*Topic 3 of LS 5623, Young Adult Literature, provided an in-depth study of the attributes that make up adventure, sports, and mystery novels within young adult literature.  The following novels are examples of these types of genres in young adult literature. 

 

Duncan, Lois. Killing Mr. Griffin. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1974. ISBN 0-316-19549-9

 

“From his seat behind her she heard Jeff Garrett mumble under his breath, ‘That Griffin’s the sort of guy you’d like to kill’.” (page 16) Lois Duncan’s Killing Mr. Griffin tells the story of the planning and eventual kidnapping of high school English teacher, Brian Griffin by five high students at Del Norte High School. Griffin, a former college professor, has chosen to teach at the high level so that he can ensure that a few students will graduate from high school with the necessary writing and literature skills needed for college.  Mr. Griffin’s expectations for his students are high and he does not give high grades. The students hate Griffin’s class and do not understand why he cannot be more like Dolly Luna, a popular English teacher at Del Norte. 

 

In this story, Duncan has created as the main protagonist a shy overachiever, female character named Susan McConnell.  As if an insect caught in a spider’s web, Susan is lured into the plot of kidnapping Mr. Griffin by Mark Kinney.  The antagonist, Mark Kinney, a quiet intuitive young man taking Griffin’s class for a second time due to cheating, convinces David Ruggles, class president, to ask Susan out on a date in order to convince her to assist in the kidnapping of Mr. Griffin.  Other characters in Duncan’s story include Jeff Garret, the basketball jock, and Betsy Cline, head cheerleader and Jeff’s girl. The plot thickens when the students realize that their kidnapping plans have gone haywire.   Through descriptive writing, Duncan has created memorable characters that have numerous idiosyncrasies.  Killing Mr. Griffin is fast pace, upbeat, and utilizes dialog in a first person rotating narrative format. 

 

“This is Lois Duncan’s strongest, most terrifying book.  As the plot to “kill” Mr. Griffin develops, the reader is drawn into a vortex of suspense, guilt and retribution that makes Killing Mr. Griffin a book that will long be talked about and remembered.”(From the inside flap of the book jacket for Killing Mr. Griffin.)

 

 

Crutcher, Chris. Ironman. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1995. ISBN 0-688-13503-X

 

Chris Crutcher’s Ironman tells the story of Beauregard Brewster, alias Bo, a seventeen-year-old high school athletic training for the triathlon.  Bo is not your traditional high school athletic.  He quits the football team because he could not stand the way the coach humiliated the players.  In this story, Crutcher clearly conveys to the reader through third person prose, Bo’s determination to be the best triathlon athletic.

 

Crutcher begins Bo’s story with an introductory letter to television talk show host Larry King.  “Dear Larry, at 4:30 each morning, I awaken to your voice.  I lie transfixed until five—when I haul my aching body out of the sack for another in a series of infinite workouts“ (page 1).  Throughout the story, Crutcher tells Bo’s story from Bo’s point of view through his letters to Larry King.  He provides readers with an in-depth look into Bo’s relationship with his controlling father, an obnoxious English teacher named Coach Redmon, and a sympathetic teacher named Mr. Serbousek, Mr. Nak his anger management teacher, and his anger management group. Bo has been sent to Mr. Nak’s anger management class at the request of Coach Redmon.  Redmon is angry with Bo for quitting the football and for calling him an “asshole”. (page 8). 

 

Bo’s story evolves to a climax when against all odds (with his father being one) he is able to compete in the triathlon.  He learns through his anger management teacher and group to find and extend mercy during the hardest of times.  Crutcher, through descriptive and compassionate word use, takes the reader through Bo’s physical and emotional evolution.  This is a wonderful story of friendship, compassion, and determination.  

 

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York: Puffin Books, 1987. ISBN 0-14-032724-X

 

Hatchet, a Newbery honor book, is an intense survival story about a thirteen-year-old boy named Brian Robeson who survives a plane crash and lives in the wilderness for fifty-four days.  In this story, Brian learns to survive in the wilderness by using his instincts and a hatchet that his mother gave him before leaving Hampton, New York for the oil fields in Canada where his dad works. In this adventure story, Paulsen creates a graphic picture for readers as he describes various events that occur during Brian's struggle to survive.  In chapter four on page 36, Paulsen gives readers a heart-stopping moment when he describes how mosquitos invade Brian's body.  "It took an hour, perhaps two-he could not measure time yet and didn't care-for the sun to get halfway up.  With it came warmth, small bits of it at first, and with the heat came clouds of insects-thick, swarming hordes of mosquitos that flocked to his body, made a living coat on his exposed skin, clogged his nostrils when he inhaled, poured into his mouth when he opened it to take a breath."

 

Hatchet is a fast pace novel told in a first person narrative format.  Paulsen uses short descriptive sentences to show Brian’s thoughts and emotions throughout his adventure.  “Ugly, he thought. Very, very ugly. And he was, at that moment, almost overcome with self-pity.  He was dirty and starving and bitten and hurt and lonely and ugly and afraid and so completely miserable that it was like being in a pit, a dark, deep out pit with no way out.” (page 70) There is very little dialogue in this story.  All the elements, (a likeable protagonist, adventure that readers can imagine happening to themselves, efficient characterization, an interesting setting that enhances the story without getting in the way of the plot, and action that draws a reader into the plot within the first page or so of the story), of a good adventure story are found in Paulsen’s Hatchet. Paulsen has written a wonderful story of survival, bravery, and self-determination.