A Guide to Literature for Young Adults, Background, Selection, and Use , and: Literature for Today's Young Adults (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Guide to Literature for Young Adults, Background, Selection, and Use, and: Literature for Today's Young Adults Lois R. Kuznets (bio) Cline, Ruth and William McBride . A Guide to Literature for Young Adults, Background, Selection, and Use. Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman and Company, 1983. Donelson, Kenneth and Alleen Pace Nilsen . Literature for Today's Young Adults. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1980. Stephen Vincent Benet won the hearts of my tenth graders when, early in his short story, "To Early Spring," he had a young woman shout across the lake to a young man, "Did you do the special reading for English? I thought it was dumb." He, of course replies, "It's always dumb." If my students thought their summer reading for English was "dumb," how would they like to mix sun lotion and sand with two textbooks about reading for young adults, one of which was almost 500 pages long? If I had to judge on convenience in slipping into a beach bag or color fastness against a wet bathing suit, Cline and McBride's paperback would certainly have won hands down. But books are not chosen by weight and cover, at least not by this not-so-young adult. As a matter of fact, in certain circumstances, I would choose the longer book. Before discussing choice, however, let me consider their likenesses and differences. Since both books were published recently by Scott, Foresman, it is not surprising that they display certain likenesses in approach and content. Both show a fundamental respect for the idea of reading and for the young adult reader. They are written primarily for the instruction of an audience of budding librarians and teachers. These are people who plant to be in daily contact with young adults, and who will be among the prime mediators between them and books. This area of reading is a clear candidate for censorship in classroom and library; therefore, both textbooks are also concerned with the role of these professionals as mediators between the books and the community at large. One receives a general sense in them of the building of a common united front among young adults (the designation of choice over "adolescents," these books inform us), contemporary writers of books for [End Page 42] young adults, professionals working with young adults, and books for young adults. It is a somewhat defensive front against general criticism from both outside and within the ranks: Donelson and Nilsen begin by noting for example, the "sometimes skeptical view of colleagues about the worth of this literature." For that matter, the worth of young adults themselves has never been entirely clear to the older generation. There are other likenesses. Both books seem to have rather broad definitions of the age group of young adults and of the reading matter considered-anyone between twelve and twenty, anything voluntarily chosen to be read by members of this age group. Both books contain chapters on what teenagers are like, according to psychologists and sociologists, and in them discuss problems of learning theory directly related to the reading process, as well as general developmental stages-physical, social, and emotional. They both give historical surveys of literature, both classic and popular, written specifically for young adults (a relatively new phenomenon) or frequently chosen by them. Both books also have chapters on the evaluation of literature-Cline and McBride's much briefer and less specifically literary than Donelson and Nilsen's. The main differences between them, aside from the greater length at which Donelson and Nilsen tend to treat all the common topics, rest in two sections. Cline and McBride, in a section called "The Uses of Literature," place particular emphasis on individualized reading programs, the use of literature in other disciplines besides English, and-rather curiously, considering the lack of depth and specificity with regard to other types of young adults reading matter-the longest chapter of the book is entitled "Comics in Our Society and in the Classroom." Incidentally, and less objectively, I enjoyed reading the chapter immensely, but found it rather special pleading in a book of this size and scope. Moreover, the premise with which it ends, "Comics as a...