Evolution of Teenage Literature

Hannah Betzner;xNLx;Professor Lamb;xNLx;History of the Book;xNLx;4 December 2013;xNLx;;xNLx;The Evolution of Young Adult Literature;xNLx;Young Adult literature, or novels written for teenagers, have become big business in literature for the last two decades. Books series such as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight have been enjoyed by all including preteens, teenagers, and adults. These novels are some of the only ones in the last 20 years to spawn book release parties, midnight movies showings, and theme park rides. This progress is amazing as teenagers are one of the newest age class to exist after its creation in the early 1900s. Prior to this, humans went from being children (who often had to work) to married adults without this stage of growth, development, and maturity in-between. Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly, published in 1942, marks the beginning of young adult literature. As the culture of the world has changed from the 1940s to today, I wanted to do a study on how literature for teenagers has evolved in style and in content in less than 100 years. Topics, believed to be taboo previously such as homosexuality, sexual abuse, and drug abuse, are all issues teens deal with and the landscape of literature has changed to reflect this. My goal is create a research project that looks at some of the milestones in teenager literature that opened up new subsets of styles and topics—books on sexual abuse, gang activity, drug use, sexual orientation, cancer, fantasy lands and situations, and love—and briefly discuss why these books changed the landscape of writing for teens. ;xNLx;While I found several lists of the most “influential” books for teens, not all of these books are original in content and “different” than other books—they may have been better written or more popular. For my contribution to the topic, I wanted to create a timeline that laid out when books were published in order to understand the overall culture around the book than to rank each book on its amount of influence or popularity. I also wanted to meld books of various interests and topics together instead of focusing on the evolution of a specific style or topic. I selected roughly 20 books that I felt met this criteria from my own readings (as I have read several books on the list) and searching various lists and sources on the internet such as CNN’s “A Brief History of Young Adult Literature” by Ashley Strickland or NPR’s “Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels.” The timeline could be continuously expanded as 20 is only an initial start. I think that work such as this if continuously kept up-to-date with analysis of current and past trends could track the needs and wants of teenagers and represent their place in overall society. There is a reason that Twilight was as popular as it was in the overall landscape of cultural—maybe it represented nostalgia of first love, maybe it was the draw to danger and fantasy, maybe it was the relationship of the various characters. The book fit into some overall need that was missing for readers in order for it grow into what it became. I am a huge Harry Potter fan (as I am sure that many of the students in this course are). When non-readers of the books ask me why I would like a kid’s book about magic, I am shocked that they imagine that there isn’t more to the story. I love the Harry Potter series not only because of the fantasy world that JK Rowling created but because of the traits that the characters exhibit including love, selflessness, life and death, a sense of responsibility, sacrifice, loyalty and community—all of this comes from a “children’s” book. The books I have selected are all more than what they seem and they speak to not only the teenage reader who has maybe experienced some of the deeper turmoil (such as questioning his or her sexuality) to those who want to relate to the larger overall world around them. ;xNLx;In terms of methodology, my primary focus was presenting a timeline that combined various resources including critical analysis of these works and their book reviews. I utilized primary quotes from authors such as JD Salinger and Nancy Gardner to show their true feelings on their works and why they chose to write for teens instead of adults. I also included analysis and interpretation on the importance of the overall book in terms of the overall time period it was published. A book about drug use in the 1970s such as Go Ask Alice coming right after the drug revolution of the 1960s means something much different than the book would mean in the current time period. In the same fashion, a book about a character’s first lesbian experience originally published in the 1980s has different meaning in the more tolerable society that we live in today. Some books are timeless (such as Harry Potter which has no real reference to time, technology, news events, etc), but some books take more meaning by interpreting their place in the context of the world around them. I also utilized reviews that served two functions due to when they were published. Reviews published in the current time of the novel showed the contemporary feelings of literary experts—they could not reflect on the what the work would eventually mean. I also utilized reviews of books written decades after the publication of the stories which allowed the authors the ability to reflect on the book in the overall time period and to see what the publication led to in the future. I would have liked to include more primary sources in my work as reading all of the books would provide me the ability to analyze all of the stories myself instead of relying only on the critics or reviewer’s opinion of the work. In terms of strengths, a reason exists that professional critics are the ones to provide insight on works. They are able to read a wide range of works to truly determine what is different and what is changing the literature for the future of teen readers. ;xNLx;One of my challenges was the lack of sources available. I thought that I would be able to find more writings on this subject. I would access various academic research databases, but was unable to find usable sources for my subject until I found the Gale Literature database, although it too was spotty for certain books. Because of this lack of combined knowledge that I could find, I felt even more justified in my subject and creating a timeline based on the evolution of teenage literature.

