Holland's Sexual Identity

One of the fundamental principles of any young adult novel is its relatability. Oftentimes, teenagers are forced to read outdated, complicated written works for school for the sake of introducing them to the literary canon. More often than not, teenagers cannot relate to these works due to a variety of factors: the language is complex and difficult to read, there are no exciting characters or plot events, or it’s just plain old boring. As a result, teenagers turn to young adult novels as a safe haven—it is where they find books they can actually relate to. Consequently, any worthwhile young adult novel has to be both interesting and relatable, risking limited success if the latter is absent. Without a doubt, Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered is nothing short of interesting, documenting the exciting tale of a young girl’s journey throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo during heightened civil unrest. However, when it comes to the relatability of his novel, Schrefer takes a risk as a result of his setting and plot choices, but still succeeds in presenting something teenagers can relate to through the character of Sophie.

Many short stories are recognized as milestones in the development of modern realist fiction. “Boys and Girls” is a short story that evokes a realistic rather than romantic view of a girl’s journey towards finding herself. This short story includes the fight for her gender, and her struggle with her identity. Also, in addition to these two defining aspects, this short story contains the realistic account of who and what she is to become.

This novel “is a book that truly speaks to adolescents in contemporary language and with teenage characters about adolescent sexuality” (Kaplan 27). Katherine is learning about her sexuality in the novel.

Throughout the novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, several topics across the novel contribute to the overall theme. From identity, conformity to bullying, the topics of Stargirl cover everything under the Mica sun. Conformity is touched after everyone in Mica Area High School is described as conformists, blending into one another. Identity is challenged by Stargirl as she breaks away from conformity. Bullying makes its debut after the kids at MAHS reject Stargirls quirky ways. Overall, the Stargirl novel puts a fresh take on the underlining theme most people aren’t true to themselves unless they are confident.

The theme of the novel is to not follow the crowd, because it may lead you into the wrong direction. Truly followed the populars and dropped her friends who “saved her in the 6th grade.” This teaches middle school girls to have more

While not all works of young adult literature stand up to critical analysis, many of them do. Although no work of young adult literature may ever be raised to canonical status because of its less romantic setting or less sophisticated language, it is an important category of literature to which adolescents and young adults can relate as well as one from which they can grow personally and socially, gaining skills that can be used for critical thinking and analysis for the rest of their

This book is a very enjoyable read. It starts with Amy a fourteen-year-old girl. That one morning she and her dad got into an argument and got irate at him. She told her dad some not so nice things that morning. On his way to work he suddenly got in a nasty car accident. She and her mother eventually get over the grief and sorrow and attempt to turn their lives around. Amy takes a babysitting class to try to earn some money. She finds a family that's very rich. Mrs. Edgerton needs some childcare for her baby Kendra. Kendra is a three-year-old girl that very sweet and obeys without any problems. Then they get into some trouble.

Lindsey Ames, a soon to be high school freshman, views her new school as an opportunity to start over. With the help of her new established friends, Teeny and Grouper, she believes that a change in her wardrobe will eliminate her image that was so haunting and discomforting in the past. Lindsey is successful for a while until her worst possible nightmare appears, her long-time adversary, Avery. The same spoiled bully that ruined her whole middle school life, now reminds Lindsey of her place. As the book continues, the main character’s coping strategies begin to be visible to the reader. Lindsey and her friends, without including the adults, struggle to manage the bullying. Despite this immutable problem, there are other things on Lindsey’s mind. She wants to join the National Honor Society, she wants to take Italian, she wants a cute boy to ask her out, but most of all she wants to change her reputation. However, this does not happen so quickly. As tensions rise, Lindsey faces the complex nature of bullying, and experiences the ups and downs of life as a high school teen.

Coming-of-age novels focus on the transition from childhood to adulthood, with the main character going through a conflict and maturing from it. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino a is a high school freshman transitioning from her difficult first year of high school to her second year. Through the novel, readers go through Melinda's freshman year learning about her conflicts, secrets, discoveries, and opinions of the world around her.

Her coming-of-age moment challenges the gender roles during the time period that the story is set

The coming of age genre focuses on the coming of age and rites of passage of an adolescent for how it educates its readers about personal growth and self consciousness. The main focus is the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist. The goal is to achieve maturity and the protagonist is often in search of answers and seeks to gain an identity of his own. It is also often seen in coming of age novels that the protagonist becomes disillusioned or disappointed as the reality does not match his high hopes and dreams. Gaining of self- knowledge is the key to the ultimate level of maturity of the protagonist

Through the juxtaposition of three young adult novels with struggle for power in the father/daughter relationship and the myth of universal teenage rebellion are present, the argument of “all teenagers are rebellious” is ruled obsolete and untrue. The combination of looking through the Feminist Lens and Youth Lens reading of Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero, and This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp, contributes to the revelation that these female characters who may be perceived as rebellious teenagers are not rebellious at all, but instead redefine the word “rebellious” by gaining power over their own destiny instead of submitting to their parents’

This paper examines the social aspects of the sexual identity in America, illustrating how sexual identities have progressed, evolved, and transformed. Social categories have been created as a tool used for social divide and control, inadvertently creating stereotypical facts and discriminatory opinions on sexes; while also helping create social and welcoming communities, whose goals are to diminish ideals such as those. Concluding, this paper will have explained the dichotomous categories of different sexualities and the divides within them. The already established sexual divide leaves no room for those stuck in the in between of today's society, especially one as progressive as America’s. Derived from the examples giving, this paper argues

As an adult reader who has crossed over to the reality of life, reading about these characters can be a transparent, futile exercise because as adults looking back at youth we have the experience to know where these characters are headed before they even start their journey. However, for young adults who are still in the throes of existential angst this is a powerful novel that handles teenage rites of passage and coming-of-age issues such as loyalty, friendship, belonging, and even death and loss very well.

Any creative mind would like to read this book because it lets you see into the mind of a young girl who is extremely mature for her age experiencing a serious event that would scar even an adult. It covers mature themes such as suicide and mental illness, but to some that makes it even more compelling. It teaches readers a lesson about following the rules and how fragile some minds can be.