Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism

by Michael Cart

Today's young adult literature is every bit as complex as the audience it's written for, unflinchingly addressing such topics as homosexuality, mental illness, AIDS and drug abuse. In this much expanded revision of his 1996 book, veteran author Michael Cart shows how the best of contemporary YA lit has evolved to tackle such daunting subjects without resorting to sensationalism. He brings his historical survey of this category fully up to date, covering its explosive growth in the past decade, and advocating that librarians and teachers look beyond romance and horror when advising young adults. This survey helps YA librarians who want to freshen up their readers' advisory skills, teachers who use novels in the classroom, and adult services librarians who increasingly find themselves addressing the queries of teen patrons by covering the following: Reading habits of today's teens, Influence of new technologies and formats, New YA lit awards, This insightful and often humorous work presents the evolution of YA lit in an appealing way, making it equally useful for students of literary studies. You'll definitely update your recommended "to read" lists after a spin through Cart's advisory.

Genres: Nonfiction, Library Science, Professional Development, School, Adult, Grad School, Books About Books

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Former Director of the Beverly Hills (CA) Public Library and a Past President of the Young Adult Library Services Association, Michael Cart is a nationally recognized expert in children's and young adult literature. Now a columnist and reviewer for ALA's Booklist magazine, he is the author or editor of eight books, including From Romance to Realism, a critical history of YA literature; MY FATHER'S SCAR, a young adult novel that was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and the anthology LOVE AND SEX: Ten Stories of Truth, also a Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Michael teaches young adult literature at UCLA and is the recipient of the 2000 Grolier Foundation Award. He lives in northern California.

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism was just alright. Some chapters were interesting, though the majority were not.
Although this is a nonfiction, the author tends to include himself and his opinions in the writing quite often, and comes across as awfully self-important.

[Dusty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had my eye on this book for a long time and was over the moon when the generous folks at the American Library Association sent me a copy. As I expected, it offers a useful overview of young adult literature as it originated in the twentieth century and became one of the American publishing industry's most lucrative sectors in the twenty-first. Sometimes it feels more like a memoir or treatise than a work of literary history, which I think makes sense considering that Cart draws primarily on his own expertise and experience. Anyway, I requested the book thinking that I would use it in one of my upcoming college classes on English teaching methods, and I might. My recommendation, if you choose to give it a read, is that you keep a laptop or smart phone handy. You will want to look up (and add to your to-read list) many of the books the author casually mentions. Seriously, his knowledge of the field is nearly encyclopedic.

[Megan | The Mood Read Queen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my thesis, and honestly, I thought it was pretty interesting. I'm a high school English teacher, and my thesis has to do with fanfiction and YA. This was a huge resource for me, and if you're at all interested in the history and development of the YA genre, I would definitely recommend it!

[Ollie · Rating 1 out of 5]

i'm reading parts of the third edition of this text for my young adult literature class at a very respectable university with a very good english program and i can firmly say that, as someone extremely steeped in the ya lit communities on twitter and booktube and has been since 2014, this man is absolutely no authority to speak on current ya.

he may have a better grip on the history of the age group from the 1940s to 2000, but anything after that he has no grasp on.

he refers to political correctness as "'multiculturalism without a sense of humor'" and constantly refers to ya as a genre, not an AGE GROUP despite acknowledging multiple times that ya is just marketing to teens, an age group. he places mary shelley as the mother of horror when in fact she was the mother of sci-fi, and misplaced the apprenticeship of victor frankenstein duology and alex rider series as mystery when neither contains a single mystery. i bet he hasn't actually read 75% of the texts he's named in his book.

also he does not consider fantasy a valid genre and shits on it every single chance he gets. also also he self-promos and waxes poetic about the printz award which he so clearly had a hand in creating. his definition of transgender and transsexual are so off base that he might as well have not added a chapter on queer lit at all.

also he was about 73-74 years old when the third edition was published in 2016 and honestly? no white man that old has any authority to talk about anything of substance. sue me if that offends you.

[Kelly]

Readable, engaging history of YA fiction through roughly 2009. What was most fascinating to me was that we're having the same exact conversations that were happening during the late 1990s regarding "darkness," "frankness," and what it means to be "ya" anyway.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cart’s book Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism explores the history of young adult literature as well as current trends and issues. I found learning about the effects marketing had in shaping YA literature in the 60s and 70s, the trends that have occurred over the decades, and how both of these topics are still having huge impacts today really interesting. I enjoyed learning about the “first” YA books in different genres, but was disappointed that more women weren’t mention with their male author counterparts. Even though Cart’s opinion at times overshadowed the information he was trying to share, the reading was engaging and informative.