1942-01-01 18:53:06

Maureen Daly - Seventeenth Summer

According to journalist Ashley Stickland, in her article, "A Brief History of Young Adult Literature," the term teenager was first used to describe the adolescent class between the ages of 12 to 18 in 1942 around the time of World War II. Daly's book is often categorized as the first book for teenagers. According to literature expert Michael Cart, as included in Strickland's article, it was the first book to be "written and published explicitly for teenagers" and would start a trend in publication for similar books. According to Daly's obituary "Maureen Daly, 85, Chronicler of Teenage Love, Dies" written by Margalit Fox for The New York Times, Daly was still a teenager in college when the book was published. The book tells the story of Angie and Jack who are two teenagers who fall in love one summer around the a beautiful lake in Wisconsin. The book chronicles "innocent pastimes" according to Fox including drinking Cokes at the summer store and boating on the river while transitioning to more adult pleasures such as having a beer or smoking. According to Teri Lesesne, a Library Science Professor at Sam Houston State University, "For '42, this is a pretty avant-garde young woman: she smokes, she drinks, she dates. She thinking aout more than a chaste kiss at the end of a date." (Qtd. in Fox). In an interview for Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, Daly said "It was not until the reviews came out (and the royalties came in) that I realized I had recorded universal emotions and joys--and people would want to read abou tthem year after year" (Qtd. in Fox). Writing as a teenager allowed Daly to capture the raw and hormonial emotions all teenagers feel as they experience their first taste of love. Since the original publication by Dodd, Mead & Company, and its republication in 2002 by Simon & Schuster, the book has sold over a million copies (Fox).

1951-07-16 07:05:09

JD Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is one of the more polarizing books of the 1900s. In his essay "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye," Stephen Whitfield discusses how a simplistic plotline that was not initally critically acclaimed became an American classic. The plot of the novel is very simple--a 16 year old boy, who is a recently expelled private school student, takes a late night journey through New York City questioning his own youth and his transition to adulthood. According to Whitfield, the book was originally published in 1951 and sold for $3.00. The book had to be republished several times and stayed on the bestseller list for thirty weeks (Whitfield). Since then, the book has sold millions of copies to adults and teens alike. As Salinger wrote to Harper's magazine in 1946, "I almost always write about very young people" (Qtd. in Whitfield). Whitfield adds "...the directness with which he spoke to them had much to do with his appeal--and with the anxiety that his literary intervention provoked in the interecine battle between generations." Because of the language used by Salinger and the lingo he injects in his protagonists, teenagers since the 1950s have connected with Holden as a rebellous youth who does not know quite who he is yet and what he has potential to become.

1954-07-29 04:01:37

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien in one of the most influential fantasy books for teenage readers. According to a summary in the Twentieth-Century Literature Criticism, the book which was written by Tolkien during World War I was a reflection of the war while also being an escape for young soldiers who just came back. As many of the young soldiers were in their late teens and early 20s afer the end of the war, they scooped up this novel to escape on a fantasy journey through the shire and away from the horrors suffered in Europe. The novel commented on the "loss, despair, and alienation" this young group of men were affected by ("The Lord of the Rings.").

1966-01-01 23:04:31

Jeanette Eyerly - A Girl Like Me

Jeanette Eyerly was one of the first authors for teens that focused on controversial topics often for young woman after the idealistic 1950s. According to her obituary by William Grimes, "Mrs. Eyerly moved beyound the pretty-in-pink world of dates and sock hops to focus on more series problems confronting young girls. In addition to facing the usual troubles with school and boyfriends, her heroines dealt with their parents' failing marriages, or with peer pressue to take drugs or shoplift." A Girl Like Me, in which a young unwed high school girl debates keep the baby she is pregnant with, is only one example of Eyerly's typical topics. Books dealing with death (The Girl Inside), abortion (Bonnie Jo, Go Home), unwed parenthood (Someone to Love Me), and shoplifting (Angel Baker, Thief) are only a few of the topics covered in her 17 published novels. Roger Sutton of Horn Book Magazine said in regards to Eyerly, "She was the 'Gossip Girl' writer of 30 years ago. This is what teenage girls were reading, despite what their teachers said" (Qtd. in Grimes).

