Relating to Characters

"Young people relate strongly to the characters and language in the books they read. ...

Good literature provides some truth about life. Not all at once. Not all in the same story or poem. Not all at the same age. But when young people read enough stories and poems about enough characters trying to figure out what to do, the truth gradually emerges as something recognizable and familiar.

Students change — physiologically, intellectually, and emotionally — every 12 months. There's a generation gap between each age from birth to adulthood. The books that students need change, too."

Help a Child Enjoy the Love of Reading, September 21, 2006. News-Leader.com
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/OPINIONS/609210306/1006/OPINIONS
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While my blog is dedicated to finding modern versions of the classic texts taught in today's English classrooms - the first step in finding the right book to help keep your students engaged. As the above article suggests, young adults are more likely to become engaged in a novel or short story when they can relate to the characters they're reading about.

This may seem obvious to many of us, but as far as current secondary English cirucurriculum is concerned many of today's students are still reading novels containing mainly adult characters, older dialogue, and many novels contain situations to which young adults cannot relate to at this point in their lives.

While I do agree that classic literature is a key point in teaching English (in fact, my favorite novel, The Great Gatsby, was taught during my junior year high school advanced English class), today's young adults need stories they can relate to in order to help them better understand the situations and characters found in the classics. By finding novels with younger protagonists is only the first step to keep students engaged in what they're reading.