange way, who then gives him a series of frightening and disturbing experiences. Blind Date formed the prelude to an entire point horror series (1986-2014), in which other authors were also involved from 1988. In 1989 Stine started another series, Fear Street , which he wrote all by himself and which to date comprises more than 50 volumes.
Vampires, zombies, monsters, dark fantasy
Vampire novels enjoyed great popularity in the 1970s with Salem's Lot (1975) by Stephen King and Interview with a Vampire (1976) by Anne Rice . At the end of the 20th century the genre also became popular with teenagers, albeit in forms in which the element of horror largely lost its importance, namely as vampire romance novels (see Vampire Romance ) and as novels told from the perspective of the vampire ( Amelia Atwater-Rhodes : Den-of-Shadows -Serie, 2000ff; Melissa de la Cruz: Blue Bloods , 2007; PC Cast, Kristin Cast: Marked , 2007; Richelle Mead : Vampire Academy , 2007).
The horror element remained relatively strong only in those works that tell of a takeover of power by vampires over people. This motif, which in classic vampire novels such as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) is at most an idea, is occasionally fully played out in young adult fiction ( Rachel Caine : The Morganville Vampires , 2000; KC Blake: Vampires Rule , 2011; Julie Kagawa : Blood of Eden , 2012; HM Ward: Bane , 2012).
Another horror genre popular with American teenagers is zombie fiction , such as: B. Carrie Ryan's debut novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth (2009) about the teenage Mary trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic scenario threatened by zombies. In 2010, Jonathan Maberry started his zombie series Rot & Ruin , volumes 2 and 3 of which were among the first works to receive prizes for the best children's books as part of the Bram Stoker Award - the most important American horror literature prize.
To all sorts of monsters it comes to Rick Yanceys series The Mostrumologist (2009ff). In Dog Days (2014) by Joe McKinney, it's a deadly swamp that terrifies characters and readers. A small number of horror novels for teenagers take up themes from classic horror literature, such as RoseBlood (2017) by AG Howard ( The Phantom of the Opera ) and The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein (2018) by Kiersten White ( Mary Shelleys Frankenstein ).
Works that are stylistically in the gray area between horror and fantasy are classified as dark fantasy in the English-speaking world . Examples can also be found in Young-Adult Fiction: The Wall and the Wing (2007) by Laura Ruby, The Mortal Instruments (2007ff) by Cassandra Clare , Snowed (2018) by Maria Alexander and Furyborn (2018) by Claire Legrand.
Scary operations
In the early 21st century, a subject that played with the horror of forced modifications and operations on the human body became increasingly popular. Often these are imposed on the young protagonists in a dystopian environment; many of these novels can be classified as either science fiction or fantasy. An early example is the novel Feed (2002) by MT Anderson. The Bar Code Tattoo (2004) by Suzanne Weyn is about a society with "glass" citizens who get barcodes tattooed. Scott Westerfeld's dystopian youth novel Uglies (2005) tells of a future society in which, under the pressure of extreme conformity, all 16-year-olds receive a new face through plastic surgery; the 15 year old tally covets. The Adoration of Jenna Fox (2008) by Mary E. Pearson , Noggin (2014) by John Corey Whaley and in John Dixon's series Phoenix Island (2014ff) are about even more radical interventions in the physical integrity of young protagonists .
Two novels about dystopian societies in which young people are forcibly removed their organs ( Nancy Farmer : The House of the Scorpion , 2002; Neal Shusterman: Unwind , 2007) play with the horror of cannibalizing one's own body .
Science fiction
When American youth literature took on its present form in the 1970s, teenagers were nothing new as protagonists of science fiction . As early as 1962, Madeleine L'Engle published her bestseller and Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time , in which 13-year-old Meg travels through the universe with her younger brothers and a friend to save both her father and the world. L'Engle had several sequels to follow (Time Quintet) , the third of which, A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978), won a National Book Award.
The amalgamation of science fiction and fantasy that characterized the Time quintet can also be found in a great many later science fiction novels written for young readers. It is no coincidence that the most important American literary prizes with which science fiction for young people can be awarded - the Andre Norton Award (since 2006) and the Lodestar Award (since 2018, takes place within the framework of the Hugo Award ) - are also fantasy prizes, and pure fantasy novels are actually far more often among the winners than those with pronounced science fiction elements. Pure science fiction, which focuses more on science and technology than culture and society, is also rather underrepresented in the overall range of high-quality American literature for young people.
Tie-Ins: Star Trek and Star Wars
As the example of the New York Times bestseller Pan's Labyrinth (2019) by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke shows that after the eponymous film was written, are tie-in novels for teens means limited to science fiction.
Nevertheless, science fiction predominates here. On the basis of the television and feature film series Star Trek (since 1966) and Star Wars (since 1977), which are still very popular with young Americans, numerous tie-in novels have been created, which are also largely read by young people, beginning with James Blish : Star Trek 1 (1967) and Alan Dean Foster (as ghostwriter for George Lucas ): Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976). Successful recent examples are the novel series Star Trek: The Original Series (1979ff) by Gene Roddenberry et al. a., the Imzadi series (1992ff) by Peter David , the Jedi Apprentice series (1999ff) by Dave Wolverton and Jude Watson , the Jedi Quest series (2001ff) by Jude Watson and the Boba Fett series ( 2002ff) by Terry Bisson . One of the latest New York Times bestsellers since March 2014 was Star Wars: Queen's Shadow (2019) by E. K. Johnston.