[Nicole Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was filled with so much information on YA literature. If I did a PhD it would be about this stuff. Highly recommend!

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism is a fascinating and fun preview of the somewhat brief history, current and developing trends in young adult literature. Young Adult Literature has been updated with new information since it’s initial publishing in 1996 and released with a new, more modern cover and reformatted with a funky fresh font and style. Michael Cart, an expert in the field of Young Adult Literature, has crafted a poignant and rich look at young adult literacy from its infancy in the early 1900’s to it’s Golden Age in the new millennium. He utilizes humor, cultural references, interviews and well-grounded research to further his views of the past, the present and each decades issues in young adult literature. In this book, Mr. Cart also tackles the many controversial issues in YA literature including homosexuality, bullying, multiculturalism and more with entertaining and interesting prose. At the times, the amount of statistics and factual information got in the way of the picture Mr. Cart was trying to paint but only for a short time. He delivered a truly engaging read on the topic of YA literature that doesn’t always get the type of coverage it deserves. Librarians, teachers and parents would find the knowledge in this book to be the most useful for suggesting titles and authors to their teens and student reading experiences.

[Hannah]

I'm actually kind of glad that I didn't realize until after buying it that there was a new edition of this book. But it was interesting to get a mid-nineties reflection on YA, and maybe at some point I'll take a look at the new edition and see what he's added. It's not like the history has changed, so it's just the phrases like "right now" that should be changed to "in the nineties."

What I found most interesting was the final chapter, where essentially I was dog-earing and underlining EVERYTHING. It's about the now and the future, and what's sad but interesting is that it's completely accurate nearly 20 years later. Basically, nothing has changed when it comes to lots and lots of the gatekeepers of children's and YA literature kvetching about how "the children" are being "corrupted" by all this "dark" literature and shizz.

Anyway, this is pretty great. Lots of thoughts. Lots of potential quoting in papers. Lots of "Word, bro!" and "Ooh, I must read that" and "Oh, you made that point better than I do when I say the same thing in a lot more words."

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is twenty years old at this point, so while I recognized the value in the historical perspective at a certain point it felt repetitive. I liked the review of the how YA came to be and the debates even still about what the "first" was but how it was ushered in by decades that proved generally fascinating. It heavily leans on ALA-- and I had to go back to see the publisher because it very much felt like it was published by ALA because of the connections to lists and "what librarians thought".

I was glad for the final chapter adding some wisdom to why we read and why we shouldn't marginalize a group of people (teenagers) as the create their own subset of literature... and this ultimate irony being that after twenty years most major motion pictures are based off of YA titles and it's the hottest subset of books around!

Must respect.

[Hannah]

It's interesting how very expanded this one is from the original, considering it's also shorter. There is a lot of good, relevant stuff here that is probably really useful for people who don't know YA, but as a whole, I felt that it was less interesting and less in depth, more for lay people than the original, which seemed a little more heavy on being for people who are somewhat scholars of the stuff already. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly?

[Loretta Gaffney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will definitely use as the text in my next YA Literature class. I really like Cart's writing, and he's wonderfully cranky about bad YA. I missed the more rambling, personal style of the first edition, but appreciated that a book about YA in 2010 will be very different from a book about YA in 1996. Lots of fun, especially when you consider most of the books about YA are reallllly boring.

[Rachel L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful for those pursuing a MLIS degree with a focus on YA services.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I could give 4 stars to a text book...but for this one I can! Great information written in an entertaining and engaging way. Thought it was great!

[Keli Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a worthwhile read. Well-researched and clearly written.

This book gave me statistics, knowledge, and resources for continuing my exploration of this subject. Largely unbiased in tone, Cart generally does not press an agenda or his tastes on the reader. Clearly, however, he is passionate about sexuality and LGBT issues in YA lit. His neutrality slips a little in these chapters and on occasion he ascends a soapbox and even mildly attacks those with whom he disagrees. I wouldn't call it diatribe or discourse, but there is a lot more argumentation and justification for his viewpoints in these chapters than anywhere else in the book. Considering how deeply he apparently feels about these themes and in deference to the valuable data he presents, I can forgive a little soapboxing. Overall, a very good examination of the history, growth, present, and future of YA literature.

[Drucilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you wanted to learn more about YA as a genre (including its fascinating history), this is the book for you. It does toe the edge of being academic, but it's not hard to get through. And you can always skim the long statistical sections. : ) In all seriousness, Cart has done some impressive research. The only ding I can give him is that he mentions the Printz award a lot. It is one of the most important awards in children's literature so I kind of understand, but since he helped create it, it kind of feels like he's tooting his own horn when he brings it up. This is the third edition (published in 2016) and a lot of the stuff he talks about (like diversity in content and authors) has taken a big step forward just in the past couple of years. I'm very interested in what a fourth edition will say.

