Adaptation in Young Adult Novels: Critically Engaging Past and Present

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Adaptation in Young Adult Novels argues that adapting classic and canonical literature and historical places engages young adult readers with their cultural past and encourages them to see how that past can be rewritten. The textual afterlives of classic texts raise questions for new readers: What can be changed What benefits from change How can you, too, be agents of change The contributors to this volume draw on a wide range of contemporary novels from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series and Megan Shepherd's Madman's Daughter trilogy to Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones adapted from mythology, fairy tales, historical places, and the literary classics of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others. Unpacking the new perspectives and critiques of gender, sexuality, and the cultural values of adolescents inherent to each adaptation, the essays in this volume make the case that literary adaptations are just as valuable as original works and demonstrate how the texts studied empower young readers to become more culturally, historically, and socially aware through the lens of literary diversity.

Reviews

Adaptation in Young Adult Novels offers valuable insights into the capacity of young adult adaptations to critically engage the past and present. It contributes a great deal to understandings of how and why canonical texts are adapted for a specifically young adult audience, and it is a valuable resource for furthering conversations about adaptation, adolescence, and responsible engagement with a problematic canon. * International Journal of Young Adult Literature *
Adaptation in Young Adult Novels brings together for discussion an impressive range of recent texts inspired by classic works, demonstrating the literary canons ongoing vitality and mapping areas--including gender roles, identity formation, and our relationship to social and geographical place--in which todays writers for young readers respond to and rewrite the past. * Claudia Nelson, Professor Emeritus of English, Texas A&M University, USA *
Self-conscious about their own value, encouraging readers to find their own voices in the echo chamber of established classics: adaptations are more than guides to the original. Gauging the scope of this emancipatory cultural work, these essays combine state-of-the-art adaptation studies with perceptive analyses of texts, places, and franchises for young adults. * Anja Mller, Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Siegen, Germany *
Dana E. Lawrence and Amy L. Montz have gathered together an exhilarating group of essays destined to become essential reading for scholars of young adult literature, literary history, and popular culture. YA adaptations of classic works emerge not only as a lively exploration of the past, but also as powerful challenges to the injustices and exclusions of that past. Young adult literature is revealed as a space of change for young readers who insist on a more inclusive and diverse world, and whose developing literacies inspire them as agents of change and creators in their own right. * Carrie Hintz, Associate Professor of English, Queens College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA *

Author Bio

Dana E. Lawrence is Associate Professor of English at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, USA. Amy L. Montz is Associate Professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana, USA. She is co-editor of Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction (2014).