Space stories
Since the 1970s, many authors of books for young people have used the science fiction genre to develop apocalyptic or dystopian scenarios. However, there are also a number of - mostly serial - novels whose plot is set in space and which are now almost always written by female authors for a female audience, such as Empress of a Thousand Skies (2017) by Rhoda Belleza, Honor Among Thieves by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre, Mirage by Somaiya Daud, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe (all three 2018) by Lauren James, The Cerulean by Amy Ewing and Last of Her Name (both 2019) by Jessica Khoury. One of the very few high-quality books in this genre was the newbery honor novel Enchantress from the Stars (1970) by Sylvia Engdahl .
Occasionally space and space flight scenarios are only used to show familiar stories in a fresh guise, as in the case of Fonda Lee's novel Zeroboxer (2015) about a young athlete who makes a career as an Earthling in a world in which the (genetically modified ) Martians are considered the superior race. Another example is the Andre Norton Award-winning steampunk novel Arabella of Mars . The book tells the story of a young woman who grew up a tomboy on Mars but was brought to London, England to refine her upbringing. The name of the protagonist alludes to Georgette Heyer's eponymous heroine , who is also brought to London from the provinces, although Levine's Arabella has far more turbulent adventures than Heyer's.
Alien invasions and post-apocalyptic scenarios
A military science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card : Ender's Game (1985) had great success . Its title hero thinks he is participating in a computer game. In fact, the virtual is reality: humanity is in a desperate battle with invading aliens. Ender, who is the result of a genetic experiment, could turn everything for the best as a military genius. In some other works the hostile takeover of the world by aliens has already taken place, for example in The Dark Side of Nowhere (1997) by Neal Shusterman, the series Old Man's War (2007ff) by John Scalzi , the very successful trilogy The 5th Wave (2012ff ) by Rick Yancey , Exo (2017) by Fonda Lee and Crystalline Space (2018) by AK DuBoff.
Another popular sub-genre within teenage science fiction is novels with post-apocalyptic scenarios in which humanity is imminently threatened with extinction. Z for Zachariah (1974) by Robert C. O'Brien tells the story of a small number of young people who are the last survivors of a nuclear war . Similar subjects have Alien Child (1988) by Pamela Sargent, Life as We Knew It (2006) by Susan Beth Pfeffer , Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew A. Smith, The Last Human (both 2014) by Ink Pieper and The Last Girl on Earth ( 2018) by Alexandra Blogier.
Dystopias
American dystopian fiction had long been overshadowed by British fiction and developed mainly as a special form of science fiction literature written for an adult reading public. One of the earliest American dystopian novels with adolescent main characters was Logan's Run (1967) by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson , which deals with a society that ensures the prosperity of all by ensuring that no member is older than 20 years. This was followed by The Girl Who Owned a City (1975) by OT Nelson, The Long Walk (1979) by Stephen King , Sea of Glass (1986) by Barry B. Longyear and Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler .
Lois Lowry's novel The Giver , published in 1993, had a great influence on the development of the genre . Other dystopian novels of the late 20th century were Among the Hidden (1998) by Margaret Peterson Haddix and The Cure (1999) by Sonia Levitin . In 2002, MT Anderson 's Feed, the first cyberpunk novel written for young people, was published . Novels such as Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson provided inspiration for this special form of dystopian literature . On Feed followed The City of Ember (2003) by Jeanne DuPreau and The Host (2008) by Stephenie Meyer.
Suzanne Collins ' novel trilogy The Hunger Games (2008-2010) reached record editions in the late 2000s . The post-apocalyptic society presented therein keeps its brutally subdued residents from rebelling by sending selected teenagers into a kind of gladiatorial fights that are broadcast live on television. 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers to save her younger sister. The books have been translated into more than 50 languages and to date (2019) have reached a total circulation of more than 100 million copies. The West Hollywood -based independent production company Color Force has now also adapted the novels as films ( The Hunger Games , 2012–2015).
Film critic Dana Stevens has suggested that teenagers are particularly attracted to the new dystopias because the literature allows them to relate to their everyday experiences in high school, where they are often in a race for personal popularity. The virtual world of the dystopian novel transforms the turmoil that reigns in the body and soul of young readers into fiction.
The strong demand for dystopian youth novels, which had become evident with the Hunger Games trilogy, prompted a whole series of new authors to write comparable works. These included the Libyrinth series by Pearl North, the Maze Runner series (both 2009ff) by James Dashner , Ship Breaker (2010) by Paolo Bacigalupi , the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie , and the Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano, the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth , Ready Player One by Ernest Cline , the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu , the Shatter-Me series (all 2011ff) by Tahereh Mafi , the Article 5 trilogy by Kristen Simmons , the double novel Save the Pearls by Victoria Foyl, the trilogy Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossis and the Selection- Pentalogy (all 2012ff) by Kiera Cass .
Ink Pieper's book The Last Human , published in July 2014, offered an interruption in that this dystopian novel was designed as a single work, written in a highly complex manner and rich in philosophical considerations on topics such as freedom, morality and power. More recent dystopian youth books are the Red Rising Saga (2014ff) by Pierce Brown , the Arc-of-the-Scythe -trilogy by Neal Shusterman, the series Children of Eden (both 2016ff) by Joey Graceffa and Want (2017) by Cindy Pon.