1967-04-24 07:05:09

S.E. Hinton - The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton provides a look into a more realistic, yet violent look at the life of a teenager. According to Zena Sutherland, in The Saturday Review, Hinton wrote her novel at the extremely young age of fifteen. The novel tells the story of a middle-class gang called the Socs and their conflict with the Greasers, the boys from the wrong side of the tracks (Sutherland). As a contemporary of Hinton, Sutherland was able to meet with the author to understand her motivation behind writing such a book that contained controversial violence for the time. Hinton was quoted as saying in Read magazine, "Have you looked at the books on the Young Adult shelf? They are written by aging writers who either try to remember their own youth--which was at least fifteen years ago--or they try to write about today's teens without knowing them" (Qtd. in Sutherland). Hinton wrote the book based on her experience as a teenager in Tulsa, OK, and opposing gangs that affected her teenage years. As she told Sutherland, she had a friend that was jumped and beaten up, an experience that she translated into her work through the character Ponyboy. According to Joel Chaston in his article "S.E. Hinton: Overview," Hinton's five novels, all about gangs, are typically narrated by teenage boys who are macho, poor, and cool who all have a more emotional side. Her boys enjoy reading but often skip school and have unstable home lives (Chaston). The phenomenon that occurred with the release of The Outsiders was how many teenagers sent letters to Hinton telling the ways that they releated to the characters. Although written for a teenage audience like Daly, Hinton's realism varied from Daly's more idealistic love story. One 14-year-old girl wrote to Hinton, "I feel that all teenagers from all environments should read this novel. It would give people a better understanding of these troubled teen-agers and not judge them by their long hair and odd ways" (Qtd. in Sutherland). An adult added, "Your novel was an education in what I should have known, and it helps me, in retrospect, to understand the tensions I felt around me" (Qtd. in Sutherland). Not only did Hinton cover violence, her books also tackled themes of a corrupt world and issues of prejudice (Chaston). The Outsiders was unique due to Hinton's realistic voice and characters with emotional depth not experienced through the writings of more mature writers.

1970-01-01 23:04:31

Judy Blume - Are You There God? It's Me, Margart

Are you There God? It's Me Margaret., by Judy Blume opened up discussions about puberty in a very positive way for readers. According to CNN, Margaret is the book that "launched author Judy Blume's career and introduced a general to real talk about periods and sex." Blume's book taught female readers about their periods, their first bra, games such as Spin the Bottle, and how to identify themselves if they were of mixed background as Margaret was both Jewish and Christian.

1971-03-05 05:17:51

Anonymous - Go Ask Alice

Go Ask Alice is a diary (although the origins have been questioned) by an anonymous girl from the streets struggling with drug addiction. Since its publication, over 4 million copies have been purchased. Lauren Adams in her article "Go Ask Alice: A Second Look" included in Children's Literature Review discussed how she first read the book as a teenager in order to see "an insider's look at the simultaneously glamorous and frightening world of drugs." While many adults would want to keep a book like this from teens, many publications such as the Library Journal wanted teens to read this type of book (Adams). The Library Journal wrote, "This diary depicts all the confusion, loneliness and rebellion associated with adolescence. Unlike other 'true-to-life' stories this is true (it's based on an actual diary). An important book, this deserves as wide a readership as libraries can give it" (Qtd in Adams). It was a hope that this book, unlike the others based in fiction, would influence the decisions of the teens in the 70s, just coming off of the decade of drug use in the 60s.

1974-01-01 07:05:09

Robert Cormier - The Chocolate War

Sylvia Iskander, in her article "Robert Cormier: Overview" describes Cormier's work as having "added a new dimension to young adult literature. Dealing with evil, abuse of power, and corruption, they present a dark view of humanity, but one tempered by an underlying morality." The Chocolate War tells the story of Jerry Renault, a young teenage boy who refuses to participate in his school's chocolate sale to raise money. His refusal places him against a gang called the Vigils ran by Archie Costello and the corrupt headmaster Brother Leon (Iskander). While adults saw the book as too pessimistic due to the ending, Iskander believes that teens relate to the story due to Cormier's representation of peer pressue, conformity, and the abuse of power by other teens and adults.

