 | Katherine Higgs-Coulthard is an Assistant Professor in the Education Department at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Past-president of ICTE, and a teacher consultant for the Hoosier Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project. Dr. Higgs-Coulthard’s passion for story informs her research on the teaching of writing, her work as a teacher educator and YA author, and her advocacy for teen writers. In 2013, she founded the Get Inked Teen Writing Conference, which offers opportunities for teens to write alongside published YA authors. Her YA novel, Junkyard Dogs (Peachtree Teen, 2023), highlights issues of teen poverty and homelessness. |
Facing Difficult Family Situations in YA Literature by Dr. Katherine Higgs-Coulthard
One of the things I love the most about working with teens, both as readers and as writers, is the way they take books so incredibly personally. They get emotionally entangled in stories that let them see beyond the superficial trappings of a life into the characters’ hearts. When characters they know and love face adversity, teens root for them like they would a close friend. This is especially true with characters facing difficult family situations.
Even though I knew this already as a teacher and mentor of teen writers, I was still surprised during my first school visit for my debut YA book, Junkyard Dogs when the students were more interested in discussing protagonist Josh Robert’s family dynamics than the mystery around his missing father. While their questions seemed very specific to Josh’s situation (“How could Gran treat Josh like that? Doesn’t she love him?” “Why doesn’t Dad take Josh and Twig with him?”), what students actually wanted to know was what causes families to fail one another and can anyone survive despite their family’s dysfunction.
Even though I knew this already as a teacher and mentor of teen writers, I was still surprised during my first school visit for my debut YA book, Junkyard Dogs when the students were more interested in discussing protagonist Josh Robert’s family dynamics than the mystery around his missing father. While their questions seemed very specific to Josh’s situation (“How could Gran treat Josh like that? Doesn’t she love him?” “Why doesn’t Dad take Josh and Twig with him?”), what students actually wanted to know was what causes families to fail one another and can anyone survive despite their family’s dysfunction.
And that is the amazing thing about stories. Readers can lean against the guardrail and peer into a canyon of chaos, not as voyeurs, but as apprentices. Characters in tough situations lay down breadcrumbs for potential paths through the thorns readers will face in their own lives. Pairing this examination with writing fiction provides an opportunity for teens to respond to the complications in their own lives through the veil of invented characters.
The following books are about different topics, from winning the lottery to encountering an ancestral spirit, but each has resonated with the teens I work with and led to deep conversations and complex student writing about what it means to be a family.
The following books are about different topics, from winning the lottery to encountering an ancestral spirit, but each has resonated with the teens I work with and led to deep conversations and complex student writing about what it means to be a family.
American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott looks deeply at the impact of economic recession and military service on families. Told from the perspective of high school senior, Teodoro Avila, the story follows T as he sets out on a road trip with his sister, Xochitl, and their brother, Manny. As the siblings travel along the West Coast to New Mexico, T learns that the war has impacted Manny to the point where he considers suicide. While the impromptu drive cannot heal Manny’s PTSD and depression, it can provide time for the process to begin. Although suicide is an incredibly difficult topic to discuss, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that nearly 20% of high school students state that they have had serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have made an attempt. The Avila Family’s experiences can provide a supportive frame for sharing mental health resources and creating opportunities for teens to get help.
Losers Bracket is informed by author Chris Crutcher’s work as a mental health counselor and follows fictional character Annie Boots as she straddles the social and economic divide between her biological and adoptive families. Although Annie’s birth mother struggles with addiction and her older sister is raising a young child by herself, Annie still cares about them both and creates opportunities to see them against her adoptive father’s wishes by playing multiple sports. When her nephew goes missing, Annie learns that people can come together to help in difficult times and that all families have complex dynamics. A major theme of the book is nature versus nurture, which opens up opportunities for teens to consider the influences in their own lives.
Losers Bracket is informed by author Chris Crutcher’s work as a mental health counselor and follows fictional character Annie Boots as she straddles the social and economic divide between her biological and adoptive families. Although Annie’s birth mother struggles with addiction and her older sister is raising a young child by herself, Annie still cares about them both and creates opportunities to see them against her adoptive father’s wishes by playing multiple sports. When her nephew goes missing, Annie learns that people can come together to help in difficult times and that all families have complex dynamics. A major theme of the book is nature versus nurture, which opens up opportunities for teens to consider the influences in their own lives.
Everything You Want by Barbara Shoup explores what happens when Emma Hammond’s dad wins $50,000,000 in the state lottery and her family goes from being weird to dysfunctional trying to figure out what to do with it. Emma’s a freshman in college, still in love with her former best friend Josh who dumped her. Unfortunately, he’s at the same university and behaves horribly to her whenever she sees him. Her perky roommate Tiffany is even worse—commandeering their room all weekend so she can spend time with her boyfriend, forcing Emma to take shelter in the psych lab with Freud, the goose that’s the subject of a class experiment. Money is freedom, she thinks—and everything that’s good in her life. This story raises great questions for teen readers about the relationship between wealth and happiness as Emma and her family spin off in different directions, threatening all they hold dear.
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran also considers the impact of money on family dynamics. Jade Nguyen’s estranged father is willing to help pay for her college tuition, but only if she comes to visit him in Vietnam over the summer. The French Colonial house that her father is restoring is beautiful, but it hides a terrible secret that threatens to devour Jade and her family. While this story is rooted in a horror, the heart of Jade’s story is the secret she carries about the last conversation she had with her father before he abandoned his wife and children in America. Jade’s experience lends itself to deep conversations about blame and forgiveness in families.
Family is the first thing we know, but it takes our whole lives to understand what it means to be part of a family. The stories listed here provide opportunities for teens to root for characters who are navigating difficult terrain and may even help them find their own path.
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran also considers the impact of money on family dynamics. Jade Nguyen’s estranged father is willing to help pay for her college tuition, but only if she comes to visit him in Vietnam over the summer. The French Colonial house that her father is restoring is beautiful, but it hides a terrible secret that threatens to devour Jade and her family. While this story is rooted in a horror, the heart of Jade’s story is the secret she carries about the last conversation she had with her father before he abandoned his wife and children in America. Jade’s experience lends itself to deep conversations about blame and forgiveness in families.
Family is the first thing we know, but it takes our whole lives to understand what it means to be part of a family. The stories listed here provide opportunities for teens to root for characters who are navigating difficult terrain and may even help them find their own path.
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References:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2021). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP21-07-01-003, NSDUH Series H-56). Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2021). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP21-07-01-003, NSDUH Series H-56). Rockville, MD: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/
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