Another key material in this study is young adult literature. While many practitioner-oriented and research articles study or make use of young adult literature, these are often textual analyses or using young adult literature to study other classroom practices such as discussion (e.g. Hayn, Kaplan, & Nolen, 2011; Henderson & Buskist, 2011). Few studies have analyzed exactly how adolescents engage particularly with young adult literature. However, one fact that cannot be denied is that adolescents do engage with young adult literature (Adams & Bushman, 2006; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014). Though limited in number, some studies have shown why young adult literature may be particularly suited to help adolescents achieve reading engagement. The following is a breakdown of how young adult literature has been studied to be uniquely suited to elicit what researchers indicate are the hallmarks of engagement including time and choice (Allington & Cunnignham, 2007; Brozo & Hargis, 2011; Gambrell & Morrow, 1996; Guthrie & Humenick, 2004; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Oldfather, 1996), self-efficacy and identity (Beach & Ward, 2013; De Naeghel et al., 2012; Gambrell & Morrow, 1996; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; McCombs, 1996), strategy (Cantrell et al., 2017; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; McCombs, 1996; Scheffel, 2016), and social use (Beach & Ward, 2013; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Ivey, 2014; Oldfather, 1996; Scheffel, 2016).
Time and Choice
Research shows adolescents choose to spend time reading young adult literature (Adams & Bushman, 2006; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014). In Ivey and Johnston’s (2013) study, students continued to read young adult books even in other classes. Moje et al. (2008) found that adolescents would spend time reading young adult texts, but not necessarily classics that were assigned. This time spent with the text is not just limited to time reading it, however. Both Ivey and Johnston (2014) and Wilhelm and Smith (2014) found that, with young adult texts, students continued to think about the text long after they were finished reading. When given the choice, adolecents choose to read and spend time with young adult literature (Adams & Bushman, 2006; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Johnson, 2011; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014).
Self-efficacy and Identity
Particularly important to this study are the ways in which young adult literature has been studied to build self-efficacy and identity. Young adult literature is suited to both build self-efficacy and promote reader identity and construction of identity. Researchers have noted the pleasure adolescents take in reading young adult literature (Adams & Bushman, 2006; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014). Wilhelm and Smith (2014) outlined the ways in which play are integral to learning, and that reading young adult texts is a pleasurable experience for many adolescents that makes the experience like play. This efferent, aesthetic enjoyment (Rosenblatt, 1978) is the most engaging type of motivation, intrinsic motivation, as outlined by De Naeghel et al. (2012). This pleasure in reading can help build both confidence as well as an identity as a reader. Additionally, high-success reading builds self-efficacy (Allington & Gabriel, 2012), and young adult literature provides this high success reading. This is not based solely on Lexile levels, but rather on the influence of prior knowledge. Adams and Bushman (2006) note the importance of prior knowledge in building comprehension as well as how the young adult literature brings into play adolescents’ prior knowledge by addressing their particular experiences. The subject matter of young adult literature plays on prior knowledge, assisting in comprehension, high-success reading, and, therefore, self-efficacy, reader identity, and reading engagement. Ivey and Johnston (2014) noted the power of young adult literature to change reader identity directly when students engaged with young adult literature made statements such as “I’m a bookworm” and “I used to be slow at reading, but I’m kind of, like, in the middle” (p.262). Through reading young adult literature, these students grew to see themselves as readers.
Beyond reader identity, as previously stated, Kirkland (2011) noted the importance of being able to relate a book to one’s self and help construct one’s identity from it for reader engagement. Young adult literature is best suited to these purposes for adolescents as it relates directly to their lives (Adams & Bushman, 2006; Ivey & Johnston, 2013; Ostenson & Wadham, 2012; Santoli & Wagner, 2004; Wilhelm & Smith, 2014). Ivey and Johnston (2013) and Wilhelm and Smith (2014) found that young adult texts help students construct their identities. Ivey and Johnston (2013) gave an example of a student who connected a young adult book to her life and applied its content:
I read a couple of books where people get bullied, and it changes my mind, ’cause in a couple of books I read, people commit suicide for it. And in Hate List [by Jennifer Brown], that book is really good, and it changes my mind about how people feel about things. And even, like, a little comment can change someone’s life. And, like, the other day, I saw people on Facebook picking on this one girl, like, saying nobody liked her because she was ugly and had no friends. And I kind of put a stop to it. I told them it was wrong and that people commit suicide for it all the time. So, it changed my way of seeing things. Normally I wouldn’t have said anything to stop. But now, if I see anything, I stop it. (p. 263)
Here, an adolescent is able to make a young adult text immediately relevant to her life, constructing parts of her own identity from the book.
Strategy
Young adult texts allow for particular strategy use. Wilhelm and Smith (2014) found that some adolescents read young adult literature “as a writer” (p.50). Because this is the type of literature adolescents like to read, it is also the type of literature they like to write. The desire to read a young adult text as a writer provides both motivation and strategy for reading a text. Beyond this, Ivey and Johnston (2013) noted the way students read young adult texts dialogically (p.257). One of their participants noted “I just feel like I was in the book, and I was there beside them the whole time” (p.261). Young adult literature allows adolescents to see themselves in the text and think through the decisions characters make in the text. Ivey and Johnston (2013) stated that “features of contemporary texts, such as multiple narrators, shifting perspectives, and multimodalities, invite readers to consider varied viewpoints on personal and social problems, including those normally underrepresented” (p. 257). The strategies required for this reading promote engagement.
Social
Finally, young adult literature provides more social opportunities than other texts. In their study of the reading habits of young men, Smith and Wilhelm (2002) note that young men are “likely to read material that can be transported into conversations with their friends” (p. x). Young adult literature can be easily transported into conversation because of its relevance to adolescents’ lives. Ivey and Johnston (2013) noted how students would continue to talk about young adult texts outside of class with peers or relate aspects of books to social situations. Adolescents can even extend their knowledge of books to imagined social situations. One student stated:
I thought [Destroying Avalon by Kate McCaffrey] was really good, really sad at the end. But it just makes you think about, to pay attention to how people react, to pay attention to how they’re feeling about stuff. Like when you see people you don’t really think, you know, you think. well. they don’t have problems or whatever. But then some of the ones I’ve read, you can just understand people better (Ivey & Johnston, 2013, p. 262).
This student now views others and potential social interactions differently because of her ability to connect her reading to real life social situations.
While both reading engagement and young adult literature have been studied extensively, and most agree that young adult literature is highly engaging, limited research exists on exactly what makes young adult literature so engaging for adolescents. The limited research does show, however, that many of the traditionally cited qualities of engaged readers are amplified with the use of young adult texts, and that, by addressing adolescent concerns and life stories, young adult literature is uniquely engaging in itself. Hayn, Kaplan, and Nolen, (2011) called for further research into engagement with young adult literature. With the rising need for promoting reader engagement, young adult literature is a necessary area of focus for future researchers.