YA Through the Decades: 1930s and Earlier

It’s time for the first post for the YA Through the Decades Challenge. First up: 1930s and earlier.

Looking at young adult literature from the early parts of the 20th century and earlier is a tenuous exercise, considering that no one published books targeted to that age group. Up until the early part of the century, teenagers didn’t even exist as a separate cultural group. Those in their teenage years often went into the workforce after some years of schooling and most married young and started families before they were 20. Just as teens transitioned from childhood straight to adulthood, so did the literature. Teens certainly found both adult and children’s material that appealed to them, though, so that’s what we’ll be talking about here. We’ll also be focusing on American books, since that’s what I know and the concept of literature published specifically for teens seems to have originated in the US.

Books featuring teens with teen appeal began to appear after the Civil War. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a book that has continued to enthrall young readers, was one of the first in 1868. Other popular books for girls in this time period were of the domestic romance type, like St. Elmo by Augusta Jane Evans. Boys tended to enjoy dime novels featuring Westerns, mysteries, and detective stories. Other influential books from this earlier era include Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, which has endured as a literary classic, and Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick, which was widely read, but dismissed at the time as mindless fluff.

Some of the earlier dime novels and boys’ series paved the way for the wildly successful Stratemeyer syndicate. Known most now for the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, Edward Stratemeyer’s book publishing company produced dozens of series for kids and teens in the first half of the 20th century. The first series, the Rover Boys, featured three regular teen boys getting into mischief. Thirty volumes were published between 1899 and 1926. The other series were a mix of stories for girls and boys, with the earlier ones featuring mostly true-life adventures. For girls, Ruth Fielding, an ambitious young woman who joins the Red Cross and goes to college, was one of the syndicate’s most popular. Starting in the 1930s, mystery stories became de rigueur and the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were born. The early books in both series were heavily edited in the ’60s to remove many racist stereotypes.

Both teen culture and teen literature began to take shape in the 1930s. The Young People’s Reading Roundtable (YPRRT) was established as part of ALA’s Children’s Library Association in 1930 and began publishing a list of “books for young people” that eventually became today’s Best Books for Young Adults. While this list for high school students consisted solely of adult titles with teen appeal, it’s clear that librarians and others were beginning to see this age group as its own entity.

Read on for my challenge review and a giveaway of the Puffin Classics edition of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott!

Review

The book I chose to read for the challenge is Sue Barton, Student Nurse by Helen Dore Boylston. Published by Little, Brown in 1936, the first book in this popular series introduces us to 18-year-old Sue Barton as she embarks on her nursing career. Boylston’s portrayal of the career girl provided a role model to millions of girls and paved the way for other popular career novels. Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, published in 1943, was another successful series that also mixed the career and mystery genres.

The book follows Sue as she navigates her first year in nursing school. In those days, girls boarded at the hospital and spent most of their time in classes and in shifts on the various wards. Sue makes fast friends with Kit and Connie, often runs into the handsome Dr. Barry, and endures the harsh teaching of Miss Cameron. The chapters are mostly episodic and mix fun stories of the girls sneaking into their dorm with tales of Sue dealing with unruly patients. Sue is a likable and relatable character. She makes mistakes, but learns from them, and she struggles with whether or not she truly has the selflessness to be a nurse. Some of the other characters are well developed, but many, including the patients, tend to be one-sided. The overall tone is very light and it’s quick to read, though it does touch on a few darker subjects, including suicide, and some of the descriptions of medical care deserve a skim. Most of my enjoyment came from the novelty of looking back at a bygone era and I suspect that will be its only appeal for modern teens.

Giveaway!

For the first decade of the challenge, I will be giving away a brand new copy of the 2008 Puffin Classics edition of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott featuring an introduction by Louise Rennison.
1. To enter, post a link to any reviews you’ve done for the challenge (any decade!) to the comments on this post or send me an e-mail.
2. Any reviews posted between January 1 and February 7 count.
3. One entry per person, regardless of the number of reviews.
4. Deadline for entries is February 7 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

It’s never too late to join the challenge and enter the contest!

Next Up

Look for the next post in mid-March. I will be reading Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly.

References

Best Books for Young Adults by Holly Koelling and Betty Carter. American Library Association, 2007.

From Romance to Realism: 50 Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature by Michael Cart. HarperCollins, 1996.

Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades: A Reference Guide by Lucy Rollin. Greenwood Press, 1999.

February 2nd, 2010  ♥  Books, Reviews, YA Decades Challenge  ♥  4 Comments »