Other genera and forms
Poetry
Many of the greatest American poets - such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , Edgar Allan Poe , Walt Whitman , Emily Dickinson , Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg - were enjoyable reading for young readers as early as the 19th and early 20th centuries. However , teenagers in the United States were late to be discovered as a target audience for poetry written for them or compiled in anthologies . An early example is the visually elaborate volume United States of Poetry (1996) compiled by Joshua Blum, Bob Holman and Mark Pellington, which brings together poems by 77 mostly contemporary but very dissimilar authors. Other relevant anthologies are I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy (2005, compilation: Liz Rosenberg, Deena November) and Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation (2015, Brett Fletcher Lauer et al.) . In 2003, the non-profit organization WritersCorps published the volume Paint Me Like I Am , in which poems by teenagers are compiled.
Notable authors who have published poetry for adolescent readers in recent times include Juan Felipe Herrera ( Laughing Out Loud, I Fly , 1998), Tupac Shakur ( The Rose That Grew From Concrete , 1999), Pat Mora ( My Own True Name , 2000), Walter Dean Myers ( Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices , 2004), Naomi Shihab Nye ( A Maze Me: Poems for Girls , 2005), John Grandits ( Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems , 2007), Elise Paschen ( Poetry Speaks Who I Am , 2010), Christine Heppermann ( Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty , 2014) and Margarita Engle ( Two Cultures, Two Wings , 2015).
Elizabeth Acevedo's largely verse novel The Poet X (2018) won a National Book Award. Verse novels for young people have become relatively widespread in the 21st century; further examples are What My Mother Doesn't Know (2003) by Sonya Sones, Crank (2004) by Ellen Hopkins, Splintering (2004) by Eireann Corrigan , Psyche in a Dress (2006) by Francesca Lia Block and I Heart You, You Haunt Me (2008) by Lisa Schroeder.
Far more important than printed poetry was and often is for American youngsters the lyrics of the music they prefer. The lyrics of singer-songwriters like Woody Guthrie , the Nobel Prize for Literature Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell are particularly obvious examples. But texts by current artists (e.g. Lady Gaga , Beyoncé , Usher , Bruno Mars ) have occasionally aroused interest in literary scholars . Another recent example is hip-hop texts, which - like slam poetry - are currently (2019) often used in American schools to help teenagers understand the lyrics in English classes .
Short story
The Short Story has been set in the United States with writers like Washington Irving , Edgar Allan Poe , Herman Melville , Kate Chopin , F. Scott Fitzgerald , William Faulkner , Ernest Hemingway , Eudora Welty , John Cheever , Flannery O'Connor , Raymond Carver and many others a rich legacy. In youth literature, however, this form of prose is as underrepresented as the poem.
The most prominent exception to the rule that short story writers rarely write for young readers is Joyce Carol Oates , who published Small Avalanches and Other Stories in 2003. Other prolific writers of short stories for adolescent readers include Judy Angell, Robin F. Brancato, Sue Ellen Bridgers, Bruce Coville, Cin Forshay-Lunsford, Marijane Meaker , Norma Fox Mazer , Lensey Namioka, Jean Davis Okimoto, Richard Peck, Susan Beth Pfeffer , Morton Rhue , Colby Rodowsky, Ouida Sebestyen, Marjorie Weinman Sharmat , Ellen Wittlinger and Jane Yolen .
A good introduction to short story literature for adolescent readers is provided by anthologies such as the volumes Sixteen (1985), Visions (1988), and Connections (1990) edited by Donald R. Gallo . The volume Sudden Flash Youth , published in 2011 by Christine Perkins-Hazuka, contains 65 stories. In the same year the anthology What You Wish For: A Book for Darfur (2011) was published by the Book Wish Foundation of the Penguin Group .
Other anthologies are dedicated to specific topics or genres, e.g. B. LGBT ( Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence , 1994), the very young teenagers ( 13: Thirteen Stories that Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen , 2003), young migrants ( First Crossing: Stories about Teen Immigrants , 2004), different skin colors ( Face Relations: 11 Stories about Seeing Beyond Color , 2004), social outsiders ( Outside Rules: Short Stories about Nonconformist Youth , 2006) or disabilities ( Owning it: stories about teens with disabilities , 2010). Sumaiya Beshir published two anthologies with short stories by young Muslim authors in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
Graphic novel
As graphic novels is denoted by Richard Kyle narrative works with the means of expression of comic work, but not as periodicals are published. Bloodstar (1976) by Richard Corben is considered the first graphic novel to be published explicitly as such . The new form of literature initially developed mainly in the USA. Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus (1986) and Neil Gaiman's New York Times bestseller The Sandman (1988–1996) helped her to gain reputation and popularity.
Many graphic novels are written specifically for young readers. The most significant examples include the historical novels To the Heart of the Storm (1991) by Will Eisner , Stuck Rubber Baby (1995) by Howard Cruse, and Boxers and Saints (2013) by Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien. Other typical genres are science fiction ( Charles Burns : Black Hole , 1995ff; Phil and Kaja Foglio: Girl Genius , 2001ff; Noelle Stevenson: Nimona , 2012), horror literature ( Caitlín R. Kiernan : Alabaster Wolves , 2013) and fantasy (Sana Amanat et al: Ms. Marvel # 1: No Normal , 2013; Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda: Monstress , 2015ff).
