Journal Entry 11

Many works of young adults that I have read like Chocolate War, Ganesh, Beethoven's Paradise, Hero, If You Come Softly, Chinese Handcuffs have differences and similarities. They all come under Young Adult Literature (YAL) genre. The interesting thing about these books is that they talk about young adults in a modern setting. They deal with a lot of conflicts such as conflict within themselves, conflict with other people, conflict with nature even. When we read the books we learn and identify how they resolve their conflicts or problems. One similarity which can be found would be that the character of the parents are not really in the picture because the central characters would be the young adults themselves and how they deal with their conflicts in life. If you compare to more classical or traditional works like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Treasure Island etc, these stories do talk about young adults but the issues discussed might be slightly different. Well I think the issues discussed in modern young adults are more towards social issues and teenage angst. Teenagers nowadays are more exposed to so many things like crimes, drugs, sex and all sorts of negative things. Unlike teenagers in the past they might not have the same exposure to all these things. When it comes to connecting the students with this genre, the approaches are the same. Teachers need to iniate interest in students by using strategies like reaction and reflection statements,reading roulette, paired squared etc.
Characteristics of YAL would be in terms of theme and issues discussed, plot, setting, characterization etc. These are items which have similarities with traditonal works. Young adults talk about rebbelling against everything that are adults. They want to be treated like adults and yet they are still young at age. Only after a conflict then they would grow up and become mature. Whatever social issues that they encounter they would try to solve them on their own but in the end they still need guidance from adults. By doing comparison and contrast diagrams and maps for the items like theme, plot, conflict , characters make the students understand better of literary works either modern or traditional.