In Cart‘s last chapter, he rationalizes young adult‘s dislike for reading by claiming “they regard it as a task”, like homework (Cart, 211). As he went on to cite not only the declining data for teens who read, but also a decrease in overall proficiency rates, I found myself both stressed and devastated by the data. I‘ve seen this data before, but it never fails to incite a frantic reaction that the education system is failing its students.
It‘s so interesting how the idea of 'young adulthood' wasn‘t even fully recognized until the 20th century, and now we have a whole entire genre built for it. As English teachers, I also think it‘s so important to understand that YAL doesn‘t just entertain, but it also gives students in this age group a space to see themselves, question, and navigate the world, and figure out who they are becoming as individuals, which is really cool.
Chapter 18's content discusses the rise of technology and its impact on literacy. I've always believed that the field of English is interdisciplinary and can be explained through a variety of media. I am glad to see that Cart agrees with this sentiment. He and other researchers agree that, while the internet has some drawbacks, it essentially encourages students to read more, whether they visit social media, fanfiction sites, or wikis.
Young adults are trapped within a liminal space of constant infantilization or adultification, with no gray space. YAL shapes who we are as people and provides the YA community a sense of unity in their discoveries and inquiries. As teachers, we are responsible for sharing meaningful YAL with our unique student body. YAL is not a life map with thousands of paths for our students to explore with whimsy and ambition.
*Fourth Edition
In Cart‘s chapter, he aptly describes young adulthood as “an ill-defined developmental space somewhere between childhood and adulthood” (Cart, 3). As a relatively new concept in the history of humanity, does the ambiguity of the young adult experience impact how controversial young adult literature is in today‘s classrooms? With no good definition of YA, how do we determine what is or isn‘t appropriate for students from all different backgrounds?
One thing I've learned throughout my time in English Education is that literature provides an opportunity for students to gain valuable experience through the characters they read about. I found this perspective particularly relevant to “From Romance to Realism,“ mainly when it discussed the prevalence of novels depicting various career paths. Because these students read about the specific details of these jobs, they gain relevant experience.
“Text and image, which can be enjoyed both visually and tactilely, offer an agreeable combination. But the most agreeable combination imaginable is that of young adults and young adult literature. When I wrote the first edition of this book in the 1990s, there was widespread doubt that one half of this equation- young adult literature- would survive but . . . not only has the genre survived; it has thrived!”
“What else do we need? Surely we need more novels with same-sex parents and, finally, we need the genre [LGBTQIA+ YA] to continue to come of age as literature. And yet, if ours is not quite the wonderful world that a gay character in Boy Meets Boy sees when he looks around himself, we are getting there - and (pace, John Donovan) it will definitely be worth the trip!”
“Who knows what tomorrow might bring? As for today, this surely remains one of the most exciting, dynamic periods in the whole history of young adult literature.”
“This theme continues when she [Jacqueline Woodson] then speaks of the late Margaret A. Edwards‘s belief in literature and in teenagers and the power of their voices, ‘the importance of introducing them to people they might not otherwise have met and places they would never have seen‘ (Woodson, 2006, 68). Woodson might have been speaking here of her own writing which the Edwards committee described as ‘powerful, groundbreaking . . .‘”
“Trends are transient and, doubtless, the novel in verse will pass in, out, and out of favor with writers and readers for years to come, but one thing seems certain: poetry itself will remain one of literature‘s most durable - and universal - forms, a lesson that was brought home when - in June 2015 - Juan Felipe Herrera became not only the first Mexican American United States Poet Laureate but also the first to have written for young readers...”
“‘Really good fiction,‘ the novelist and critic John Gardner once wrote, ‘has a staying power that comes from its ability to jar, to turn on, to move the whole intellectual and emotional history of the reader‘ (Yardley 1994, 3). If young adult literature is to have a future, it must be more than a formula-driven fiction that begins and ends with a problem. It must be as real as headlines, but it must be more than the simple retailing of fact.” #YA
“This kind of wretched excess suggested that the genre was not only overripe but also overdue for satire. The irrepressible Daniel M. Pinkwater took the cue and responded with his own Young Adult Novel (Crowell, 1982), a hilarious take-off on the problem novel. A nice coincidence is that Pinkwater‘s novel was published the same year as Bunn‘s book, sounding the death knell for the subgenre it represented.”
Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism, Third Edition | 