However, among the recent graphic novels for young readers, many of the best works are in the realistic genres, such as Ghost World (1997) by Daniel Clowes , One Hundred Demons (2002) by Lynda Barry, Blankets (2003) by Craig Thompson , Tricked (2005 ) by Alex Robinson, Swallow Me Whole (2008) by Nate Powell, Stitches (2009) by David Small and Anya's Ghost (2011) by Vera Brosgol. The award-winning works Persepolis (2000/2004) by Marjane Satrapi and American Born Chinese (2006) by Gene Luen Yang tell transcultural stories.
The promotion of reluctant readers (children and young people who do not like reading or not at all) has had a special place in American library and education systems since around 1950. Many American authors, including Scott Corbett, see themselves as both writers and educators whose educational goal is in particular to produce literature that seduces Reluctant Readers to read. Since many Reluctant Readers like to read comics, some authors have switched over to adapting literary works that are supposed to be read by teenagers - for example in school - as graphic novels . A successful example are the No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels (2003ff), adapted and illustrated by Neil Barbra , which not only translate the works of William Shakespeare into picture stories, but also translate the Elizabethan English language, which is often feared by American students, into modern English . More recently, even pronounced youth books have been adapted as graphic novels (Walter Dean Myers, Guy A. Sims: Monster. A Graphic Novel , 2015; Laurie Halse Anderson, Emily Carroll: Speak. The Graphic Novel , 2018).
Manga
As a Japanese export commodity, manga gained popularity in the United States at the end of the 20th century. One of the first works translated into English for the American market is the series Barefoot through Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa , which was published in 1976 by the newly founded EduComics.
In the following decades, mangas by American authors were also able to gain market share. The first so-called OEL Manga (original English language manga) include Elfquest (1978ff) by Wendy and Richard Pini and Ninja High School (1987ff) by Ben Dunn. Significant recent examples are 100% (2002–2003) by Paul Pope, King City (2007) by Brandon Graham, Empowered (2007ff) by Adam Warren, By Chance or Providence (2011ff) by Becky Cloonan and In Real Life (2014) by Jen Wang and Cory Doctorow.
Acting, musical
Major American plays in which teenagers play central roles include a. Thornton Wilder : Our Town (1938), William Inge : Picnic (1953), Henry Miller : The Crucible (1953), Robert Anderson : Tea and Sympathy (1953), Look Homeward, Angel (1957) by Ketti Frings , The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1965) by Paul Zindel and The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1996) by Alfred Uhry . More recent examples are the full-length pieces How I Learned to Drive (1997) by Paula Vogel , Mirror Mirror (2010) by Sarah Treem, She Kills Monsters (2011) by Qui Nguyen, Milk Like Sugar (2012) by Kirsten Greenidge, written for a teenage audience and The Lost Girl (or First Chair) (2015) by Lauren Yee. A literary prize that can be awarded specifically for stage plays for young audiences does not yet exist in the United States.
Some successful musicals also have adolescent protagonists ( Leonard Bernstein : West Side Story , 1957; Roger Miller , William Hauptman: Big River (1985); Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater: Spring Awakening , 2006; Alan Menken et al .: The Little Mermaid , 2008; Alan Menken, Harvey Fierstein : Newsies , 2011). The musicals Hairspray (2002) by Marc Shaiman et al. Were written especially for an audience of teenagers . a., Heathers (2010) by Laurence O'Keefe and Kevin Murphy, Dear Evan Hansen (2015) by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul , School of Rock (2015) by Andrew Lloyd Webber , Glenn Slater and Julian Fellowes, and Mean Girls (2017 ) by Jeff Richmond , Nell Benjamin, and Tina Fey . Many of the latter works were made as adaptations of successful films.
Non-fictional literature
essay
The essay is a literary form created by authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry James , TS Eliot , William Faulkner , Langston Hughes , Robert Hayden, Arthur Miller , Isaac Asimov , Norman Mailer , James Baldwin , Flannery O'Connor , Gore Vidal , Susan Sontag , Joan Didion and Christopher Hitchens has gained special prominence in the United States. Despite this, and although writing essays is central to the study of literary works in English lessons in high schools, the essay is a genre within youth literature that, like poetry, drama and short story, is often overlooked. A relevant example of a collection of essays is The V-Word: True Stories about First-Time Sex (2016) compiled by Amber J. Keyser . Essays for adolescent readers are found more frequently than in pure collections of essays, however, in mixed anthologies that combine this text form with other smaller forms, such as in the case of Rookie on Love (2018, edited by Tavi Gevinson). Other examples are What are You? Voices of Mixed Race Young People (1999, edited by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins), The Full Spectrum: New Generation of Writing about LGBTQ and Other Identities (2006, edited by David Levithan and Billy Merrell), and Bookmarked: Teen Essays on Life and Literature from Tolkien to Twilight (2012, edited by Ann Camacho).
Non-fiction
In contrast to adult literature, the proportion of non-fictional literature in children's and young adult literature is relatively small. In 2017 it was just under a quarter. One of the most award-winning non-fiction books in the history of American youth literature is Never to Forget: The Jews of the Holocaust (1976) by historian Milton Meltzer.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has honored outstanding non-fictional books for children and young people with its Orbis Pictus Award since 1989 . Among the most successful and critically rated youth non-fiction books are many biographies and memoirs (Elizabeth Partridge: This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie , 2002; Elizabeth Partridge: John Lennon , 2006; Stephanie Hemphill: Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath , 2008; Deborah Heiligman: Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith , 2008; Tanya Thompson: Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade , 2014; Simone Biles : Courage to Soar 2016).