1978-04-01 23:04:31

Lois Duncan - Killing Mr. Griffin

Although published in the 1970s, Killing Mr. Griffin is as just as, or even more so, controversial now as when it was published. According to Susane Johnston in her article, "In Defense of Killing Mr. Griffin," this book is still one of the most-challanged books into the 2000s. In Duncan's story, a group of high school students kidnap an English teacher that they find to be overly difficult and mean. In a series of events, the teens actually kill the teacher. Although Johnston admits that the book is violent--the teens kill the teacher, another murder is attempted, animal torture is described, and there is sexual content--the point of the story falls into the idea of how easy it is for peer pressue to cause teenagers to make life altering decisions. Duncan created characters from varied backgrounds (athletic and not, popular and unpopular, stable and unstable family lives) and showed how all of them could be manipulated by one charasmatic pyschopath (Johnston). Johnston sees this book as an opportunity for parents to identify behavior warning signs and for other teens to identify the dangers of peer pressure. Johnston writes, "Perhaps if we engage our students in frank discussions we can reach them before it is too late. We owe our young people nothing less."

1982-07-01 23:04:31

Nancy Garden - Annie on My Mind

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden is a groundbreaking work in terms of a novel about a lesbian relationship. According to reviewer Roger Sutton in his article "Annie on My Mind" for Horn Book Magazine upon the release of the novel, "We were exciting as readers first, I think, and then as professionals. Annie's effect on young adult literature is now manifest. The book had the first unequivocally happy ending in a YA novel with a gay-themed plot or subplot." Although this was not the first novel with homosexual themes, the book showed a positive aspect of this type of relationship instead of making it a problem. According to Sutton, becuase this book was not written like a problem novel it became "a book that was about 'us,' not 'them.'" In her essay "Banned: Lesbian and Gay Books Under Fire," Garden, the author of Annie on My Mind, discusses some of the censorship she experienced with her work. Garden describes how her book was burned by fundamentalists in Missouri in 1993, over a decade since its release. Garden argued against the popular case that she writes novels to promote homosexuality by writing, "But I write gay YAs because of the appalling suicide rate among gay adolescents, not to 'promote' homosexuality, and because of the loneliness and confusion most gay kids ace as they struggle to discover, understand, and accept themselves." Garden writes to teens to provide them an adult voice as a guide to ensure that they can have normal relationships just as any other couple no matter what they are told by others.

1987-09-30 05:17:51

Gary Paulsen - Hatchet

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a story of survival--a story in which a teenager faces an uncertain future after he is in a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness with no other survivors. Hatchet is one of the most famous books about survival with Paulsen as a leading author in nature adventure stories. While Hatchet tells the story of Brian Robeson as he makes decisions for his survival, Jean Bressler, in her article for Children's Literature Review "Have Hatchet Will Survive" believes that all teens can use the decision making methods that Robeson makes in their everyday life when dealing with drugs, alcohol, and gangs. Although teens would be drawn in initially by the drama of the story and the hope of Brian's survival, it is the mental evolution of the character that Bressler finds as the everlasting affect on the reader. She writes, "MIddle/junior high school students also need to learn how to make responsible choices. They can relate Brian's fight for survival to their own struggles in confronting problems in their environment. They can examine Brian's descision-making skills and recognize his growing maturity as he makes choices, takes responsibility." Brian learns to become an adult due to his circumstances.

1997-06-26 07:05:09

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sourcers Stone

The Harry Potter series has been a favorite of all ages and levels of reading from children to adults. The books follow Harry from the age of 11 to 18 and his journey as only "the boy who lived" to the man who chose to fight voldemort so that others would live. Although some may argue that Potter is more of a children's book than one for teens, Roberta Seelinger Trites argues in her piece, "The Harry Potter Novels as a Test Case for Adolescent Literature" that is just as important for older teen readers who will gain different knowledge from the story. Trites writes, "As the characters in the series grow older, the books shift solidly onto the terrain of adolescent literature. The characters learn to recognize their autonomy from their parents, but death becomes more threatening, more of a menance, than it is in the first Harry Potter book." In addition, the book also begins to analyze the sexual feelings of the characters as they continue to mature. Trites continues that the key to the teenage years of anyone is the feeling of power and powerlessness. One is given more responsibility--they have more power about the world around them than they had years ealier, yet they also have little power in their overall lives. Potter is told numerous times about his legacy and importance, yet he is constantly told that he should not help and that he should stay out of any danger or trouble. As teens grow, they can continue to grow with the characters and relate to the same feelings and emotional changes that they too are experiencing.

