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Jul 7, 2014

Young Adult Literature: a challenge for teachers

by Eliana Romero

Not only in the past but also nowadays; we, as teachers, have had the difficult task to include literature in our lessons. Why is it a hard job? Notably, we have to take into account various aspects when selecting an appropriate story for our young adult students. Firstly, we have to bear in mind what type of genre would call their attention in order to motivate them to read. Horror stories would be an interesting option for adolescents’ reading time, but we have to pay attention to the fact that not all of them are appealing for teenagers. For instance, “The visitor,” a short story about zombies written by Jack Ketchum, is definitely not a case of Young Adult Literature. In this story the protagonist is Will, an old man whose wife was bitten by a zombie. He visits her in the hospital and tells her events from their past together.

In a 1992 article from the Journal of Youth Services in Libraries entitled “The Literary Value of the Young Adult Novel,” Robert C. Small Jr. provides us a range of specific characteristics to identify Young Adult Literature. We can consider the following: the main character of the story is a teenager who is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, and independent; events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers; dialogue reflects teenager’s speech, including slang, and the point of view presents an adolescent´s interpretation of events and people. If we have in mind these features carefully, we can choose an appropriate novel or story for our students. Furthermore, we can provide them an enjoyable moment without getting them disinterested in the simple activity of reading a piece of text.

Another important issue that we have to take into account when deciding to engage today´s students in reading is “themes”. Generally, adolescents enjoy reading stories about specific topics. Sarah K. Herz and Donald R. Gallo provide us with the key to solve this matter. The most important themes that are appealing to young adult readers can be social concerns about AIDS, teenage pregnancy, divorce, substance abuse, and family conflicts among others.

When reading “the visitor,” we can find that the protagonist of the story is not a teenager; on the contrary, the main character, Will, is an old man who is married with Beatrice. They are an old couple. Moreover, Small indicates that the dialogue presented in YAL reflects teenager speech. In the case of “the visitor”, we can observe that the dialogue presented is minimum and it is connected to the main character. This gives us another reason to think that this story is not a case of YAL.

As it was mentioned before, another characteristic to highlight is that events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers. If we read “The Visitor,” we can find it is a short story which reflects a new world of zombies, and the central problem begins when Will´s wife is bitten. That is to say, all the plot is related to the protagonist who is not an adolescent.

The general topic that “The visitor” deals with is “zombies”. Despite the fact that zombies are attractive for adolescents, the story immerses us in a deep atmosphere of sadness and distress. Beatrice, Will´s wife, is bitten by a zombie and the author develops the entire story focusing in this event. This type of story cannot be attractive for teenagers because it is focused on events that have nothing to do with teenage lives.

In conclusion, when analysing all the issues and characteristics mentioned, we can determine “the visitor” cannot be considered as a case of Young Adult Literature. And, we, as teachers, have to pay attention to all suggestions Small provides to avoid a failure in our lessons.  Nowadays, adolescents need to be encouraged to read and this can be done through stories whose plots make them feel identified with their real life. Teenagers need to feel they are part of those stories and the teachers’ task is to motivate them in their reading time.

4 comments:

  1. Compa querida! (Sorry but I can't say this in English, haha.) I loved your essay. I really appreciate that you took our condition as teachers to write it. It gives your writing more relevance. The only thing I'd like to mention is something that came to my mind while reading this sentence:

    "In this story the protagonist is Will, an old man whose wife was bitten by a zombie. He visits her in the hospital and tells her events from their past together."

    I think you could've done away with it. Just to make the transition from the first paragraph to the second one in a smoother way. Anyway, that's the only "negative" thing I have to mention. And again, I feel really proud of you making this essay a teachers-oriented paper. So far, this is the first time I see one of us doing that. Great job, compa!

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  2. MI COMPA QUERIDO! (MY DEAR PARTNER (?) JAJA. AS REGARDS YOUR COMMENTS, I AGREE WITH YOU. I WAS SO EXHAUSTED AFTER WRITING IT THAT I COULD NOT PLACE THIS PHRASE CORRECTLY. APART FROM THAT, YOU KNOW I LOVE TEACHING AND ALL OF MY IDEAS ARE ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THAT. THANKS FOR YOUR WORDS! YOU ARE JULIO AND I FEEL PROUD OF YOUR COMMENTS :P LOVE YOU MI COMPI :)

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  3. Eli,
    What I really liked about your essay is the fact that it talks to us as teachers to be. The connection you establish between YAL and our role as teachers is interesting.
    Perhaps I would have used another way of introducing the thesis statement. I mean, introducing it just as an example through the use of "for instance" might weaken your point. And I would have probably used more evidence from the story to support your argumentative points. For example, I would have quoted some fragment of a dialogue to show that it does not reflect teenage speech. The combination of saying and showing helps us to support our ideas. But, of course, these are just details and this is just my opinion. What do you think?

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  4. Dear Andre, I agree with you! I think that I could have quoted some fragments to complete the idea but I could not find any phrase that called my attention. :(
    Thanks for your comments and suggestions :) I would take them into account for the next writings!

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