Content area
Full Text
Young adult (YA) reading interests and preferences have been the subject of ongoing study for decades.1 These and other studies show conflicting results about what adolescents are reading in terms of genres and formats, but some trends do emerge. Girls tend to read more (and more fiction) than boys2; adolescents seem to prefer realistic stories featuring teens (though fantasy, mystery, and horror/supernatural are recurring favorites); and, according to one study by Barbara Samuels, one of the favorite types of fiction for adolescents is problem novels.3 Adolescents possess an increasing variety of choices for reading materials (in print and online), so how do adolescent problem novels capture the interest of young adults and adults alike.'
The World of Adolescence
YAs who are twelve to eighteen years old are in a transitional period of their lives that is fraught with change. Their bodies are maturing physically and chemically, their minds are expanding beyond their egocentric childhood confines, they are developing a social network that far exceeds physical proximity (technology has redefined our understanding of community in this regard), and they are exploring emotions, spirituality, and possibilities that didn't enter their frame of reference as children. As early as 1904, psychologist G. Stanley Hall described adolescence as a series of "antithetic impulses," including overactivity and sluggishness, euphoria and despondence, egotism and self-abasement, selfishness and altruism, seclusiveness and gregarious ness, sensitivity and callousness, radicalism and conservatism, and precociousness and foolishness.4 He viewed adolescence as a chaotic time in which young people had to contend with the extremes of life in all aspects of their development. In 1973 Gisela Konopka found similar traits in her article describing the requirements for healthy development of adolescents. She explains that adolescence is characterized by
* audacity and insecurity;
* loneliness;
* psychological vulnerability;
* mood swings;
* peer group need; and
* the need to be argumentative and emotional.5
More recently, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has described the middle school and early high school years (approximately ages thirteen to sixteen) as characterized by (1) a movement toward independence (struggle with sense of identity, moodiness, feeling awkward about one's self and one's body, occasional rudeness, and a tendency to return to childish behavior, especially when stressed); (2) cognitive change (still...