Biography Essay

Critics of adolescent literature generally cite four novels of the late 1960s as helping this subgenre break its ties with its past formulaic romanticism and move dramatically into a much more realistic mode: The Outsiders (1967) by S. E. Hinton, The Contender (1967) by Robert Lipsyte, 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. After these books, however, came a flood of novels— which are 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 has kept the movement flourishing with a steady stream of novels that explore...