[Emy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the history of young adult literature in America, from the 40s and 50s all the way up to the present day (the most recent edition was published last year).

I found it very helpful and informative in regards to my studies, though I felt as though the more recent material was patchier and more bogged down in statistics than the material covering the history of YA.

Also, for a textbook this is very readable and engaging. I felt like I learnt a lot without it feeling like a chore.

The only negatives (for me) was that it focused so heavily on American YA, and also that it was so expensive (£72!!!)

This would be good reference guide for undergraduates, as well as postgraduates like me.

[Keegan Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOL; I started out with SO MANY NOTES here (which I've kept below). But that faded. I decided to track this textbook because it was more readable and enjoyable than a lot of textbooks. I kind of want to buy it (rather than just rent and return it like I'm doing) just because Cart has compiled this bulging list of significant YA titles, many of which I'd like to read!

Sometimes, honestly, the book just felt like a list of titles, which was interesting, but also gave off the feel of being buried under a to-read list. Also, I do know that one synopses that Cart gave (of Laurie Halse Anderson's *Speak*) didn't feel like it truly represented the story. He made it sound as though the main character called to report being raped, but really she just called in a daze looking for generic help and, as far as I can tell, never actually reported the rape. In fact, her friends weren't mad at her over the rape; they were mad at her for breaking up the party. They didn't even know about the rape until later in the book. All that to say, I felt like he misrepresented the story a bit . . . which made me wonder how accurate the other synopses were.

Still, even if they weren't EXACT, they were good general intros. The commentary throughout was really interesting too. Although, I will say, it was a bit unusual to have a textbook get as personal as this one did about Cart's accomplishments and involvement in the field. I had mixed feelings about it -- it made it slightly less dry but also made it sound a little (albeit, unintentionally) pompous.

I'm thinking about having my older kids read a selection from the last chapter about teen reading habits, just because I thought it was thought-provoking and they might find it interesting.

*****
NOTES FROM WHEN I FIRST STARTED IN JANUARY:

Historically significant books mentioned:
-*Seventeenth Summer* by Maureen Daly
-*The Contender* by Robert Lipsyte
- *That was Then This is Now* by S.E. Hinton [about drug abuse] [1971]
- *My Darling, My Hamburger* by Norma Klein [about abortion] [1969]
- *I'll Get There. It Better Be WOrth the Trip* by John Donovan [about homosexuality] [1969]
- *The Chocolate War* by Robert Cormier
- *Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blume [1970]
- A Summer to Die* by Lois Lowry [1970]
- *Young Adult Novel* by Daniel M. Pinkwater [satire of 'the problem novel'] (1982)
Quotes:

"Then, as now, it was firmly believed there were girl books and boy books and never the twin would meet. The always opinionated G. Stanley Hall had much to say about this, too. In a 1908 *Library Journal* article, he asserted: Boys loved adventure. Girls sentiment. Books dealing with domestic life and with young children in them are left almost entirely to girls. Boys, on the other hand, revel in humor, rollicking fun, abandon, rough horse-play, and tales of wild escapade." (p. 6)

[Talking about the 1940s] "'Most teen-agers do *not* get sex information from their parents.' Nor did they get it from schools. 'Oregon is the only one of the forty-eight states in which sex education is generally taught.' Nor, of course, did they get it from books--at least not the whole story. As one girl stated, 'I read all about *that* in a book when I was eleven. But nobody ever told me I was going to get so emotional about it.' Too bad, for that's what a good work of realistic fiction, with fully realized characters whose lives invite empathy from the reader and with it emotional understanding, can do--had there been any such books available. That there weren't may be evidence that adult authors (and publishers) did not yet trust young adult readers with the truth of reality." (p. 13)

"Our data shows clearly that much literary material being used in our schools is too subtle, too erudite. . . . Teachers should give priority to the reading interests of young adults . . . to increase reading skill, promote the reading habit, and produce a generation of book-lovers, there is no factor so powerful as interest." -George W. Norvell (quoted on p. 17)

"A year later Newbery Medal-winning author Maia Wojciechowska (1968) joined the chorus, criticizing authors of books for the young, who 'keep going back to their own turn-of-the-century childhood, or write tepid little stories of high school proms, broking and amended friendships, phony-sounding conflicts between parents and children, and boring accounts of what they consider 'problems.' The gulf between the real child of today and his fictional counterpart must be bridged.'" (p. 21)

