Young Adult Literature Research Articles

Plot, Characters, and Representation: Patterns and Gaps in Award-Winning LGBTQ Children’s Books

ABSTRACT Children’s books representing LGBTQ identities are a vital part of elementary school classrooms and libraries, as well as family resources, and more of these diverse books have been published over recent years. While existing research on these books catalogs how many of them represent traditionally marginalized groups, our research examines the diversity of narratives within these books. In this study, we used narrative critical content analysis to examine 51 books from three award lists: the Lambda Literary Awards, the Rainbow Booklist, and the Stonewall Book Awards for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. These books are age-appropriate for read-alouds for all elementary grade levels based on their text complexity and storylines. We categorized books with identity-based conflicts and conflicts not based on identity. Overall, we found that books rely heavily on LGBTQ identities as the main source of conflict, using repeated plotlines of coming out, resisting bullying, love stories, and LGBTQ rights. In most cases, these repeated plotlines limit representation of LGBTQ people’s complex, multifaceted lives. We discuss the implications of these repeated plotlines, and we provide a list of recommended books that represent LGBTQ characters with more multifaceted lives and provide more unique stories.

Representation of neurodivergence in fiction books: exploring neurodivergent young peoples' perspectives

AbstractIn recent years, there has been growing awareness of the importance of representation in fiction books, to ensure all children and young people can see themselves reflected in what they read. Much of this work has focused, importantly, on increasing ethnic representation, yet there has been much less exploration of the representation of other minority experiences, such as those of neurodivergent young people, and how these are perceived by neurodivergent young people themselves. This article provides new insights into neurodivergent young people's perceptions of representation of neurodivergence in fiction books (and other text types) based on semi‐structured interviews with 16 neurodivergent young people (aged 14 to 17 year olds) from 2 high schools in Scotland. Using an inductive data‐driven thematic analysis process, three themes were identified: (1) representation of neurodivergence should be complex, realistic, and positive; (2) representation of neurodivergence should be normalised; (3) representation of neurodivergence beyond books is important. Each of these themes is explored in detail, followed by implications for future research, practice and the publishing of Young Adult fiction.

A Postcolonial Psychoanalytic Study of Indigenous Futurism in Ambelin Kwaymullina’s The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf and Marianne De Pierres’ Nylon Angel

This article aims to critically assess the projection of ‘Indigenous Futurism’ by examining the select Australian young adult novels using Jaques Lacan’s Anamorphosis from a postcolonial perspective. Ambelin Kwaymullina’s speculative fiction The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (2012) projects a futuristic Australia where the tribal people are seeking independence from a colonial authority. Similarly, the plot of Marianne de Pierres’ Nylon Angel (2004) revolves around the issues of the marginalized people in Australia in a techno-dystopian world. The objective of this article is to critically examine these two speculative novels using Lacan’s anamorphosis concept to correlate how these authors have connected the contemporary issues in Australia and also how they have speculated the issues of the Aboriginal people in Australia in the future. Additionally, this article also aims to highlight how they have projected the ‘Indigenous Futurism’ from an Aboriginal man’s perspective using anamorphosis.

Dystopian young adult literature as waypoints to censorship across time and space

ABSTRACT We advocate for the reading of young adult literature (YAL) as a means for justice-oriented education, and we also recognize how the recent surge in challenges to youth-centered texts in the U.S. attempts to limit such work in classrooms. In response, we wondered about the ways in which YAL offers pathways for critically framing and situating global concerns, such as censorship, in time and space as a means of entering public conversations on issues. In this article, we offer waypoints as a critical reading framework for approaching sociopolitical issues in YAL as gateways for shifts in perspectives, orientations, and actions towards justice. We argue that such a framework for approaching YAL can help further unravel the social issues critical literacy aims to name and act on by locating topics in relation to politics and power.

Responding to representations of fatphobia in prose and comics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory. Design/methodology/approach At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality. Findings Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants. Originality/value Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

