Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism

Cart, M. (2016). Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism (3 ed.). Chicago, IL: Neal-Schuman. 978-0-8389-1462-5.

Cart’s authoritative survey is already a go-to text for students of literary studies, teachers, and YA staff. In this new edition he gives it a thorough update to make it even more relevant and comprehensive. Surveying the landscape of YA lit both past and present, this book

• sketches in the origins of literature targeted at young adults;
• shows how the best of the genre has evolved to deal with subjects every bit as complex as its audience;
• closely examines teen demographics, literacy, audiobooks, the future of print, and other key topics;
• includes updated treatment of best-selling authors like John Green, Suzanne Collins, and Veronica Roth, plus interviews with leaders in the field;
• presents new and expanded coverage of perennially popular genre fiction, including horror, sci fi, and dystopian fiction;
• offers an updated overview of LGBTQ literature for young adults, including Intersex;
• covers such commercial trends as adult purchasers of YA books and the New Adult phenomenon; and
• features abundant bibliographic material to aid in readers’ advisory and collection development.

Cart’s up-to-date coverage makes this the perfect resource for YA librarians who want to sharpen their readers’ advisory skills, educators and teachers who work with young people, and anyone else who wants to understand where YA lit has been and where it’s heading.

(book description)