This is what YA Lit does to people

A bookshelf YA BOOKS YEA

The editor set today's topic for the special significance that Young Adult literature has to each of us. In my case, everything I am, professionally speaking, I owe to YA literature. In an oversimplified description, I get paid to tell people what I think about stuff I read and play. That's the popular perception anyway. The truth is that I teach students critical thinking skills, writing techniques, reading strategies, and analytic approaches that they can use in their quest for personal and professional growth.  Yes, I lecture at a university. And how did this happen?

The most important book ever

Over ten years ago, I was in the fast track to becoming a computer programmer. During my undergrad years, I had coded several databases, made two games, wrote three manuals for software programs, and even helped develop a software program that the university later adopted as its parking system software for a while. I found reading to be "boring", as did most tech people back then. The last thing I had read outside of comic books was in 6th grade, and it was one of those "make your own adventure" books featuring Link (from The Legend of Zelda). Then, during my junior year of college, I lost a bet and had to read Phillip Pullman's 'The Golden Compass'. 

'The Golden Compass' blew my mind. Even though the movie is the most horrible thing ever made by a film studio after 'The New World', the book is beyond masterful. Lyra goes on wild adventures with her daemon Pantalaimon trying to uncover the secrets of the Northern Lights. I was hooked, and so I decided to continue with the second and third books, 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass'. These books changed the way I saw the world, not just about reading, but my world view.

I had heard that the Narnia books were pretty good, so I gave them a shot. I devoured all seven volumes in less than a week. Needless to say I was hooked on reading. The imaginative worlds and compelling characters kept calling me back. So I did what any sane computer programming protegee at the top of his class would do: go to his English teacher for advice. "Hey Profe", I said, "is there any way I can work somewhere where I read and get paid for it?" The question sounded stupid even as I said it, but her answer surprised me.

One of the best 7 book long series

"Yes". She recommended that I study language arts, language education, or anything that combined teaching and language. This would allow me to read, then teach about reading (broadly defined). So that's what I did. I changed from computer programming to language education and finished my undergrad. I promptly found a job at a post secondary institution as "adjunct professor of English" while working on my master's degree on "language acquisition", which, to my pleasure, I discovered focused on reading and writing. After finishing my first M.A. I became department chair in my institution and continued to work on a second M.A., this time on English literature with a focus on the Euro-Caribbean Diaspora.

I have since moved on. I am currently teaching in a 4 year and Ph.D. granting research institution as an A.B.D., where I am writing a dissertation on videogames (and one chapter focuses on the videogame-young adult relationship I briefly described in a previous blog). 

The books really are better than the movie

If it hadn't been for His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman's trilogy), I would not have changed to education / literature, I would not have met my wife (and by extension I would not have met my son), and I would not have met all of the amazing people I did during my BA in education and my two MAs (you know who you are, and I love you all). If it hadn't been for YA literature, I wouldn't have had the pleasure to work with wonderful people or taught amazing students how to read / write in English (their second language). I would not have read any of the masterpieces of history, I would not have been able to teach another bunch of wonderful students about media and rhetoric, and I certainly would not have found a way to enjoy and love my work.

So, how has YA literature impacted my life? Tremendously. I owe my life to it. So for that, YA literature, thank you.