The Value of the Youth Lens When Reading YA by Dr. Sharon Kane

We are delighted to feature Sharon Kane's work today--especially since it focuses on the youth lens, which we've discussed on the blog before. Some helpful background information (referenced by Dr. Kane below) can be found in Sarigianides, Petrone, and Lewis's free access article titled "How Re-thinking Adolescence Helps Re-Imagine the Teaching of English." 

Sharon Kane is a professor in the School of Education at the State University of New York at Oswego.  She is the author of Literacy and Learning in the Content Areas: Enhancing Knowledge in the Disciplines (2019, Routledge) and Integrating Literature in the Disciplines (2020, Routledge). A new book, Teaching and Reading New Adult Literature in High School and College, also from Routledge, is forthcoming.  

The Value of the Youth Lens When Reading YA  by Dr. Sharon Kane

Ever since the January 2015 issue of English Journal explored the theme “Re-Thinking ‘Adolescence’ to Re-Imagine English,” I have used the youth lens when reading YA books, and have taught my student readers to use it, too. This theoretical framework calls for us to reject some of the dominant perspectives about adolescents, which are often framed in terms of deficits, stereotypes, and negative or limiting traits (immature, irresponsible, governed by raging hormones, melodramatic, rebellious, not intellectually curious, self-absorbed, egocentric, etc.) Sarigianides, Lewis, and Petrone (2015) point out that often, “... adolescents are generally understood as ‘becoming’ and valued for their promise and potential, yet rarely for who they are now” (p. 14). The authors offer the youth lens as an alternative, allowing us to view teens as already whole, complex, knowledgeable, and capable individuals. “... regarding youth as they are, rather than constantly worrying about who they might become, honors their present circumstances” (p. 14). 
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Perhaps because I have found such value in using this approach as I teach and read YA literature, I started noticing titles of books that include the word becoming. Evidently many authors find it a useful construct. Michelle Obama chose it as the one-word title of her memoir, Becoming. Joe Couloumbe titled his story Becoming Trader Joe, adding the subtitle How I Did Business My Way & Still Beat the Big Guys. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar offers Becoming Kareem: Growing Up on and off the Court. I found Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming, by Antonio Michael Downing. Readers who have fond memories of Sesame Street might enjoy Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx, by Sonia Manzano. There’s no reason to think these memoirists viewed the word becoming as having a negative connotation.

Biographers have also found the construct of becoming useful. Here are a few titles: Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Journey to Justice, by D. Levy; Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodore Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination, by B.J. Jones; Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader, by B. Schlender and R. Tetselli; Becoming Jane Austen: A Life, by J. Spence; Becoming Emily: The Life of Emily Dickinson, by K.P. Goddu; Becoming Bach, by T. Leonard; Becoming Ben Franklin: How a Candlemaker’s Son Helped Light the Flame of Liberty, by Russell Freedman; Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of A Wrinkle in Time by her Granddaughters, by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Léna Roy; Becoming Beatrix, by Amy M. O’Quinn.

At least two recent biographies of Abraham Lincoln include the word becoming in their titles; it might be interesting for readers to compare how the authors deal with the evolution of Lincoln’s thinking and behavior in W.W. Freeling’s Becoming Lincoln and R. Kigel’s Becoming Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President. Our students can also see the construct at work in James Patterson and Kwami Alexander’s coming-of-age novel, Becoming Mohammad Ali as well as in the poetry collection You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, edited by Diana Whitney. ​

And then there are all the nonfiction books out there whose purpose is to help readers prepare for and enter professions, such as J. Michael Straczynski’s Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer: The Artistry, Joy, and Career of Storytelling. Simon & Schuster’s Masters at Work series uses Becoming in every title. Students can explore the stories and advice in Becoming a Climate Scientist, by Kyle Dickman; or check out other titles to learn about becoming a baker, yoga instructor, private investigator, venture capitalist, sommelier, firefighter, video game designer, interior decorator, midwife, restaurateur, or one of many other professions. 

Books containing Becoming in their titles offer varied examples of how real and fictional individuals follow unique paths toward constructing an identity, making decisions and changes in terms of work and beyond. We could look for instances where adults’ ideas about what the young people “should become” differ from how the protagonists perceive and value themselves, often causing conflict.  

Librarians and teachers can invite students to think about the outside and internal forces that have shaped who they are so far, and then to envision the next steps on their quests for a purposeful life. What might they encounter on the road to arriving at whatever they aspire to? How can they play an active role in the forming of their future selves? The following is a sample assignment (adapted from Kane, forthcoming) that may help students explore and employ the construct of becoming: 

Biologist Sy Montgomery named her memoir Becoming a Good Creature. Now that you have explored some of the books in our “Becoming” Text Set, choose one of the following options. Feel free to use a graphic format, with panels and speech bubbles, if that works for you.  
A. What would your memoir about the people and events that made you who you are today look like? How might you structure the chapters? Looking ahead, what do you anticipate could be some key points in future chapters? Write ideas down to discover and share your story. 
B. Choose a well-known person (historical or contemporary) in the field you are pursuing, and research their early lives and influences. What caused them, or enabled them, to become the person they are today, or that they became noted for in history? How would you approach writing a “Becoming” essay or book about them? 
C. Interview an adult to find out about what personal characteristics or interests, events, and people influenced them throughout their childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Explain that you are interested in the concept of becoming, and would like their opinions about how people can grow into the best versions of themselves; about how to match careers and passions; about what qualities young people should be developing and nurturing. As you listen, take notes, and ask probing questions if appropriate. How did they decide on or land the job they are in? What are their hopes for the future? What advice would they like to offer to you and your friends who are at an earlier stage of becoming? Be sure to thank them for the valuable gifts of their time and thoughts. Later, write a reflection based on what you heard. 
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Now let’s come back to the youth lens’s troubling of the concept becoming that I opened this post with. Are we faced with a dilemma? Am I contradicting myself by advocating the youth lens as a useful type of literary criticism, while simultaneously recommending that students read and write texts using becoming as a construct? I don’t think so. We don’t want to see teens as just on their way to some adult identity while diminishing their wholeness and completeness in the present, as being merely in the process of becoming. But we can recognize that all of us, no matter our age, are still striving to become more knowledgeable or better versions of ourselves. I like the way musician and actor Alicia Keys reflects about this in her memoir, More Myself: A Journey. Calling herself a “... person in process, from the me I once was to the me I am now,” she explains:

​I’m also a breathing set of contradictions: a child who has known the greatest love there is, and one who longed for an affirmation that eluded me. I’ve been a builder of inner walls and a burier of feelings. I’ve been both someone in denial and a free spirit, an artist in hiding and a ‘hood hippie.... I’m discovering who I am at my core—and becoming, day by day, more myself. (p. 5)

References
Kane, S. Reading and Teaching New Adult Literature in High School and College. Routledge, forthcoming.
Keys, A., with Burford, M. (2020). More myself: A journey. Flatiron Books.
Sarigianides, S.T., Lewis, M.A., & Petrone, R. (2015). How re-thinking adolescence helps re-imagining the teaching of English. English Journal, 104(3), 13-18.