What is Young Adult Literature?
Personally, I wish there was not a category called Young Adult Literature. I think it creates artificial restrictions and expectations for literature and other texts that would appeal to kids going through adolescence. I think that writers should write what they want and publishers should publish what they and the market want and then these adolecents can choose whether a book fits their maturity level, interests, and reading purpose.
There are so many varieties of text and ways for kids to access those texts that students should not be limited by somewhat arbitrary labels. Instead, there are many places in libraries and on the web which are able to suggest books that might appeal to students or stretch students' horizons ranging from the classic cannon to popular, modern books and even online texts.
A teacher's responsibility is to make sure that students are exposed to a wide variety of literature.
Several of us more chronologically-gifted members of the class have lamented that there didn't seem to be any YA lit when we were in school. Make your choice of the classics or the adult mainstream literature. I think that despite the confusion that can come with labeling literature, there's a real value in encouraging the publication of well-written literature that appeals to the sensibilities and interests of teens.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that we'd have such a vibrant, successful publishing of books for young people today if not for YA lit? I really appreciate your critical stance and hope it leads to some interesting conversation.
I can see that you're channeling Aronson here with his call for opening up our definition of literature to include the Web and many everyday texts (manuals, games, magazines, etc.) that teens read.