Why John Green’s Nonfiction Matters in the YA Classroom

Meet Our Contributor:

Stephanie Branson is a fierce advocate for young adult literature and authentic writing pedagogy, with a focus on fostering student engagement through diverse text selections. She has been a literacy leader as a high school English teacher, district-level learning facilitator, and curriculum writer in one of Texas’s largest public school districts for the past 13 years. Stephanie earned her undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in the Geaux Teach English cohort and her graduate degree from the University of North Texas in Literacy Curriculum and Instruction. She has presented at both the National Council for Teachers of English and the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts. She can be reached at [email protected]. Please connect! 

Why John Green’s Nonfiction Matters in the YA Classroom By Stephanie Branson 

Sometimes a text just hits you. With its richness. With its literary merit. With its instructional possibility. This experience occurred twice for me with two of John Green’s most recent nonfiction works: The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything is Tuberculosis. These two texts were catalysts in changing my writing pedagogy and instruction with upper-level high school students in the English classroom. They opened reading and writing doors that were previously welded shut for my reluctant readers and writers. The inclusion of these two nonfiction novels not only engaged my student readers in new ways, but opened up doors to authentic writing instruction that seamlessly blended genres in ways that are seen in “real” world writing scenarios.  These two novels did not just engage students, they reframed what “counted” as deep literacy work within the walls of my classroom. 

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human Centered Planet  is a rich collection of nonfiction essays born out of a road trip that John and Hank Green took for his Turtles All the Way Down book tour. The brothers would look up reviews of places they passed as they drove and challenged each other to find the most ridiculous review. Through this, the idea for this essay collection materialized. John Green curated this collection of essays to rate everyday ideas and objects on a five-star scale in his life. These essays explore what it means to live in the Anthropocene, our current geologic age defined by a dramatic transformation of earth through technology and human advancement. This essay collection seamlessly blends and bends genres; effortlessly weaving personal narrative, memoir, research, philosophy, humor, argument, and cultural commentary. Green writes through these genres to explore how humans live through and make meaning of a sometimes painful world. 

Although The Anthropocene Reviewed is not specially written for the YA audience, this novel is rich in study. It can transform how students read nonfiction texts and works beautifully as a mentor for their own writing and exploration. Taking inspiration from Rebekah O’Dell and Allsion Marchetti’s work surrounding mentor texts, we analyze these essays for voice, tone, author’s style, and specific author’s craft moves. After closely analyzing the diction and syntax as well as zooming out on a few of the essays’ structural components, we begin to draft our own reviews of something banal from our Anthropocene and take that writing throughout the entire writing process. Using this essay collection is a fantastic springboard for student writing that is not just writing work, but also deep thinking work within the classroom. 

Additionally, Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection is Green’s newest member of his nonfiction lineup. This book was published under Hank and John Green’s Crash Course Books in conjunction with Penguin Young Readers which aims to produce educational, nonfiction content to students and lifelong learners alike. This text follows the journey of Henry, a young TB patient in Sierra Leone, Africa. Like his prior work,this text doesn’t fit squarely into one singular writing genre. This book blends Green’s personal experiences with Henry, research and historical data surrounding the disease, and challenges human choices that will contain future implications for the disease for generations to come. What I truly admire about this text is John Green’s ability to write something so emotionally raw and human. It is not just about a disease. It reaches into the depths of what we consider it means to be human and forces all readers to question the current choices we are making as a society. It builds upon written literacy, social literacy, and scientific literacy all at once. The humanness of this text allows readers to sit in uncomfortability and grapple with complexity and topics that could be tough, in a very accessible way. 

Like the writing work I do with The Anthropocene Reviewed, this text works so nicely with the Mentor Text Framework by Marchetti and O’Dell. The foundation of writing is “Everything is _______.” Students can pick and explore topics in a very human way, blending their own narratives, research, social and scientific ideas, and future implications as they study and write alongside this text. Through this real-world writing, students’ literacy is honored and allows them to deeply think about ideas that truly matter. They are no longer reading and writing about trivial topics, but topics that hold significance and implications for their futures. 

These nonfiction texts do not just provide richness in literature study; they assume adolescents and teen readers can handle real-world complexity. A broad YA literacy foundation within the classroom should include contemporary nonfiction texts. Nonfiction lowers the barrier to entry and can re-engage reluctant readers and writers. Sometimes the most powerful YA texts are not only written for adolescents and young adults—but become transformative when these young people are trusted with them.