Critics of adolescent literature generally cite three late-1960s novels as helping this subgenre break its ties with its past romanticism and move dramatically into a much more realistic mode: The Outsiders (1967) by S.E. Hinton, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1967) by Ann Head, and The Pigman (1968) by Paul Zindel. Before these works appeared, literature for young adults seemed almost an extension of the grade school primers, with Dick and Jane as teenagers and Spot replaced by an Irish setter. But after these books came a flood of novels--which is still coming--that placed young adult novels squarely in a new realistic tradition. Much of the credit for this long overdue change must go to these authors, and especially to Zindel, who, more prolific than the others, has kept the movement flourishing with a steady stream of novels that explore teenagers' lives in realistic ways.

Zindel wrote The...