Botanical Awareness and Adolescent Maturation in Siri Pettersen’s Odin’s Child

This article supports the thesis that (eco)fantasy novels written for young adult people are nowadays crucial to give the next generation an ecological expertise to face environmental challenges. It is therefore important to consider what perceptions of nature are actually conveyed through the reading of these literary works, thus involving a pure dissemination of knowledge about flora. The novel Odin’s Child (Odinsbarn, 2013) by Siri Pettersen is considered here, giving voice to arboreal and botanical perspectives and basing the analysis on phytocriticism and the recent developments in ecocriticism. Odin’s Child supports the belief that a deep knowledge about botanical elements can be shared through the practice of embodiment and through an active interaction with the plant world, especially at a young age; for this reason, the importance of liminality and the role of contemporary literature in the human maturation process are underlined here. Plants play multiple sustainable roles in our life and for the survival of the planet: they are sources of medical treatments, and absorbers of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants (Jones and MacLeod 2022). Yet, it is only recently that scholars from the humanities have started analysing the role of plants in fiction, inaugurating the so-called ‘plant-turn’. The aim of this study is to highlight the importance of plants and botanical knowledge in young people’s understanding of and engagement with the natural world via young adult literature. This article’s approach will underscore the pedagogical value of ecofantasy as a suitable genre in creating empathy and a positive attunement towards flora in young readers. The central part of this paper, informed by the work of John C. Ryan (2018) and his phytocritical method, provides an analysis of the botanical elements of the econovel Odin’s Child, with an emphasis on its affective potential. A final reflection will involve new materialistic visions – such as the concepts of hybridisation (Curry 2013) and transcorporeality (Alaimo 2010) – in considering the liminal space of human/non-human and the girl/woman maturation process through which the novel develops.

Two Sides of the Same Hegemony: Human, Control, Power Struggles and The Hunger Games

As being one of the most popular contemporary young adult fiction series at the time it was published, The Hunger Games Trilogy explores crucial real-life issues within a fictional apocalyptic world. This article delves into the analysis of the book series’ various societies through the lens of Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon prison, which Michel Foucault later interpreted as a tool for societal discipline. The argument presented here centres on the striking similarity in the control methods employed by the two distinct power centres in the series—Capitol and District 13—to govern the people under their rule. By utilizing the theories of hegemony and panopticon, this study scrutinizes this type of control in detail. Additionally, the article examines how both Capitol and District 13 employ media, hunger, and the Hunger Games as separate tools for control, elucidating their respective impacts on society. Despite the initial portrayal of these governmental powers as evil and good, a thorough analysis reveals that they share the same underlying motivation and methods in their quest for ultimate control over everything.

Book studies in Poland after the Second World War

The paper presents an overview of research on books and their types conducted after the Second World War by Polish bibliologists. The scholars were mostly interested in academic books, popular books, as well as books for children and young adults. They explored their characteristic features, presented them as elements of the publishing repertoire and of serial publications, and discussed their development in various periods. Less interesting to them were the structure and typology of books. In recent years, studies devoted to electronic books as objects of bibliological research have begun to appear. Research on books and their types is also conducted by scholars from other disciplines: historians, historians of literature and historians of education. Their findings are also of interest to bibliologists.

The impact of children's and young adult literature courses on teachers' selection of global and culturally diverse texts for the classroom

AbstractThis large‐scale survey study examined how teachers select and integrate global and culturally diverse children's and young adult literature for their classrooms. Results from the survey captured self‐reports of the selection process, suggesting if and how teachers were selecting and integrating this literature and reflecting possible influence from children's and young adult literature courses taken in teacher preparation programs. Taking general children's and young adult literature courses, and specific courses on diverse literature and global literature was found to be related to teachers' responses to questions centered on selecting, evaluating, and integrating global and culturally diverse literature. These courses may be pivotal to increase the needed integration of global and culturally diverse children's and young adult literature into secondary and elementary classroom instruction.

Cultivating critical race theory awareness with secondary pre‐service teachers through examination of Black Lives Matter‐themed literature

AbstractThis study documents secondary pre‐service teachers (PSTs) who examined Black Lives Matter (BLM)‐themed young adult literature (YAL) embedded in contemporary realistic fiction and graphic novels, as part of coursework for an online YAL course required for secondary teacher certification. An analysis of instructor mentoring, online discussions, literature evaluations, and interviews demonstrates enhanced awareness of the need to implement BLM‐themed literature, against the grain of rigid curricular requirements and policies that ban critical race theory (CRT) dialogue in numerous school districts. Moreover, PSTs identified these texts as a source to guide CRT to raise awareness of the history and permanence of systemic racism and its influence on contemporary society and the implementation of culturally relevant literature.

Interrupting the hegemony of SEL: The productive potential of anger in Young Adult Literature

ABSTRACT Drawing on feminist and critical theories of politics and emotions, this paper attends to the hegemony of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for multiply-marginalized students and explores what exemplary Young Adult (YA) novels can teach scholars, educators, and students about the productive use of anger in the face of injustice. Two acclaimed young adult novels are examined using Critical Content Analysis to illustrate the potential for using such books to critically discuss what anger does in the face of injustice related to race and gender.

Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

AbstractBook banning and censorship in the U.S. prompts necessary conversations on how critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry are used in various school and library settings. We share guiding questions alongside three examples of textual analyses centering on gender fluidity with three young adult novels. We believe that English language arts teachers will benefit from seeing examples of how we responded to these texts with critical analysis questions that require students to analyze gender representation and identity within the stories. By developing an empathic analysis, students can engage in this critical work within classrooms and libraries, where reading diverse texts is encouraged.

