Young Adult Literature

If reading young adult literature when one is clearly an adult is wrong, then I don’t want to be right!   The book that kept me in my pajamas this morning was E. Lockhart’s The Boyfriend List.  The novel is the first of the Ruby Oliver series, and I love Ruby!  She is the smart, self-obsessed, accidental hipster to which women can either relate, or wish they could.  (I am more of the later, being that I was terrified of the opposite sex well into my 20’s.  Luckily, I got over that and am now living in wedded bliss.)  Either way, we can all empathize with Ruby as she learns personal validation comes from within.  As teenagers we learned that we need to be confident in our own choices and, more importantly, that everyone is too caught up in their own world to notice your shoes, earrings, new hairdo, etc. (However, this doesn’t stop me from making purchases in case Oprah and I ever become friends, or arranging flowers in case Martha Stewart ever pays me a visit, but hey, everything is simpler in theory than practice!).  With Ruby Oliver and her other novels, Lockhart creates insular high school universes, where the characters struggle to fit in and stand out at the same time only to learn that the world is a pretty big place. 

While I often read books written for intelligent audiences, (I don’t know how that Danielle Steele novel got on my shelf, I guess I will just have to read it!) I love reading novels written for young adults.  After all, it is difficult to escape the insularity in life, be it the office, volunteer organization, country club, or in my case, the dog park.  The simple lesson of YA novels – that the world is a big place, so just try and be a good person - are endearing to me. Reading these books is experiencing high school again, but better because I finally learned how to use a curling iron, and that whole confidence thing to boot!  As I approach my thirtieth birthday and live with my daily adult responsibilities, I am appreciative of the Young Adult genre for allowing me to escape to a time when my biggest chore was feeding my cats and eating McDonald’s didn’t make me fat. 

P.S. Of course not all young adult literature is about the daily struggles of being a teenage girl, and I enjoy those as well!  (Thank you Hunger Games for providing readers with Katniss, who is a young woman with R-E-A-L problems!)  

P.P.S.  Did anyone else follow the Wall Street Journal article about how teen lit has become too dark?  To quote Cher Horowitz " Until mankind is peaceful enough not to have violence in the news,  there's no point in taking it out of shows that need it for entertainment value."

P.P.P.S.  I have not been compensated financially by E. Lockhart or any of her affiliates, but would seriously like to be her friend.  

Here is a link to E. Lockhart's website:
http://www.theboyfriendlist.com


And here is a link to a discussion on Young Adult Literature with real experts:
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/14/137174977/the-dangers-values-of-dark-teen-lit?ps=rs