Thoughts on teen fiction

Thoughts on teen fiction

I must admit that I thought that being a teenager was pretty hard at the time. Now as a supposed adult, I’m finding the definition of a teenager even harder. We all understand what we think an adolescent is and would certainly be able to pick one out in the street. We also all know what we would like teenagers to be like, as a teacher somewhere between Hermione Granger and Jane Bennett would suit me!
Hunt (1994) suggests that “perhaps the most satisfactory generalisation is that childhood is the period of life where the immediate culture thinks of being free of responsibility and susceptible to education.” Therefore, adolescents would be those coming to term with some responsibility and slightly less susceptible to education? Despite being a huge generalisation, this is often true. As you start secondary school you are suddenly responsible for your own actions more than before, you are facing new and challenging social situations and developing more and more opinions. Let us just hope that you are still interested in education!
Essentially, I don’t think it is important for us to pinpoint what makes a teenager and what doesn’t. It is fluctuating state and will vary culturally and individually. However, the key question raised by my research and learning over the past few weeks, has been: What do these in-betweeners want from the literature they read?
Appleyard identified the development of a sense of self as something important during adolescence (probably the most important thing about being a teenager!) Most children see themselves very simply and struggle to consider themselves subjectively within their objective understanding of a character’s situation in a book. Adolescents on the other hand, will tend to identify more closely with the characters, consider their actions and “to reflect critically about one’s own thoughts”.
Lady: My life as a bitch, deals entirely with the development and understanding of self in teenagers. I must admit that there is something so unnatural about this book that I find it hard to describe my feelings about it. It has made me consider and struggle with the concept of being human and the idea of being without responsibilities or relationships. Despite leaving a strange feeling in my stomach at the mere thought of it, it has certainly made me think!
Junk allows the reader access to the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters and gives the reader the opportunity to make their own judgements on the individual’s decisions, as well as the theme as a whole. I think that the reason why Junk is such a successful teen book, is that nothing is secret and nothing is black and white. It is possible to identify with many of the characters, even those who are inherently bad or do wrong. This method requires the reader to balance conflicting attitudes of the characters with previous adult knowledge. In this sense, I believe that Gillian Cross let her readers down. I must confess now that Wolf didn’t score highly with me. I feel that the reason I believe in Junk so much was the reason Wolf was so disappointing!
Cross does not trust her readers to trail through the grey areas of life in order to determine what they believe to be right. She does not develop her characters enough so that a reader can fully relate to them. Even the protagonist, Cassie, who does develop gradually as she learns more of the world, is superficial. It may be that as an adult, I can no longer appreciate her struggle, and cannot relate to her difficult circumstances. As Appleyard stated “the difference is that the juvenile books all deal with an innocent world, where evil is externalised and finally powerless, where endings are happy. The adolescents’ books deal with sex, death, sin, and prejudice, and good and evil are not neatly separated but missed up in the confused and often turbulent emotions of the central characters themselves.” I can only presume that Wolf was written for a younger audience than Junk, as it’s plot and characters are nowhere near as complex, detailed or realistic.
Appleyard also identified the importance of reality in his responses to teen fiction. Teenagers desire life experiences, honesty and realistically flawed characters. As Lesleyann points out “life isn’t just to live happily ever after; it has it’s ups and downs.” Even relatively sheltered teenagers will have seen the news or had some experience in life, which has taught them that not everything is going to be a ball. It is the responsibility of teen fiction to embrace some difficult topics, which young people can identify with and relate to. It is not always possible to discuss difficult issues such as illness or death with friends or family. Fiction has a chance to provide support and stability for teenagers experiencing difficulties in their lives and to help them appreciate that what they are feeling is normal.
I was interested to read about teenage readers interest in autobiographies. I have never been a big reader of biographies myself, mainly because I judge them to be written by Z list celebrities who do not warrant my time! However, upon reflection, these could provide highly engaging reading for young people. They are real, about the decisions an individual has made and what the outcomes of these decisions have been.
May discussed the importance of a sense of adventure in many children’s literature and the effect which experiencing some form of tragedy has; “Most children’s stories, however, allow their readers to experience tragedy while showing them main characters who survive and learn to cope in serious situations.” A biography can take this one step further with the added bonus for teenagers of being about real people’s real life experiences.
My Grandma refused to read any autobiographies as she said that they made her feel regret that she had not achieved all of her life’s ambitions. Since the only biographies published are about those who have tasted success, I can understand her point of view. As a teenager however, a biography may help to inspire young readers to work and achieve their dreams. (Obviously careful choice may be required: Russell Brand’s Booky Wook may not suit all!)
The girl in Stephen’s podcast stated that she enjoyed books that make her think. I believe that this is something that develops as we get older, have more life experience and read more. That is not to say that I don’t think that younger children reading Kensuke’s Kingdom (which I loved) don’t think, but that when we start to appreciate and analyse the grey areas in life, our reflection and evaluation become more in depth. Reading is undoubtedly a personal journey. Our reactions are grounded in the way our mind self examines and evaluates the different possibilities offered by experiences. Our social upbringing, cultural knowledge and family situation will all influence our responses to literature. However, as a teenager, one of the biggest influences is your peers. Desperate to be unique without being different, teenagers often loose interest in reading, as MTV and magazines become the socially acceptable thing to do.
During this period, I think that it is important to keep them reading, even if we believe they are reading anything but the classics. For years I basically just read R.L Stein’s series’ and I’ve turned out ok!
The past few decades has heightened interest in teenage fiction, with creations like Junk, which takes it further than just reminding young people of the joy reading, but helping them to critically develop opinions too.
In hindsight, there is really not much difference between what adults and teenagers want from reading, despite the teen anxs stuff which we’re pretty much over, we all just want a book to make us think, learn, enjoy and escape. Any book, which provides anyone of these things to any single person, should be appreciated.

No reading is bad reading!