We need bigger mirrors: the importance of fat fiction for young readers

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how narrative is constructed to create connections with fat readers, how books function to envision spaces of fat liberation for young readers and to highlight the incredible importance of providing bigger mirrors (Bishop, 1990) for fat representation in children’s literature. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyzes and reflects on two texts that contain counternarratives of fatness: The (Other) F Word: A celebration of the fat and fierce edited by Angie Manfredi (2019) and Big by Vashti Harrison (2023) to interrogate how these two narratives intentionally disrupt anti-fat bias. Findings Body size and fatness are identities that need to be included in diversity efforts within education. Books like The (Other) F Word: A celebration of the fat and fierce (Manfredi, 2019) and Big (Harrison, 2023) offer positive representations of fatness, disrupt biases around body size and provide spaces that allow fat students to find joy, hope, connection and, more than anything, imagine a way toward liberation. Research limitations/implications This paper highlights the need to include more narratives of positive fat representation within children’s literature and calls for educators to interrogate their own anti-fat biases and practices. Originality/value There is a lack of research on fat representation specifically within children and young adult literature. This paper provides an analysis of two pieces of literature with fat representation that brings attention to the need for this type of future research.

SHAPING THE NARRATIVE: CONTEMPORARY INDIAN AUTHORS' IMPACT ON GENDER AND SEXUALITY REPRESENTATION IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

Through the rich tapestry of contemporary Indian young adult fiction, where visionary writers emerge as architects of societal change and use words as tools for reflection and reform, take off on a transformative journey. Through a variety of perspectives, the narrative revolution is revealed and every writer adds their own distinctive mark to the dynamic canvas of Indian literature. One such author creates a complex narrative that defies stereotypes and breaks down conventional barriers in an intricate examination of love and identity. Another creatively defies graphic novel storytelling conventions, producing a visual and narrative feast that defies accepted writing practices. This literary panorama provides detailed explorations of individual aspirations intricately interwoven with cultural limitations, with a focus on the expectations placed on women by society. Characters contribute to the ongoing conversation about the shifting roles of women in contemporary India by balancing the weight of social norms with individual agency. Furthermore, a noteworthy contribution to the portrayal of LGBT identity serves as a beacon of understanding and inclusivity. The story invites readers to delve into the complex emotional aspects of queer experiences as it gently examines the complexities of identity crises. This work creates a more inclusive literary landscape by breaking new ground and igniting conversations about diversity and representation. Young adult fiction is experiencing a metamorphosis that goes beyond conventional narrative techniques, crafting literary environments that function as windows reflecting the myriad of human experiences. These cultural architects have a lasting influence that reaches beyond library walls and provides readers with a profound opportunity to reflect on their own journeys. These works become more than just stories because they transform societys values about acceptance, love and identity. They also show the boundless possibilities that lie between a books pages. The present research paper examines delves into the intricacies of gender and sexuality while highlighting innovative works that challenge preconceptions, break down barriers and change readers viewpoints. KEYWORDS: Contemporary, adult fiction, transformative, acceptance, gender and identity

Master-Polka: Technology of Motivation for Reading and Development of Personal Potential

The article is devoted to the problem of finding pedagogical solutions for schoolchildren’s development of personal potential by introducing them to significant works of children’s and young adult literature. The relevance of the work lies in insufficient knowledge of reading activity as a factor in the development of modern student’s personal potential. The purpose of the article is to describe the possibilities of Master-polka: pedagogical technology as a tool for introducing schoolchildren to reading for the development of their personal potential. The authors share the results of a theoretical analysis of the problem and conclusions drawn from a pilot study of feedback from teachers participating in the Masterskie Rosta (Growth Workshops) project as well as their experience of using this technology in working with schoolchildren. The authors describe the principles of selecting books for the Master-polka; the examples of children’s and young adult literature, which schoolchildren have already been acquainted within the project. Particular attention is paid to the book quest as gaming and system – forming component of the technology. The practical significance of the study is determined by the possibility of using the Master-polka technology by teachers, librarians, and teachers of additional education to solve a wide range of pedagogical problems related to the creation of educational situations focused on introducing schoolchildren to reading and developing their personal potential.

