Gossiping girls, insider boys, A-list achievement: Examining and exposing young adult novels consumed by conspicuous consumption

Glenn, Wendy. (2008). Gossiping girls, insider boys, A-list achievement: Examining and exposing young adult novels consumed by conspicuous consumption. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(1), 34-42.

You might think that any book you can get a teenager to read would be a good thing. Wendy Glenn argues that this might not necessarily be true, and she points to a recent trend in young adult literature toward series novels with rich, white characters who lead empty lives of manipulation and consumption, with that lifestyle portrayed as cool and desirable. In short, money, status, and getting all you want is the meaning of life. Glenn finds there books disturbing (publishers churn them out rapidly for profit, a single series may have several unnamed authors, and kids snap them up), but she recommends making them part of the school curriculum rather than banning them. She reasons that we must teach teens to question such books and the elitist, classist, money-hungry, and often even racist assumptions that form their cores. I wouldn’t want teens reading the novels described here, but I’m not surprised they are popular. They only mirror the values promoted shamelessly on TV today.