"But That's Where My Books Are!": Adults Who Read Young Adult Literature

This narrative instrumental case study seeks to understand why adults (age 30+) read young adult literature (YAL) and how adults engage with the genre. Additionally, this study seeks to interpret how the genre influences adult identities. Though YAL is typically written by adults for adolescents age 12-18 (Cart, 2008; Cole, 2009), the adult readers in this study preferred reading YAL more than other genres of literature. Using both reader response theory and socio-emotional conceptualizations of reading engagement and identity as theoretical and analytical frameworks, the aim of this study is to understand why adult participants preferred this genre, and what, if anything, they gained from reading YAL. Specifically seeking to understand: ● What are the rationales adults (age 30+) provide for reading YAL? ● In what ways do adults (age 30+) engage with YAL?● How does the genre of YAL influence adult reader identities? This qualitative study draws on both narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) and instrumental case study (Stake, 2006), and employs adult participants’ narratives about their experiences reading YAL to elaborate on the greater phenomenon of adults who read YAL for pleasure. The findings of this study suggest the adults engage with YAL through characters, situations, and worlds, utilizing YAL as a simulation tool to insert themselves into the given worlds or situations presented in YAL texts. Additionally, adults in this study cited YAL texts they read as influential on their behaviors, actions, feelings, and intentions, which is indicative of the dynamic, socially constructed nature of identity, rather than a developmental or essentialized construct of identity as the literature purports.