Exploring Queer Identity and Supernatural Realities in Katrina Leno's Summer of Salt and Sometime in Summer: A Comparative Analysis of Coming-of-Age and Magical Realism

This study examines the representation of queer identities in two popular young adult novels, “Summer of Salt” and Sometime in Summer, both authored by Katrina Leno. Utilising a queer theoretical framework, the analysis explores the use of coming-of-age narratives and elements of magical realism to create complex queer characters, mainly focusing on Felicity and Julep from Summer of Salt and Aiden from Sometime in Summer. The nuanced and complex experiences of these characters, as portrayed by Leno, are closely examined, with a particular focus on using magical realism as a genre to explore alternative realities and challenge established norms. The significance of young adult literature in reflecting and influencing the awareness of LGBTQ+ adolescents is also explored, with recognition of the decisive role that novels like these can play in cultivating a deeper understanding and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. The broader implications of Leno's work are analysed, emphasising its literary and cultural significance. The novels are placed within the context of the queer literary tradition and social advocacy, underscoring the importance of including diverse and authentic queer voices in young adult literature. Overall, this study highlights the significance of Leno's work in the ongoing discussion surrounding LGBTQ+ presence in the young adult genre, underscoring the need for continued efforts to promote understanding and acceptance of the diverse experiences of queer individuals.

Translating and Creating New Discourses for Children in Argentina: Explorations around the Enunciator’s Communicative Image in the Writings of María Elena Walsh and Elsa Bornemann

This article aims to explore the construction of a common enunciative identity in a set of paratexts belonging to a corpus of works that contain texts translated by María Elena Walsh and Elsa Bornemann, namely La nube traicionera (published by Sudamericana in 1989) and Antología del cuento infantil (published by Editorial Latina in 1977). From a methodological framework that considers situations of enunciation and communication, as proposed by Maingueneau, I will attempt to demonstrate that the discursive manifestations found in this corpus reinforce author-translators’ positioning as part of a groundbreaking literary-discursive tradition in Argentina. This literary and discursive disposition is characterised, among other things, by political commitment and a poetics that proposes novel, unprejudiced ways of looking at the world, far removed from indoctrination in all its shapes and forms. To complement this exploration, I will also venture towards a characterisation of the communicative identity of the enunciator, which ultimately constitutes the translator’s ethos (Spoturno), as a relevant aspect for theorisations of Translation Studies in the field of children’s and young adult literature.

Revisión sistemática de la producción científica de conocimientos en didáctica de la literatura / Systematic review of the scientific production of knowledge in literature didactics

Literature didactics developed some research production lines that show its importance as a study field. This article's objectives are to analyze the scientific production on this topic and to know its research trends using two Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases. A descriptive bibliometric study of longitudinal cut and scientific mapping was carried out on 449 articles and a content analysis on 101 open access publications to analyze the knowledge base's evolution literature didactics. The results show a consolidated over thirty years disciplinary area, highlighting exponential growth of research between 2012 and 2021. All continents, but mostly Europe and specifically Spain, presented the highest scientific production rates and greater numbers of researchers and co-authorships. Regarding the research trends, firstly, research on the "Literary Corpus" predominates, especially on children's and young adult literature (LIJ); and secondly, research on "Teaching Practices" that account for various didactic itineraries of reading and writing effectively used in the classroom.

Meyer, Abbye E. <i>From Wallflowers to Bulletproof Families: The Power of Disability in Young Adult</i> <i>Narratives</i>. UP of Mississippi, 2022. 204 pages. ISBN: 9781496837585

A common observation in disability studies is that historically, disability has been a unifying marginalisation—the one intersection from which other identities hope for distance or even escape (Mitchell & Snyder 3; Davis 277). Problem novels, often dismissed as an inevitable but undesired aspect of adolescent literature (Miskec & McGee 164), occupy a similar space in studies of youth literature. These texts are often considered representative of young adult literature by those outside of children’s literature studies and are often treated defensively by those of us within it as a stereotype the field must overcome. There is, however, very little scholarship explicitly on problem novels. Abbye E. Meyer’s work, From Wallflowers to Bulletproof Families: The Power of Disability in Young Adult Narratives, offers a new defence and reinterpretation of the problem novel as she asks readers to consider these significant gaps in the literature: “the ways in which disability and young adult literature interact” and “the kinds of power these interactions produce” (12). As an analysis of American representations of disability and adolescence, Meyer’s work is often compelling, especially in its recontextualization of “exemplary” didacticism (Meyer 96). While I do question the conflation of adolescence as disabling in early chapters as potentially overly diagnostic and easily misread (and as a non-American reader I lament the limitations in attributing the “young adult voice” (16) so squarely to Holden Caufield and Esther Greenwood), Meyer’s work is an important contribution to both literary and disability studies as we continue to engage on topics of representation, voice, and crip power.

“Well, That’s What She Gets…”: Black Teenage Girls’ Sexual and Reproductive Choice in Young Adult Literature

Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) this article explores the discourse around Black girl sexuality, teenage pregnancy, and teenage motherhood as depicted within Black authored young adult literature.