Others describe historical events (Jim Murphy: An American Plague: The Time and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever , 2003; Phillip Hoose: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice , 2009; James L. Swanson: Chasing Lincoln's Killer , 2009; Albert Marrin: Flesh and Blood So Cheap , 2011; Candace Fleming: The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia , 2014; Steve Sheinkin: Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War , 2015; Dashka Slater: The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives , 2017).
A particularly popular genre within non-fictional youth literature are motivational books such as Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (1997) by Jack Canfield and others. a. and Girling Up: How to Be Strong, Smart and Spectacular (2017) by Mayim Bialik .
Literary prizes
With the Newbery Medal , one of the ALA's most important book prizes, which has existed since 1922, the initiators wanted to award not only children's books but also books for young people. In fact, books for young people appeared among the award winners only in a few cases. In order to be able to promote it better, the ALA decided to take youth literature out of the competition against children's literature and gradually created special literature prizes and recommendation lists for it:
- 1988 - Margaret Edwards Award for authors who have made outstanding contributions to the young readership with their life's work
- 1995 - ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults, list of recommendations (derived from the general list "Best Books for Young People")
- 1998 - Alex Awards, for new books written for adults but particularly appealing to teenagers (10 titles per year)
- 1999 - Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
- 2000 - Michael L. Printz Award for the best book for young people
- 2008 - Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, books for young people that are particularly appealing to teenagers who are not interested in reading (10 titles per year)
- 2009 - Great Graphic Novels for Teens
- 2009 - William C. Morris YA Debut Award, for outstanding first novels by new authors
- 2010 - Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, for paperbacks of books that are particularly appealing to teenagers (different categories)
- 2010 - Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults
The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English (ALAN) awards several important literary prizes each year, above all the ALAN Award (since 1974) for people who have made a special contribution to American youth literature with their life's work and the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (since 2008) for an outstanding book for young people.
There are also numerous other literary prizes in the United States, such as the National Book Award , which have categories for children's and youth literature but no special category for teenage literature. Works of youth literature are also in direct competition with children's books when they have won children's and youth literature prizes such as the Josette Frank Award (since 1943), the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1958–1979), the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (since 1967) or run for the Phoenix Award (since 1985).
Economic dimension
Among the most successful on the American youth book market publishers and publishing groups are today Penguin Random House , CBS , Holtzbrinck , Harper Collins and Hachette .
The youth literature is economically significant and rapidly growing. The number of new publications rose in the years 2002–2012 from around 4,700 to more than 10,000. A large proportion of the books for young people are available as e-books ; in 2012 there were 4,370 titles.
With the advent of digital media , reading (not counting reading abandoned by school) has fallen dramatically among American teenagers. While 60% of the twelfth graders in the late 1970s read for entertainment every day, it was only 16% in 2016. A 2014 study found that 77% of books for adolescent readers were bought by adults.
Research, teaching and specialist publications
Among the pioneers in the academic study of youth literature are: a. Louise Rosenblatt, Ken Donelson, M. Jerry Weiss, Sheila Schwartz, Dwight L. Burton, Alleen Pace Nilsen, Robert C. Small, Virginia Monseau, Gary Salvner, and Teri Lesesne. The Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan provides for the scientific study of young people's literature to a Master's program. In addition, there are also master’s degree programs in the USA in which budding young adult authors can study creative writing in which this form of literature is the main focus, for example at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey and Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The Scarecrow Press , an imprint of Lanham, Maryland -based publisher Rowman & Littlefield has, in 1998 with the publication of a now multi-volume reference book series Studies in Young Adult Literature begun.
See also
- American children's and youth literature
- American literature
- Children's and young people's literature
literature
Overview literature
- Joni Richards Bodart: Radical Reads: 101 YA Novels on the Edge . The Scarecrow Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-8108-4287-8 .
- Rosemary Chance: Young Adult Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide . 2nd Edition. Libraries Unlimited, 2014, ISBN 978-1-61069-244-1 .
- Harry Edwin Eiss: Young adult literature and culture . Cambridge Scholars Pub., Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-4438-0493-6 .
- Agnes Regan Perkins: Dictionary of American Young Adult Fiction, 1997-2001: Books of Recognized Merit . Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-32430-7 .
history
- Katherine T. Bucher, KaaVonia M. Hinton: Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation . 3. Edition. Pearson, 2013, ISBN 978-0-13-306679-1 .
- Michael Cart: Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism . 3. Edition. Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2016, ISBN 978-0-8389-1462-5 .
Individual genres
- Lynda G. Adamson, AT Dickinson: American historical fiction: an annotated guide to novels for adults and young adults . Oryx Press, Phoenix, Arizona 1999, ISBN 978-1-57356-067-2 .
- Sara K. Day, Miranda A. Green-Barteet, Amy L. Montz: Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction . Taylor and Francis, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-138-24768-0 .
- Deborah Kutenplon, Ellen Olmstead: Young adult fiction by African American writers, 1968–1993: a critical and annotated guide . Routledge, London 2015, ISBN 978-0-8153-0873-7 .
- Deborah Wilson Overstreet: Not your mother's vampire vampires in young adult fiction . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland 2006, ISBN 978-0-8108-5365-2 .