"It would be an uphill-battle, however, for not only are young adults inherently romantic, but they are also inherently reality-denying. Richard Peck (1994), as usual, put it well: 'In depicting reality our books are often on a collision course with our readers' most deeply felt beliefs: that they cannot die or be infected with sexually transmitted diseases, or get pregnant unless they want to, or become addicted to anything. Our books regularly challenge their conviction that the rules don't apply to them. There are limits to the amount of reality the novel form can encompass. Young adults test the boundaries." (p. 23)

[About 'the problem novel' craze] The Canadian critic Sheila Egoff (1980) has described its characteristic deficiencies as well as any other observer: 'It was very strongly subject-oriented with the interest primarily residing in the topic rather than the telling. The topics--all adult-oriented--sound like chapter titles from a textbook on social pathology: divorce, drugs, disappearing parents, desertion and death.' Or, I'd add, think of it this way and you'll understand the problem with the problem novel: it is to young adult literature what soap opera is to legitimate drama." (p. 25)

[library fairy]

You know what! I usually just review my textbooks because I'm petty, but I actually enjoyed this one. I think it gives a nuanced overview of the last ~100 years of YA and children's literature. I walked away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of where YA has been and where it's going. Also, it was fun/weird to read the author discuss phenomena like Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, John Green, etc. I was a rabid reader as a teen, so it was cool (and strange) to read about those childhood interests through a different lens. Highly recommend for middle/high school English teachers and teen librarians.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

...a New York teen named Julia Rosen (1998, 347) may have spoken for her entire generation when she wrote, in VOYA magazine, "Reading 'bleak books' helps us to realize what kinds of problems actual teens have. They broaden our outlook and help us become less apathetic about the world's problems. Until we live in a world where no problems exist, where adults always behave responsibly, and where there are always happy endings, adults must learn to accept that some of the books we read will describe the hash realities of life. pg. 67

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for class. It was a really good overview of YA lit, with some interesting history.

I thought it was great the way Cart used statistics for all the naysayers who think being is a teen is all about bubblegum and rainbows and so why give them books about sex and drugs and violence? It also serves to remind the reader the role that books can play in helping teens (and readers of all ages) to deal with the difficult issues and experiences that they face.

I can also this being a great resource for reader’s advisory.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of YA literature can only be but so riveting. This provides an overview of what teenagehood entails and how the rise of teenagers as an audience and “construct” in the last century led to the need for books for that audience. That part is solid and interestingly presented. The rest is the book follows each decade and influences on the development of YA lit: genres, awards, librarians’ influences, etc.

[Regina Peixoto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esse livro oferece um histórico detalhado da evolução do gênero young adult estadunidense, desde seu início, lá nos anos 30, até a atualidade (2010).

A voz de Michael Cart foi expositiva, crítica e bem-humorada, tornando a leitura de um livro teórico e cheio de informações super agradável, além de demonstrar um conhecimento profundo sobre o assunto.

Vale a leitura para todos que querem aprofundar os estudos sobre o gênero, mas também vale para quem é só curioso sobre o assunto.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soooooo it was an assigned textbook.

It was okay. I got a lot of overview about young adult lit that I hadn't known before. It's a genre that I sorta "fell out" of but now I have a renewed interest in it.

My problem with the text is that it felt way too anecdotal. I thought it would be a lot more impersonal (concrete history, research, etc.). This Cart guy seems to be THE young adult lit guru of ALA so. I dunno. Helpful info but the text needs some work. Or a new author.

[Melissapalmer404 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #70 Read in 2018
Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism

This is a textbook of sorts, one that I might use in my Young Adult Literature elective. The book chronicles the history of young adult literature, how its popularity has soared, types of books and how the audience can sometimes span into adulthood. I borrowed this book from the public library.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written book on young adult literature. Although I was reading it specifically for my senior thesis topic, I found it engaging (and even humorous at times) and overall useful for making me appreciate young adult literature as a genre. I did not agree with Michael Cart on a lot of the issues he brought up, but I appreciated the way he presented them.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good resource for potential titles, but a trudge to read. This author really loves quoting himself, and while I appreciate that he’s apparently a highly regarded authority for young adult literature, anyone who, for example, repeatedly misspells R. L. Stine (it’s not “Stein”, Mr. Cart) hardly seems worthy of these imperious airs.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is for my favorite English Teacher I have this school year. I decided to read it and I have to say it’s horrible. The ending was decent, but it didn’t have great figurative language or phormedicals. I much rather prefer Clifford the big red dog and Pete the cat, but I guess this works out for some.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't give a lot of detail. History of YA Lit, yes. How to get teens interested in reading, no. Kept going back to "just pay attention to teens, what they're interested in and keep your options open to the medium!" Yes, that's important, but is that it?

[em sky-walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished the third edition of this book. Was a pretty good summary of what’s been going on in the ya world. Clear writing.