Chapter 5: How Do Adolescents Develop?

In order to match kids to books successfully, we need to know readers!  There's several ways to know readers.  For young adults, we need to take into account their physical development, intellectual development, physical and emotional needs, as well as their reading development.
Physically, young adult readers are going through puberty.  It happens at a different rate and at different times for everyone.  They constantly asking "is this normal?" It's never an easy time and their physical reality gets in the way of basically everything.  There are lots of books that have main characters going through this stage of life and we need to look for these books!  We want to be able to assure the kids going through puberty, and what better way than to give them characters to relate to?
Intellectually there's also a lot of change- kids start going from concrete to abstract thinking.  It usually takes place around 14.  We need to be aware of the questions that we are asking kids about books and provide scaffolding.  We need to think about the books we are giving kids- are they concrete or abstract?  Where are our kids in their development?  Will they understand what they're reading if they aren't there developmentally?  There are stages from childhood to young adulthood.  The stages are constantly changing and developing.  Kohlberg's theory is that most kids are at the preconventional level so we are looking for books that speak to where they are and moving them forward- from concrete to abstract.
It is critical that we think about and know about the needs being met and not being met, physically and emotionally (Maslow).  We want our libraries to be safe places- physically and emotionally.  We need to show respect to our kids' opinions about books.  We want to meet their needs individually and we want to find books that reflect these needs too.
We also develop as readers.  It's not a hierarchy and we don't leave one level permanently and move to another.  We need to make sure that we have a diverse collection so we are meeting kids where they're at.  We need books that look into the bigger world.

Knowing how adolescents develop will help us (school librarians) to better match our readers to books that will impact them either educationally, emotionally, or both.  I think that if we are aware of young adult's needs- physically, emotionally, developmentally, we will be able to introduce them to books that will positively affect them and in turn keep them reading for the rest of their lives.