- Charles W. Sullivan: Young adult science fiction . Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut 1999, ISBN 978-0-313-28940-8 .
theory
- Jonathan Alexander: Writing youth: young adult fiction as literacy sponsorship . Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland 2016, ISBN 978-1-4985-3842-8 .
- Victoria Flanagan: Technology and identity in young adult fiction: the posthuman subject . Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2014, ISBN 978-1-137-36205-6 .
- Bryan Gillis, Joanna Simpson: Sexual content in young adult literature: reading between the sheets . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2015, ISBN 978-1-4422-4687-4 .
- Elisabeth Rose Gruner: Constructing the adolescent reader in contemporary young adult fiction . Palgrave Macmillan, London 2019, ISBN 978-1-137-53923-6 .
- Virginia Monseau: Responding to Young Adult Literature . Boynton / Cook, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 1996, ISBN 978-0-86709-401-5 .
didactics
- Linda J. Rice: What was it like? Teaching history and culture through young adult literature . Teachers College Press, Columbia University, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-8077-4711-7 .
Web links
- New York Times: Young Adult Hardcover. Retrieved September 9, 2019 (list of current New York Times bestsellers).
- Young Adult Library Services Association: Best Books for Young Adults. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- www.kirkusreviews.com. Accessed September 10, 2019 (website with brief synopsis and reviews of many of the youth books listed here).
- www.goodreads.com. Retrieved on September 10, 2019 (web portal with table of contents for almost all of the youth books listed here).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Valerie Peterson: Young Adult and New Adult Book Markets. December 16, 2018, accessed September 6, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Michael Cart: How “Young Adult” Fiction Blossomed With Teenage Culture in America. Retrieved July 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Laurie Halse Anderson: Top 13 YA Books for Talking to Teens About Tough Stuff. In: Huffpost. December 6, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ G. Robert Carlsen: Books and the Teenage Reader. A Guide for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents . Harper & Row, 1980, ISBN 978-0-06-010626-3 . Quoted from Steven VanderStaay: Young-Adult Literature: A Writer Strikes the Genre . In: English Journal . tape 81 , no. 4 , 1992, pp. 48-52, here: p. 48 , JSTOR : 819930 .
- ^ A b c Claire Bradshaw: 3 Key Differences Between YA Fiction And Adult Fiction. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Writing YA Versus Adult Fiction: What's the difference? Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Deborah Halverson: Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies . Wiley, Hoboken, NJ 2011, ISBN 978-0-470-94954-2 , pp. 3 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ^ Middle Schools. Retrieved July 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Julie Naughton: New Adult: A Book Category For Twentysomethings by Twentysomethings. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ^ New Adult. In: Goodreads. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Roberta Seelinger Trites: Disturbing the universe: power and repression in adolescent literature . University of Iowa Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1-58729-333-7 .
- ^ The Creator of "Nick Carter" . In: Edward Jewitt Wheeler, Isaac Kaufman Funk, William Seaver Woods (Eds.): The Literary Digest . tape 73 . Funk & Wagnalls, New York 1922 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Meet Nick Carter. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .
- ↑ 30 Best Horse Books. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Best Horse Novels for Adults or Older Teens. In: Goodreads. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Lenora Mattingly Weber. Retrieved September 10, 2019 (Goodreads).
- ↑ Katharine Atherton Grimes: Making a Living Issue of a Boy's Department . In: The Writer's Monthly . tape 12 , no. 4 , 1918, pp. 147 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Girl's Magazines . In: Miriam Forman-Brunell (Ed.): Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1 . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2001, ISBN 978-1-57607-206-6 , pp. 335 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Carolyn çarpan: Sisters, Schoolgirls, and Sleuths: Girls' Series Books in America . Scarecrow Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8108-5756-8 , pp. 101 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Guusje Moore: The Malt Shop Era. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Amelia Elizabeth Walden papers. Retrieved September 23, 2019 .
- ^ Reed Smith: The Teaching of Literature in the High School . American Book, New York 1935, pp. 7, 376-377 .
- ^ Lou La Brant: The Teaching of Literature in the Secondary School . Harcourt, Brace, New York, pp. 52 .
- ^ Joan Atkinson: Pioneers in Public Library Service to Young Adults . In: Top of the News . tape 43 , no. 1 , 1986, pp. 27-44 .
- ^ Patty Campbell: Two Pioneers of Young Adult Library Services . Scarecrow Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8108-3423-1 .
- ↑ Anne Youyer: How did YA Become YA? Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Betty Carter: Margaret A. Edwards. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ^ Anne Rouyer: How did YA Become YA? Retrieved July 24, 2019 .
- ^ Carol Starr: Brief History of the Young Adult Services Division. Retrieved July 24, 2019 .
- ^ A b Best Fiction for Young Adults. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ^ Sarah Graham: JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye: A Routledge Study Guide . Routledge, London, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-34452-4 , pp. 18 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Stephen Petrus: Rumblings of Discontent: American Popular Culture and its Response to the Beat Generation, 1957-1960 . In: Studies in Popular Culture . tape 20 , no. 1 , 1997, p. 1–17, here: pp. 8–9 .
- ↑ Jon Towlson: Subversive Horror Cinema: Counter Cultural Messages of Films from Frankenstein to the Present . McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-7469-1 , pp. 66 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ The JD classics. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Eisenstadt v. Baird. Retrieved September 8, 2019 .
