Problem novel is a term used to refer to a sub-
genreA genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance...
of
young adult literatureYoung-adult fiction is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21.-Characteristics:...
that deal exclusively with an adolescent's first confrontation with a social or personal ill. The term was first used in the late 1960s to differentiate contemporary works like
The OutsidersThe Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by Susan Eloise Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she began writing the novel, and 16 when it was published...
from earlier fiction for adolescents. The term is rather loosely defined. RoseMary Honnold in
The Teen Reader's Advisor defines them as dealing more with characters from lower-class families and their problems; being "grittier"; using more realistic language; and including dialects, profanity, and poor grammar when it fits the character and setting.
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Problem novel is a term used to refer to a sub-
genreA genre is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance...
of
young adult literatureYoung-adult fiction is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21.-Characteristics:...
that deal exclusively with an adolescent's first confrontation with a social or personal ill. The term was first used in the late 1960s to differentiate contemporary works like
The OutsidersThe Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by Susan Eloise Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she began writing the novel, and 16 when it was published...
from earlier fiction for adolescents. The term is rather loosely defined. RoseMary Honnold in
The Teen Reader's Advisor defines them as dealing more with characters from lower-class families and their problems; being "grittier"; using more realistic language; and including dialects, profanity, and poor grammar when it fits the character and setting. Sometimes, "problem novel" is used almost interchangeably with "young adult novel"; but many YA novels do not fit these criteria. The term is increasingly used in a negative fashion, and is rarely used by children's literature journals such as
The ALAN Review.
Notable problem novels:
The Catcher in the RyeThe Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, the novel has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world; it has also been translated into almost all of the world's major languages.Around 250,000 copies...
, often considered one of the progenitors of modern young adult literature, is sometimes considered a problem novel.
The OutsidersThe Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by Susan Eloise Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she began writing the novel, and 16 when it was published...
(1967) and
The PigmanThe Pigman is a young adult novel written by Paul Zindel, first published in 1968. In his autobiography, Zindel revealed that "the Pigman" is based on his grandfather, and that the model for Lorraine, the girl from the book, is a student who was in one of his chemistry classes.-Plot summary:The...
are problem novels written specifically for teenagers. However, Sheila Egoff notes in
Thursday's Child: Trends and Patterns in Contemporary Children's Literature that the Newbery Award winning novel
It's Like This, CatIt's Like This, Cat is a novel written by Emily Cheney Neville that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1964.-Plot Summary:...
(1964) may have established "the problem novel formula."
Go Ask AliceGo Ask Alice is a controversial 1971 book about the life of a troubled teenage girl. The book purports to be the actual diary of an anonymous teenage girl who died of a drug overdose in the late 1960s and is therefore presented as a testimony against drug use. Alice is not the protagonist's name;...
is an early example of the subgenre and is often considered an example of the negative aspects of the form.