*Topic 1 of LS LS5623, Young Adult Literature, provides information and insight into the concepts of young adult literature.  Within this topic, I learned that young adult literature is any literature that an individual between the ages of 12 to 25 chooses to read.  The following book reviews are examples of classic, current and award winning young adult literature.

 

Hinton, S.E.  The Outsider. New York: Speak, 1967. ISBN 0-14-038572-X

 

The Outsider tells the story of how a fourteen-year-old boy called Ponyboy searches for his sense of identity during a turbulent time within his life.  Set in a fictional town in Oklahoma, Ponyboy and his two older brothers (Soda and Darry) are orphans.  The boys are members of a local gang know has “greasers.”  There gang and another local gang called Socs, the wealthy group of teenagers, have clear defined conflicting roles within the community. 

 

In Hinton’s story, she creates a plot that forces the reader to examine the issue of society’s class structure and coming of age.  The plot of the story contains gang violence, compassion, and heroism.   Hinton begins the first chapter and the last chapter with a scene that has Ponyboy leaving a movie theater.  This literary technique allows the reader to infer that the main character has achieved a certain right of passage into adult hood.  Hinton creates a tone of compassion for her main character through a first person narrative style of writing.   

 

S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsider when she was fifteen.  It was published one year later in 1967.  The subjects that she wrote about (gang violence, class structure, and coming of age) is the same subject matter that we find in young adult literature today.  This was story that I enjoyed reading.   

 

*http://www.sehinton.com/books/outsider.html Accessed on 13 September 2004.

 

 Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. New York: Harper Collins, 1999. ISBN 0—6-028077-8

Walter Dean Myers’s book, Monster is a first person narrative about the trial of Steve Harmon, a 16-year-old African American male accused of being a lookout for a robbery that left a person dead.  Before his arrest, Steve had a hobby.  His hobby was filmmaking.  While in jail, Steve decides to records the events of his trial as movie.  He calls the movie Monster based upon the term the district attorney used to describe him to jurors. 

 

Myers unique style of storytelling creates a sense of realism with his use of handwritten font at the beginning of each journal entry.  He addresses difficult cultural and societal issues through the viewpoint of a camera as seen through the eyes of Steve.  Myers in subtle ways, points out how the path of innocence to the path of trouble develops from an unconstructive moral decision.  He connects this idea in the minds of the reader as a parody.   

 

Monster is an emotional story.  I cried as I read the introductory entry within Steve’s journal on the description of what it is like to be in jail.  Myers’ words reminded me of the emotions that I felt when my mother described how she felt when she first saw her son (my brother) in jail. She said, “Tears dropped down from my eyes when I saw my son in jail.”  Difficult moral questions that have no definite answer arise within this story.  The context and narrative style of the story reminds me of several Spike Lee movies (School Daze, Crooklyn, etc.). 

Walter Myers’ Monster effectively conveys the moral and social issues that plague the American society. 

 

*Titlewave. Booklist Review and School Library Journal Review available at http://www.titlewave.com Accessed on13 September 2004.

  

Daly, Maureen. Seventeenth Summer. New York: Simon Pulse, 1942. ISBN 0-671-61931-4

Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly reveals the tale of the coming of age of seventeen-year-old Angie Morrow.  Angie, the middle child in a family of four girls, is quiet and has little self-confidence.  She knows and follows all of the local rules for a dateless girl.  Angie meets Jack Duluth, a popular local boy that she has heard about from a classmate, and experience what it is like to be a part of the popular crowd and to be in love.

 

This first person narrative takes place in quaint Fond du Lac, Wisconsin the summer before Angie leaves for her first year in college.  Before this summer, Angie had never dated.  Her first encounter with Jack takes place in the local drugstore.  “He looked over at me, smiled, and then sat down again.” Later, Jack seeks out Angie on the pretense of selling bake goods from his father’s bakery and asks her out for a date.  Daly tells this story in a descriptive journal format.  She makes use of numerous literary devices to tell this story of first love.  Daly’s depicts an authentic voice for the period in which this story is set.   Readers of this story will come to know Angie’s relationship with Jack, her sisters, and parents. 

 

I chose to read Seventeenth Summer because I remember reading the story in high school and I wanted to see if I would experience the same emotions as I did when I first read the book many years ago.  My second reading experience with this story was not like the first.  The first time I read this story, I remember rejoicing when the quiet, shy Angie gets a boyfriend and discover dating and popularity.  I read each page in anticipation.  I found that as I read the book for a second time, I was bored.  The story did not read as fast and I felt like the plot and main character were bland. 

 

*Horn Book: Barnes and Noble: Editorial Reviews: Seventeenth Summer. Available at http://www.barnesand noble.com Accessed 13 September 2004.