- ^ John Downton Hazlett, My Generation: Collective Autobiography and Identity Politics . The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1998, ISBN 0-299-15780-6 , pp. 74 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ The Contender: Summary. Retrieved July 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Michael Cart: Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism . 3. Edition. Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2016, ISBN 978-0-8389-1462-5 , pp. 184 .
- ↑ a b Fifteen By Beverly Cleary. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
- ^ Assembly on Literature for Adolescents in the NCTE. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Pamela Hunt Steinle: In Cold Fear: The Catcher in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character . Ohio State University Press, Columbus 2000, ISBN 978-0-8142-5053-2 .
- ↑ Becky Little: When the Supreme Court Had to Read an 18th-Century Erotic Novel. Retrieved October 3, 2019 .
- ↑ OIF. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Top Ten Most Challenged Books Lists. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
- ^ Whitney Friedlander: 'Little Women' trailer introduces the March sisters to a new generation. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Mark Twain and American Realism. Retrieved September 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Carolyn çarpan: Sisters, Schoolgirls, and Sleuths: Girls' Series Books in America . Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-5756-8 , pp. 66 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ That Was Then, This Is Now. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Ryan Kent: There Were Drugs at Woodstock !? Retrieved September 6, 2019 .
- ^ A b Learn From Their Mistakes: Drugs and Alcohol in YA Literature. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ 50 Must-Read YA Bolks About Mental Illness (Plus a Few More). Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Illness in YA fiction - do authors go too far, or not far enough? Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Disability & Different Ability in YA Fiction. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ The present and future of disability in YA books. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ On the subject of overweight z. E.g. A New Discussion of 'Skinny' for Teens. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ LGBT - Young Adult Books with Transgender Characters. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ New Crop of Young Adult Novels Explores Race and Police. In: The New York Times. March 19, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ 'The Hate U Give': a heavy, hopeful YA drama on race and police violence. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Ron Banks: Bullying in Schools. Retrieved September 7, 2019 .
- ↑ The Portrayal of Bullying in Young Adult Books: Characters, Contexts, and Complex Relationships. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ CJ Hawkings: Talk About Taboo: Approaching The Topic Of Rape In YA Literature. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Maryjo Barnett Chinn: Realism in young adult literature: criteria and analysis. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Karen Jensen: Rich Teen, Poor Teen: Books that depict teens living in poverty. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Jon Ostenson: Exploring the Last Taboo with Young Adult Literature: Adolescents and religion. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Tyler Wigg Stevenson: Revelation's Warning to Evangelicals: Left Behind May Be Hazardous to Our Health. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Dean Schneider: What Makes a Good Sports Novel? Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Karen Jensen: Get in the Game! YA fiction that features sports. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
- ↑ Popular Peer Pressure Books. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Leanne Hall: Healthy and Complicated Friendships in YA fiction. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Where the Lilies Bloom. Retrieved September 1, 2019 (Kirkus Reviews).
- ^ Julie Just: The Parent Problem in Young Adult Lit. In: The New York Times. April 1, 2010, accessed September 30, 2019 .
- ^ The Parent Problem. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Sibling Relationships in YA Lit.Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Brian Boone: 50 of the Most Essential High School Stories. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Popular High School Setting Books. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Hillary Kelly: We Regret to Inform You That Little Women Is Not a Feminist Novel. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ The Meadow-Brook Girls. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ^ Anne Rouyer: Feminist YA Fiction. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Nancy Larrick: The All-White World of Children's Publishing . In: Saturday Review . 1965 ( longwood.edu [PDF]).
- ^ Black History in YA Fiction: A Time Line. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ 21 YA Books For Black History Month. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Best Young Adult Native American Books. Retrieved September 12, 2019 .
- ^ American Indian Youth Literature Award. Retrieved September 12, 2019 .
- ^ Native Americans By the Numbers. Retrieved September 12, 2019 . First- and second-generation share of the population, 1900–2017. Retrieved September 12, 2019 .
- ^ YA books about immigration. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ YA books set in other countries. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Book Review: New to Me - Seventeenth Summer. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Hopelessly Devoted to Fifties Teen Romances. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Caren J. Town: LGBTQ young adult fiction: a critical survey, 1970s-2010s . McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina 2017, ISBN 978-0-7864-9694-5 .
- ↑ Daisy Porter: From Problem to Pride: A Short History of Queer YA Fiction. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Danika Leigh Ellis: The 38 Best Queer YA Novels. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Young Adult Literature - Censoring Teenage Sexual Autonomy. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
- ^ Amy Pattee, The Secret Source: Sexually Explicit Young Adult Literature as an Information Source . In: Young Adult Library Services (YALS) . tape 4 , no. 2 , 2006, p. 30-38 .
- ↑ Romance Fiction with Characters Having Autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Autism in YA. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ 3 Key Differences Between YA Fiction And Adult Fiction. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Adam Soboczynski : Tales of Innocence. In: The time. July 19, 2012, accessed October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Christine Seifert: Bite Me! (Or don't) . In: Bitch Magazine . 2008 ( online [PDF]).
- ↑ Terrell: Difference Between ... YA & Adult Fiction. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ^ Carol Fry: Fictional conventions and sexuality in Dracula . In: ML Carter (ed.): Dracula: The vampire and the critics . UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, MI 1988, pp. 35-38 .
