Degree Name

Department

English

College

Humanities

Defense Date

2020-02-28

Publication Date

2025-04-30

First Faculty Advisor

Jon Ostenson

First Faculty Reader

Dawan Coombs

Honors Coordinator

John Talbot

Keywords

Youth Lens, Growing Up, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Novel, Decisions

Abstract

This thesis examines the theme of growing up in young adult and middle grade literature, specifically how various authors deal with this theme through the decisions their characters make or are given and through the actions the characters take. I’ve looked at these decisions and actions in ten popular middle grade and young adult novels, assuming that if they are popular, the middle grade and young adult readers likely have connected with something in those novels. Young adult and middle grade readers often deal with similar issues in their personal process of growing up, so many authors use their stories to give readers someone to relate to and potentially learn from. This thesis explores the connecting themes among the novels regarding the decisions and actions and how each character’s decisions and actions relate to how they grow up. This thesis then attempts to apply the findings in thirty pages of my own novel.