The term Young Adult Literature gained the commonplace in literature in the late 1960s, mainly because of the publication of Books and the Teenage Reader: A Guide for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents by G. Robert Carlsen. He created a guide for adults into teenager’s interests, with the idea to inspire youth to enjoy reading. Altogether, with the pleasant reading, the Young Adult novel has certain characteristics, such as a teenager’s protagonist, the absence of powerful parent’s role, uncomplicated vocab and syntax, and educational purpose. The use of young adult fiction as an instrument for education teenagers is extremely popular nowadays. Today young adult novel permits teenagers to read about the experiences of coeval-protagonist, …show more content…
Frank Baum wanted to create a story in effective and simple manner. The simplicity of words makes the novel timeless: even though teen’s slang is changing almost every 5 years, the novel is well-understanding among modern pupils. Schools and teachers today finally grant an approval to Baum’s book and Oz themes in general on many of grades level. At a secondary level, for example, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is usually presented as a play. During the fifth to eighth grades, teachers often include the novel in their lesson plans. After revising five different lesson plans for the Wizard of Oz, it might be concluded that the most frequently repeated pedagogical activity in them is a determination of main character’s traits and comparing them (probably because compare and contrast of characters is an activity that included in Common Core Standards). Usually, curriculum suggests children to determinate the contrast between what the characters think about themselves and how these thoughts are contradicting by their actions. As an example, they use a Scarecrow, who states, “Brains are the only things worth having in this world, no matter whether one is a crow or a man”(p.80), but who frequently finds a solution to all problems his comrades facing during the …show more content…
The traditional image of young heroines in literature shows them as passive figures, which allows males to save them. The female main character – Dorothy – presented as a savior of male Scarecrow and Tin Woodman from their states of imprisonment. She sets the Scarecrow free from the pole; she oils the joints of Tinman, so he is no longer has rust and can move again. In contrast to Dorothy, Baum opposes the “great and powerful Oz”, who is, in fact, a fake and ordinary man. The adjectives “great and powerful” are ironic, because the Wizard is just a cowardly liar, who hides behind the scene and is unable to help or save anybody. Furthermore, Dorothy herself sets the people free from the Wicked Witch of the West. Being the girl with the power to save many people is a significant part of the book. Together with Dorothy, there are additional strong female figures in the book. Baum confers power to all witches, who ruled the Oz world. Baum did it for the purpose because, by the time the novel was written, women had a very limited power. They do not even have a right to vote, and Baum was definitely not agreed with that disposition. However, as a pioneer in the idea of women’s power, he wasn’t fully grasping how to perform women’s intellectual potential. It is important to understand, that Baum defines women only through their physical (or imaginary) characteristics. To exemplify