Author Guest Post: “The YA Classroom: Using Young Adult Fiction as a Means to Teach the Unteachable” by Ian X. Cho, Author of Aisle Nine

“THE YA CLASSROOM: Young-adult fiction as a means to teach unteachable ideas”

While school is a vital place for teens to learn invaluable knowledge, lessons, and skills, there are some things in life that cannot be taught in a curriculum. But this is where YA books can serve as a fantastical additional classroom.

The illuminating power of the YA genre comes from its dynamism. Filled with interiority, emotional richness, and often written in first-person, YA books allow young readers to dive headfirst into the lives of fictional kids. Many YA stories create a heightened reality by stripping away rules and gatekeepers, which forces characters to take bolder strides toward their problems.

Often, these problems can be hard to voice in real life, but YA fiction is a creative space to illuminate complex things. Below are four random ‘unteachable’ things you might find in YA books…

MEANING IS A CHOICE: Sometimes life hits the skids. But while there’s no study plan to help kids understand misfortune, YA books can be a way to explore not only tragedy, but also, what can come of it. In Adam Silvera’s They Both Die At The End, a senselessly unfair event drives the characters of Mateo and Rufus out into the real world. Within their ensuing adventure, a key takeaway isn’t how the boys react to meaningless tragedy, but rather, how they choose to make something meaningful of their limited time.

YOUNG ADULTHOOD IS A PARADOX: Growing up is complicated and often paradoxical. In our modern world, many teenagers are simultaneously heading toward adulthood and yet somehow already adults. In the opening chapters of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen works part-time as a hunter, which makes her an additional provider for her family; Later she chooses to stand-in for her sister at the Reaping, which makes her an adult-like protector. The liminality of young-adulthood is not only a key element in modern YA, but one source of its inner tension.

CURIOSITY CAN BE A COMPASS: Our modern world can be deeply confusing and irrational, and a clear path isn’t always visible. In Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time, Meg Murry is thrown into an adventure that takes her to bizarre and often terrifying worlds. But her curiosity and intelligence are pivotal compasses that help her to navigate the darkness. When coupled with her capacity for love, these elements make her a powerful protagonist. Meg doesn’t shy away from complicated mathematical, scientific, and philosophical concepts—and in doing so, young readers are encouraged to do the same.

NO ONE REALLY KNOWS JACK ALL… BUT MAYBE THAT’S OK: For plenty of teens, it’s a rite of passage when they realize that many adults are not actually wiser or more competent. In my novel Aisle Nine, 17yo Jasper lives in a world riddled with hell portals and monsters. Without parents or school, Jasper works as a clerk in a discount store (that has a portal) and spends his days watching adults make up crap as they go along. This unspoken truth—that almost everyone is rolling with the punches—can be deeply comforting.

The journey toward stable adulthood is neither straightforward nor a straight line. But YA fiction shines in its ability to not only show zigzagging paths toward bigger lives, but the strange insights we can learn along the way…

Published September 24th by Harper Collins

About the Book: It’s Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale! Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.

Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here for You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift. But at least here he can be near the girl he’s crushing on—Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard—who seems to hate Jasper for reasons he can’t remember or understand.

But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they’re forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world. Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose, starting in aisle nine. Rising star Ian X. Cho delivers an unforgettably freaky and hilarious YA debut with Aisle Nine, perfect for fans of Grasshopper Jungle or The Last of Us.

About the Author: Ian X. Cho lives on Australia’s sunny Gold Coast. He writes fiction for young adults and works as a freelance graphic designer. In his free time he enjoys creating 2D pixel animations.

Thank you, Ian, for showing the importance of YA in the journey of young adulthood!