As a veteran English and special education teacher for more than two decades, I loved reading to students and helping them learn to read. Even the most reluctant readers would successfully struggle through paperback novels by S.E. Hinton, Gary Paulsen, Walter Dean Myers, and Lois Duncan. Once they started enjoying books, they became hungry for more. It's like that Lay's potato chip commercial: "I bet you can't read just one!"

In a juvenile detention center in VA, I met Bill (not the real name of the student), a 16-year-old, modern day Huck Finn. Bill did not go to school so he had been retained for many years in the seventh grade. He had multiple problems, one of which was following directions which got him into trouble right away in "juvie," and he had been spending too much time in his cell. So, he was given an alternative consequence for an offense. He was to write a paper about what he had done and what he should have done instead.

As I entered the common area early one school day morning, I immediately noticed that Bill had been placed on "population isolation." This is a consequence that allows detainees to come out of their cells but forbids them to communicate with other detainees in any way. As I walked by Bill, he motioned for me to come over. He pleaded, "Tell them that I can't read or write so I can't do this punishment. Maybe I can clean or something instead. Can you teach me how to read?"

I hate that question because I don't know the answer. After a heavy sigh, my truthful reply was, "I don't know, but I'll try." So, I used the one volunteer tutor that we had for one hour per week to provide language experience opportunities to Bill. Using pictures in fishing and hunting magazines as prompts, he told her stories about some of his personal experiences, which she wrote down for him. I then typed up his stories. He practiced "reading" them so he could read them to his intellectually challenged grandmother, his only living relative, during Wednesday visitations.

Bill asked for a book that he might like and be able to read. Many of the detainees chose to read during their "free time" and he wanted to follow those leaders. It is difficult to find books on a primary level with a plot interesting enough to keep a 16-year-old motivated enough to struggle through such a difficult task, and even more difficult to find an age-appropriate book that will not bring ridicule from peers. But, many of the other detainees were reading books and he wanted to read, too. I gave him a copy of The Haymeadow by Gary Paulsen. Much to the boredom of the other students, each morning, he insisted on summarizing orally to me what he had read the night before. Then he read The River, and he continued to read all of the Paulsen books that I could locate. When he learned that he was being sent to another placement center for a long stay, he asked for a copy of Paulsen's newly released book, Brian's Winter. I ordered it and it arrived the day before his departure. When I gave it to him, he tearfully asked me to mail it to his grandmother to keep for him because he could not take any personal items with him. I was sad for his situation, but proud that he had learned to read, and he was going to have much time to do so.

Young adult literature, according to Dr. Kay F. Vandergrift of Rutgers University, provides "... a wealth of fiction created especially for teens that deals with the possibilities and problems of contemporary life as experienced by the age group. These contemporary problem novels reflect the troubled times in which young readers are coming of age, but young people also need to laugh at themselves and at their world and to escape that world in a flight of fancy." She also says, "Through story a reader can confirm one's own life experiences, illuminate and gain insight into those experiences, and vicariously expand and extend them. Although each of us must walk alone, authenticate our experiences, and make our own meanings and sense of truth in the world we know; there is always that tension between the uniqueness of the person and the commonalities of the human condition. This tension is evident in everyday life but revealed most fully in story. Story has always been a very powerful way of venturing beyond the scenes we know to connect with people, places, ideas, and events beyond our normal range." Young adult literature did much of this for those whose range was most limited during their detention.

 Dr. Joan F. Kaywell of the University of South Florida specializes in literature for young adults. She has written several books on the subject and has been instrumental in editing the series, Using Literature to Help Troubled Teenagers Cope with Family Issues published by Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. This series provides teachers and therapists with annotated lists of topic-specific young adult novels through which the readers can examine and analyze fictional characters to gain insight into their own personal issues while improving reading and writing skills. She has also edited Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the Classics, Vols. 1-4, and written Adolescents at Risk: A Guide to Fiction and Nonfiction for Young Adults, Parents, and Professionals. These are great resources for anyone working with adolescents facing issues, and because just being a teenager brings turbulence, trials, and tribulations, that would be all of them.

Some other resources:

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents

Lesson Plans and Resources for Adolescent and Young Adult Literature

YALSA, Young Adult Library Services Association

Young Adult Literature Links

Young Adult Literature: Middle & Secondary English-Language Arts