Website Lovereading, which compiles lists of the best fiction for various different readers, states:

The teenage years are such a vibrant and vivid time in your life. Adventure, friendships, self-discovery are all there in spades, but there’s frustration too, impatience and a strong desire to be understood… (Teenage fiction allows readers to) be inspired by tales of self-discovery, run the rocky road of first romance, battle big issues in mysterious worlds, beat the bleak future of dystopian regimes, or laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of it all.

These are the kinds of suspenseful and introspective narratives that are aimed at teenage and young adult readers, but what is it about them that makes them resonate so powerfully with their target audience?

Here are our top five features that combine to make engaging teenage fiction:

1. Character-driven stories, often told in the first person or from a single perspective. The forthright voices of the main characters are authentic and well-developed.

2. A narrative with a clear progression from ‘a’ to ‘b’ – sequential and fast-paced.

3. Recognisable situations, not necessarily in terms of setting or time period, but the landscape of the story is genuine and believable. Teenage readers need to be able to relate to characters and the world they occupy, as well as the emotions that drive them.

4. Tense and exciting plotlines – engaging enough to hold the reader’s interest.

5. The ability to highlight any wider issues that might be relevant to teenagers. Feelings of frustration, oppression, loneliness and being different/misunderstood that are often part and parcel of the teenage experience (as noted above).

Of course, all of these elements are also relevant to teenage fiction for reluctant readers, which is Badger Learning’s specialty. Our Teen Reads series contains all of the above, just in a slightly more accessible format. Teen Reads are short, pacey and thrilling, with a variety of subject matter and a clear point of view. You can read about all the different stories here. Though aimed at a lower reading level, with simple sentence structure and bite-sized chunks of text, these novels look and feel like ‘real’ books. The series boasts an array of intriguing covers, a few of which are pictured here:

 

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We’ve worked hard to ensure that this series has an appropriate interest level for teenagers with a lower reading ability, as well as covers that avoid the stigma of ‘easy readers’. These gripping stories of no more  than 7000 words have the tools to entertain all teenagers, but more particularly serve as a gateway for less able or more reluctant readers.

Our Teen Reads novels number 30 to date, and we’re currently working on further titles due for publication in September, so watch this space.

Written by Claire Morgan, Editorial & Marketing Co-ordinator