1999-01-01 05:17:51

Walter Dean Myers - Monster

According to the prosecutor at his trial over the death of a drugstore owner, 16-year-old Steve Harmon is a monster. John Staunton in his review of Monster for the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, writes "The concern with the influence of history and culture upon individual idenity is a common theme in Myers's work." This issue, specifically in black culture is still a modern issue (look at the issue of Trayvon Martin who was targeted due to his race). The style of Myers' writing is modern--Steve tells the reader his story as a screenplay including images of his experience. The screenplay format is also one to continue to keep the reader in the dark about Harmon's innocence as the reader is only shown or told what Harmon wants them to know. Unlike many novels, Myers' ending is not clear or finite and according to Staunton, "It draws us close to the surface of the representations we use to make sense of the world, and it shows us how represneations themselves shape the moral texture of what lies within."

1999-02-01 07:05:09

Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Recently released as a movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower tells the story of Charlie, a high school freshman who is telling his story to an anonymous reader. Charlie's best friend committed suicide and he feels alone as he is entering high school until he finds two misfit friends, Sam and Patrick. Sam has a reputition for being wild and Patrick is gay. CNN reporter Breeanna Hare in her article, "A 'Wallflower's' Lasting Impact," interviews Vicky Smith, the Children's and Teen Editor for Kirkus Reviews who discusses that "Charlie's early '90s-era high school experience touches on drugls, alcohol, sex and abuse, and at the time of its publication, the book was one of the many examination of the darker side of the teen experience. What set it apart from the rest was its voice." Unlike some of the problem novels prior to this publication, Charlie is able to see through the issues that are plaguing him. Because of these controversial topics, mainly its coverage of sexual abuse and homosexuality, the book continues to be challanged and almost always shows up on the ALA's list of freqently challanged books (Hare).

2003-09-01 23:04:31

David Levithan - Boy Meets Boy

Sexuality orientation is an issue that affects the lives of many teenagers. David Levithan's book Boy Meets Boy discusses the story of Paul, a boy who has been openly gay since he was in elementary school and has had relatively positive experience growing up and going to school. Even after an incidence of bullying, Paul receives support of other students. In Nancy Garden's review "Brave New World" included in the Lambda Book Report, she writes, "Happily, some recent gay and lesbian kids as no longer being as opressed as they used to be; they've shown that many now do lead reasonably 'normal' lives, not always ostracized and bullied by their straight peers or misunderstood and victimized by their parents and teachers." While this not the type of story experience by all LGBTQ teens, Garden has found that Levithan's book is a positive move towards a different type of story, instead of those that only deal with suicide and unacceptance. She hopes that this book will spread awareness and will influence the less idealistic world to become closer to the world that Levithan creates.

2012-01-10 07:05:09

John Green - The Fault in Our Stars

Hazel Lancaster, John Green's main character in The Fault in Our Stars, is diagnosed with thyroid cancer that has spread into her lungs. While in a cancer support group, Hazel meets Augustus, a former basketball player how had to have his leg removed due to his bone cancer. Their friendship blossoms into love as they try to spend the little time Hazel has left together. According to Natalie Standiford in her review, "The Tenacity of Hope" for The New York Times Book Review, Green's writing shows, "us true love--two teenagers helping and accepting each other through the most humiliting physical and emotional ordeals--and it is far more romantic than any sunset on the beach." A teen suffering from ill health can relate to the mortality that Hazel is facing--a teen facing no such issue can see that there is bigger issues than high school drama.

Evolution of Teenage Literature

Launch
Copy this timeline Login to copy this timeline 3d Game mode

Contact us

We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.

Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.

We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.

You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.

If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com

Close

Edit this timeline

Enter your name and the secret word given to you by the timeline's owner.

3-40 true Name must be at least three characters
3-40 true You need a secret word to edit this timeline

Checking details

Please check details and try again

Go
Close