- ↑ Elizabeth McCarthy: The Un-dead: To be Feared or / and Pitied . In: Peter Day (Ed.): Vampires: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil . Rodopi, Amsterdam, New York 2006, ISBN 90-420-1669-8 , pp. 209–226, here: p. 216 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ↑ Samira K. Mehta, Anthony M. Petro: Big Vampire Love: What's so Mormon About Twilight ? Retrieved August 7, 2019 .
- ^ Mormon Influence, Imagery Run Deep Through 'Twilight'. In: HuffPost. June 24, 2010, accessed August 7, 2019 .
- ↑ Young Adult Vampire Romance. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
- ^ YA Star-Crossed / Forbidden / Enemy Love. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Why are Romeo and Juliet called "star-crossed lovers"? Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls by L. Frank Baum. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Nancy Drew . In: Joyce Appleby, Eileen Chang, Neva Goodwin (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Women in American History . Routledge, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7656-8038-9 , pp. 1630 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ The mystery of a feminist icon. Retrieved September 13, 2019 .
- ↑ The Girl Detective Megapack: 25 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls . Wildside Press, Rockville, Maryland 2013 (eBook).
- ↑ I know what you did last summer ; Killing Mr. Griffin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results. Retrieved September 13, 2019 .
- ^ A Moment of Silence for Herbert Reaver, DC. Retrieved September 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Caleb Roehrig: Top Ten YA Mysteries. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness # 1). Retrieved August 4, 2019 (Goodreads).
- ↑ The Road to Balinor. Retrieved August 4, 2019 (Goodreads).
- ↑ The Best Dragon Books for Teens. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ 17 YA Books With Dragons. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ 8 Twisted Updates on Fairy-Tale Worlds. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Great Reads for Teens - Fractured Fairy Tales. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Book Review: Akata Warrior by Nnedy Okorafor. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Sean Ferrier-Watson: The Children's Ghost Story in America . McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina 2017, ISBN 978-1-4766-6494-1 , pp. 106 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Elizabeth Rollins Epperly: The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: LM Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance . University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London 1992, ISBN 978-1-4426-2653-9 , pp. 159 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Young Adult Ghost Stories. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ June Pulliam: Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Your Adult Horror Fiction . McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-7543-8 , pp. 21 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body: The Fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice . Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, London 1996, ISBN 0-313-29716-9 , pp. 9 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Carrie in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ June Pulliam: Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Your Adult Horror Fiction . McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina 2014, ISBN 978-0-7864-7543-8 , pp. 81 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Point Horror: Blind Date (RL Stine). Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
- ^ Point Horror Series. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Michelle Smith: Friday essay: why YA gothic fiction is booming - and girl monsters are on the rise. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ The Best YA / Teen Fiction Books With Zombies. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Kate Sheeran Swed: Retellings: Cued from the Classics. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Reviews of Dark Fantasy for Young Adults. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ The Adoration of Jenna Fox: Summary and Study Guide. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Unwind, Book 1. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Andre Norton Award. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ The Hugo Award. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Young Adult Hardcover. In: The New York Times. March 24, 2019, accessed September 30, 2019 .
- ^ 19 Best Young Adult Science Fiction Books. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ 23 Best Space Books That Are Totally Out of This World. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Zeroboxer. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ^ Arabella of Mars. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ 6YANovelstoHelpYouSurviveanAlienInvasion. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ a b What came before “The Hunger Games”? Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Hunger Games Prequel Novel Coming in 2020. Accessed July 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Dana Stevens: Why Teens Love Dystopias. March 21, 2014, accessed September 29, 2019 .
- ^ What to Read Next. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Best Dystopian Books for Teens. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Book Review: The Last Human by Ink Pieper. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
- ↑ YA Novels in Verse. Retrieved September 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Jude Rogers: When song lyrics become literature. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Steve Laube: Lyrics as Literature. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Gerri George: Song Lyrics as Literature. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Philmore Hart: Lyrics as Literature. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ^ Jeanne Wolz: Slam Poetry Day 1: Speak. Your. Truth. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Sumaiya Beshir. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Richard Kyle: Wonderworld # 2 . In: Capa-Alpha . tape November 2 , 1964.
- ↑ Scott Corbett . In: DL Kirkpatrick (Ed.): Twentieth Century Children's Writers . Macmillan, London, Basingstoke 1978, ISBN 978-0-333-23414-3 , pp. 309 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Randall Bonser: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga: The Ultimate Teen Guide . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 2017, ISBN 978-1-4422-6839-5 , pp. 190 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ^ Educational Comics . In: M. Keith Booker (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels, Volume 2 . Greenwood, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-313-35749-7 , pp. 164 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ The Sometimes-Forgotten Genres in Literature Written for Adolescents and Young Adults: Short Stories, Essays, and Poetry. Retrieved September 18, 2019 . Jesse Liebman: How To Write Any High School Essay: The Essential Guide . CreateSpace, 2017, ISBN 978-1-5390-2981-6 .
- ↑ Print Sales Up Again in 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ^ Orbis Pictus Award. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Alex Awards. Retrieved September 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Amazing Audiobooks. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Great Graphic Novels. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ^ The William C. Morris YA Debut Award. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ More and more teens and adults hooked on Young Adult fiction. Retrieved September 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Jim Sliwa: Teens Today Spend More Time on Digital Media, Less Time Reading. Retrieved September 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Why adults are buzzing about YA literature. Retrieved September 27, 2019 .
- ^ Studies in Young Adult Literature. Retrieved October 5, 2019 .
