4 Young Adult Literature in Action History of Young Adult Literature in Action: Early Adult Books Read by Young People Before books were specifically written and published for them, young adults were reading adventure stories written for adults. John BunyanÊs PilgrimÊs Progress (1678) and Daniel DefoeÊs Robinson Crusoe (1719) were read for the excitement of the story rather than for religious and didactic themes. Imitators of Robinson Crusoe are known as robinsonades examples are stories such as Johann WyssÊs Swiss Family Robinson (1812) and Gary PaulsenÊs Hatchet (1987). Upon the re-publication of Anne StephensÊs Malaeksa: Indian Wife of a White Hunter (1860), dime novels captured the attention of men seeking adven- ture. Featuring action and overwritten prose, dime novels, originally costing a dime and usually set in Colorado and farther west, became wildly popular for their thrilling plots (Nilson and Donelson 2000). Other adult adventure books avidly read by young people and considered among to- dayÊs classics are Jonathan SwiftÊs GulliverÊs Travels (1726), Jules VerneÊs Twenty Thou- sand Leagues under the Sea (1860), Robert Louis StevensonÊs Treasure Island (1883) and Kidnapped (1886), Howard PyleÊs The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883), and Mark TwainÊs The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). These are some of the best- known and most popular books to capture the attention of teenagers. They continue to be in print and to appeal to an audience as classic literature. If dime novels were satisfying reading for men, domestic novels were the answer to reading selections for women. The first domestic novel, Wide, Wide World (1850), was written by Elizabeth Wetherell under the pen name of Susan Warner. Her novel remained popular for 40 years. Domestic novels such as WarnerÊs featured an orphaned girl who meets a handsome man needing redeeming. Charlotte YongeÊs The Daisy Chain (1856), a story about a large family, reflects the Christian ethic of the Victorian period. These adventures for women included moral lessons that were conspicuously absent from dime novels (Nilsen and Donelson 2000, 49). And books, which had always helped (god bless Judy Blume), suddenly didn’t. The classics and standards served other admirable purposes, of course, but only The Handmaid’s Tale made me stop and say, “Wait. Some- one else gets it.” It made me realize my perception wasn’t as skewed as the world wanted me to think. That maybe I wasn’t a problem, but a symptom of something much bigger. But for a long time, Atwood was all I had. Authors like Laurie Halse An- derson or Sara Zarr or Libba Bray just weren’t available to me, for whatever reason, and I wish it hadn’t taken until adulthood for me to fi nd them. Writ- ing and reading YA helped me forgive the girl I was—and realize she never needed forgiveness in the fi rst place. I write YA because a girl’s problems can be trivial, but she is not. And that’s something she should know at every age. * * * Kate Hart is the author of Before I Fall, Contributor, Hope Nation and Toil and Trouble
Previous Page Next Page