Lexie Shadix, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor

Every year and a half, Berry offers English 328, “Young Adult Literature,” taught by Clinton Peters, assistant professor of creative writing. Young Adult literature is generally considered to be written for readers aged twelve to eighteen. These stories feature themes of identity, friendship and the challenges of becoming an adult. Some of the most well-known literature today falls within this category, such as “Harry Potter” or “The Hunger Games.” 

“It’s the kind of reading that we always return to, that we always want to read,” Peters said. “There’s a lot of potential in Young Adult literature because of how exciting it is to kind of smuggle in different conversations about whatever. Honestly, you know, it could be anything. It could be gender, ecology, sexuality, race or geography.” 

The genre of Young Adult literature oftentimes provides a space for readers to explore complex emotions and experiences. 

“I think that a lot of YA Literature books are good for people that don’t really have an outlet for recognizing their emotions,” Ellie Browne, a junior creative writing major taking the class, said. “It’s important to have those kinds of books because, while you may not recognize it while it’s happening to you, you can read books like that and [realize], ‘Oh, I know what that emotion feels like.’” 

Throughout the course of the semester, the class will read ten books. 

“Having taught this [class] a few times, I tried to pick books that my students have gravitated to,” Peters said. “I also like to pick at least one book that has won a Georgia Peach Award recently.” 

The winner of the Georgia Peach Award is decided by high school students. This year, English 328 will be reading “Ace of Spades” by Faridah Abike-Iyimide, as it recently won the award. The class also gets the opportunity to pick one of the books that will be read. 

“We had people nominate [books] and then we voted on it,” Peters said. “They picked a non-fiction text which I’m very excited about. They picked ‘Alice and Frida Forever: A Murder in Memphis.’”

However, while this class is listed as English, it is also being taken by creative writing and secondary education majors. To fit the individual learning needs of each of these majors, Peters assigns “personal projects” throughout the course. There are four options that students can choose from. They can create a five-page lesson plan based on one of the books in the course, write a five-page persuasive paper, create their own fanfiction or write a personal essay. 

“They can do the same option twice, they can mix and match, whatever,” Peters said. “I want them to make this class useful for them, so [those assignments], I think, helps them interact with the texts in another way.” 

Students also must complete two personal responses, take part in a book understanding exercise and participate in discussions and “book club.” 

“The students have to argue for a book that we should all read,” Peters said. “Whoever I think makes the best argument, I will buy them a YA book of their choice, as long as it’s $25 or less. I want this class to share the wisdom, because everyone reads differently and there’s so many books out there, so we can get to know what’s out there a little bit better.”

While these books are targeted towards young adults, as the name implies, the average buyer of young adult literature is thirty to forty-four years old. They may be purchasing these books for their children, but it seems that often they are purchasing these books to read themselves. 

“I think there is just something fundamentally impactful about profiling that experience of someone who is in that age range, thirteen to seventeen, because it’s so important for anyone,” Peters said. “There’s just something so developmentally memorable about that time that we harken back to it until, probably, our last days.”

And while it is important to take classes that entail reading textbooks focused on science or history, it can be just as important to study a genre such as           Young Adult.   

“I’m sure you can find a seventeen-year-old who wants to read the ‘Scarlet Letter,’” Peters said. “I think there are way more people who want to read ‘Six of Crows.’ And I think, because it is culture, that it’s worth studying.” 

This class’s focus on the genre sets it apart from other, more “traditional” literature classes that stress critical theory. 

“The other literature courses I take, with people that are specifically English professors, delve into the symbolism in the book and you are going to write more critical essays,” Bailey Casey, a junior creative writing major, said. “Critical theory in literature [involves] these different lenses that you can look into a text with. For example, if you’re reading ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ you can look at it through a feminist lens, queer lens and a psychological lens. You can take whatever aspect you want to really pick out in the book. [However], Peters’ classes are very discussion heavy, so I have a very strong sense that this is more going to be, ‘What do we see in the book,’ [or] ‘What do we like in the book?’”

The class has unique things to offer students in their educational journey. It can serve to increase their knowledge of Young Adult books that are currently in circulation and teach students how to think differently about them. 

“Can we talk about how these writers are writing?” Peters said. “Should they be writing this stuff? What kind of problems do we see?” 

It can also help students meet certain personal goals. 

“I want to rekindle my love for reading fiction,” Browne said. “I really enjoy diving into other worlds. I think having to read them as an assignment will encourage me and then hopefully, I’ll read some more [books] on my own in that same genre after this class.” 

The future of young adult literature is, like most things, unknown.

“I really hope that the trend that I see that is calling out hard topics continues,” Casey said. “My father is a middle school teacher, so I hear about how there’s this trend and rising of lack of empathy, and a lack of literacy or ability to communicate complex ideas. Having books pertaining to racism, homophobia, sexism and misogyny is going to be important in these coming years because it needs to be called out in a way that makes sense and provides language to younger kids that can then understands that’s not okay.” 

While its future is unknown, the genre does not seem to be dying off anytime soon. Many new Young Adult books are being published, and old ones are constantly being reread. 

“I actually like going back to YA because sometimes life is just hard,” Peters said. “I sound like a cliché, but sometimes it’s just nice to have things work out for the good people. I feel like YA is a stable source of rejuvenation for me, and I think it probably always will be.” 

Young adult literature manages to portray how other people live, and in the process, it works to make more empathetic individuals. The genre has played a large role in many readers’ lives, often being the genre that gets them interested in reading in the first place. Through it, people have been transported into new worlds, been able to see themselves in literature and have found some of their favorite works of literature. While some may look down on it, viewing it as a competitor to other, more “academic” books, it does not necessarily need to be a competition. A wide variety of literature can benefit a student in their educational journey, and Young Adult books are no exception.