Introduction: Young Adults, Reading, and Young Adult Reading

Abstract

This chapter introduces the issues at stake in the book and outlines the theoretical and methodological approaches. The book begins with questions that arise in the classroom: is all reading that kids do ``good''? Who says so, and why? These questions, common in the young adult literature classroom, may seem naïve, but they get at the heart of the concerns that motivate educational policy on the one hand and literary approaches to fiction on the other. The introductory chapter outlines the stakes of the debates about adolescent reading and young adult fiction, taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws on reader-response theory, applied study of literacy and education, and literary analysis to argue for the importance of reading in contemporary young adult fiction.