Literature for Children: Young Adult Literature Chapter Reflections

~Why do we share literature with children?

Literature that's shared with children is a form of play that allows children to experience other worlds through their imagination.
When conducting read-alouds students begin to acquire language and their language development increase with experiences through literature.
While reading, readers begin to develop empathy which allows the reader to educate themselves in feelings and understanding human behavior. The reader gets to experience what the character is going through which allows the reader to better visualize the story-line.
Sharing reading with children helps develop life-long readers who develop their own interests and experience diversity among characters, places, and situations.
Reading literature also can be done for aesthetic and philosophical purposes.

~Division of Young People's Literature

There are many categories of young adult literature which are broken into many division, such as:

Children Literature (0-8 yrs old)which consists of picture books with some wording or wordless, easy reader's, illustrated chapter books, and early chapter books.
Middle Grade/Tween (8-12 yrs. old) literature which consists of books within a series, graphic novels, etc. Example, Ghost by Raina Telgemeier is a graphic novel and Eighth Grade Bites series by Heather Brewer.
Middle School (11-13 yrs. old) literature may have more complex ideas that may introduce more romance or autobiographical stories. Example, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.
Young Adults Literature (13-18 yrs. old) some popular stories like Twilight series or Hungry Games series could be read during this age group.
New Adult Literature (18-30 yrs. old) which started in 2009. Some popular series Divergent series and The House of Midnight series which I happened to have read during this time.
Of course, depending on the reader and their interests many may choose different forms of literature and age has nothing to do with what is being read either.

~ Genres & Formats of Young Adult Literature

Informational which consists of biography, autobiography, and a memoir. Also, under the informational is Narrative Non-fiction and one example is The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin.
Expository Non-fiction which mainly consists of facts and information such as Tornadoes by Seymour Simon

Realism which consists of realistic and historical. Under the realistic genre is modern and contemporary literature.
Fantasy is another genre that consists of Modern and Traditional literature. Under the Modern Fantasy is the soft/ hard science fiction and high and low fantasy. The Traditional Fantasy is where the folklore's, ballads, fables, fairy tales, myths, and legends are found.

~What is Young Adult Literature?

Young Adult Literature must have these characteristics to make it into this category.

It involves youthful protagonists,
It uses a point of view which presents an adolescents interpretation of the events.
It has directness of exposition and direct confrontation.
It involves a significant change in the life of main character(s).
It shows a highly independent protagonists.
Young Adult literature shows gradual and incremental changes and incomplete growth in the main character(s).
This form of literature draws upon a sense of how adolescents develop.

~How do Adolescents Develop?

Strangely enough if an author understands the development of children and teenagers then authors can understand their mental and physical developments, and morals.
The development of ideas is easily understood when you read a piece of literature and you realize the feelings of the characters is easily synthesize and mirrored as our own.

Literature for Children