'Young Adult' books that shaped my teenage years
“Young Adult (Y.A.) Lit is literature written with readers from ages 12 - 18 in mind.”
“Essentially, it’s just literature for and about teens, there to bridge the gap between children’s and adult’s books.”
“Y.A. is not a genre; it's a category, as with adult literature, containing all sorts of types of writing, from fiction to nonfiction.”
From the article “What Does 'Young Adult' Mean?”
I will be participating in a ‘Delhi Reads’ book club meeting today. The theme for this meet is ‘Generation shifts in Young Adult media’. I felt I should write down all my thoughts so that I can say something interesting at the meeting.
Considering that I’ve just entered my thirties and the average age of the crowd is probably 22 or 23, I can truly say I belong to a different generation.
I belong to the age when desktop computers were not abundant. The internet did not flow like a river. And Instagram and Facebook were either nonexistent or not yet popular. (FYI I passed out of 10th grade in 2008.)
So, my reading habits were shaped by my librarian and my teachers. We had a very good library where we had a plethora of books to choose from.
Enid Blyton Era
My reading journey began with the Noddy series by Enid Blyton. Then I graduated to Famous Five and Secret Seven series. There was severe competition in my circle of friends to tick off books in the series.
Bragging rights were hard won. These books were mostly adventure driven. Like a treasure hunt or something juvenile. But they floated my boat, so I am glad. Then, I remember reading a certain Merlin series.
But I confess say I’ve mostly forgotten the storylines of most of these books. If I recall correctly, I became a serious reader only in grade 8. All thanks to the most famous fictional detective.
Sherlock Holmes Era
When I was studying in grade 8, I convinced my mom to buy the entire collection of the Sherlock Holmes series at a ‘Scholastic Book Fair’ in my school. My mom asked the librarian whether the school library had these books before she agreed to pay for them.
Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes books, might not agree that his books fall into the ‘Young Adult’ category. In fact, I did not know the meaning of the Young Adult category until yesterday. (I was surprised to know that Harry Potter series belongs to the Young Adult category.)
It was the most exciting phase in my reading journey. I used to switch off lights, and read with a torch under the blankets to ensure that I got into the mysterious detective mood. All in all, I gobbled all 54 short stories and 4 novels written by Conan Doyle.
This was followed by a brief Agatha Christie spell. But it fizzled out as I didn’t feel Poirot was as compelling as Sherlock.
I must not forget to mention the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. An entire universe inside a cupboard filled with fantastic creatures and the general good vs evil trope had captivated me to some extent. This was a book I tried to read after seeing the movie! I badly wanted to finish this series, but I could not. Someday I will.
Though I don’t remember why I missed the train (haha), I think I was drawn towards the Harry Potter series, some serious Russian literature by Alexander Pushkin, and non-fiction works about Mahatma Gandhi (I know it was a phase).
Harry Potter Era
Harry Potter was a very important part of my life. The journey was quite weird.
It would be dishonest to claim there was no status game in my class regarding reading. Some of the sections of the library were cordoned off for the brighter kids. People did boast about the cool books they had read.
I was talking to this kid, touted to be a big reader, who had read many Harry Potter books. So I felt drawn into the Harry Potter, partly due to curiosity and partly due to FOMO. Being the ambitious kid I was, I picked ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ (it’s the fifth book in Harry Potter series) since it was bulkier than others. I was unaware that it was a series that goes in chronological order.
The ‘big-reader’ kid told me that I would not understand anything if I didn’t start with the first book in the series. I was offended and rebuked this kid. But later, I came to my senses and started with the first book (i.e. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone).
The general ‘good vs evil’ trope fit into my teenage rebel blood quite comfortably. Overall, I was floored and captivated by the series.
Those were also interesting times as we were waiting for the sixth and seventh books to be released. Half-Blood Prince (2005) and Deathly Hallows (2007) were released when I was in grade 7 and grade 9, respectively.
The Harry Potter series shaped my relationship with the female gender as well. I was rooting for a relationship between Harry and Hermione. TBH, I wanted my girlfriend to be as smart as Hermione Granger. I feel sorta ashamed to disclose that my first major crush was a Twilight fan (no offence to Twilight fans)! That was a major red flag.
I read other YA books like ‘Catcher in The Rye’, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in my twenties. Sorta late to be in the ‘Young Adult’ category. But these books did speak to me in a certain way. They helped me reflect on my teenage years.
I can feel the nostalgia in my bones as I write this. A walk down memory lane (I know its a cliche).