Analyse how female protagonists are represented as the hero in YA novels. It could be interesting to include an examination of the extent by which these female protagonists rely on the male characters and how they differ from male protagonists depicted as the hero in other novels. An interesting take on this topic could also include how these female characters reflect the women of today.
Great topic. I'd be interested in reading essays on this topic, There are so many YA stories, of course, that it wouldn't be fair to pick just two -- one with a female protagonist, the other with a male protagonist -- and make overly general claims based on just that one examination. – JamesBKelley5 years ago
Great topic! I think JamesBKelley makes a great point, since there are *many* great YA female protagonists, and the YA genre is so large now. Maybe adding an additional specification would help focus the comparison -- perhaps comparing female protagonists in the top ten bestselling YA novels in your country, or comparing an older series with a newer one. – Eden5 years ago
Yeah, it could also be a chance to compare good and bad YA female leads. (Bella, anyone?) – OkaNaimo08195 years ago
Throughout the years, young-adult fiction has been a fascinating sub-genre of novels, ranging from sparkling vampires to dystopian worlds. In particular, the growing popularity of these books, and the recent trend of books-turned-movies has shot YA fiction into the spotlight. With popular series’ like “Twilight” and the “The Hunger Games,” there has been a surge of ‘copycat’ themes and styles arising, which has influenced the genre in many ways.
Starting from the origins of young, coming-of-age novels, like S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders,” where has the genre shifted, changed, and grown? How has the content of these novels altered and does that reflect a difference of perspective in modern times?
Oh, there's so much you can do with this topic... :) – Stephanie M.7 years ago
I think it's important to talk about how the popularity of the movie adaptions of these books in turn also changed the focus of these works. (How the changes made in the production of the movie have since perpetuated similar shifts in the writing of new YA books based on the good reception of the movies) – PfD7 years ago
Great topic. You can mention how the trends in YA Books influence in different generations: pre-teens, teenagers, young adults, and their parents. – sterlinajames7 years ago
As an avid reader of YA, I would love to read something like this! Something that I think would be really interesting to discuss is the increasing popularisation of subgenres within YA, most notably Fantasy and dystopian Science Fiction. For some reason, I see people talk more about these kinds of books than the more realistic ones. I personally think that both of these kinds of YA novels have their merits but it'd be really interesting to see the author's take in this. – PhoebeLupton7 years ago
Discuss what aspects of specific YA novels or YA series (e.g. The Hunger Games trilogy, the Harry Potter books, etc.) make these works interesting and engaging for adults despite the fact that they were written for a teenage audience.
Hello! I've done a bit of research on this myself most especially on the Hunger Games and Harry Potter, and have read a plethora of adult books. I can say quite surely that the interest in YA books for adults is that the books are different. A lot of those in the adult genre follow a script based on the genre and therefore they all eventually sound the same and are predictable. YA books are more unique because the authors have more freedom and are more creative and adults crave that in order to break up the monotony of real life. – cconte36129 years ago
^^Monotony of life is spot on. Books, like most media, are an escape. The core themes of YA fiction line up perfectly with the "drifting off day dreams" of adult life: Rebelling against a system, feeling of being a "chosen one" picked out of nowhere, self-importance, etc. Adults look at these stories in the scope of a fun dream reality, where as the teens and younger readers that the works are skewed towards read them as a potential future for themselves. – KJarboe9 years ago