{"id":455985,"date":"2025-09-27T18:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/455985\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:35:12","slug":"what-teen-novels-are-capable-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/455985\/","title":{"rendered":"What Teen Novels Are Capable Of"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. <a data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"425\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/newsletters\/sign-up\/the-wonder-reader\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up here<\/a> to get it every Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">Judy Blume\u2019s Forever wasn\u2019t a book that most readers just stumbled upon. \u201cObtaining, hiding, and reading it\u2014and then sharing it with others\u2014was a rite of passage for many teens who came of age during and after the sexual revolution,\u201d Anna Holmes writes of the teen novel. \u201cWell-worn, dog-eared copies were passed around or hidden in closets, dresser drawers, and backpacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">Part of the appeal of the book, which was published 50 years ago this October, was its choice to depict sex from the perspective of the female protagonist\u2014\u201csexuality was (and still is) rarely depicted in popular culture from a woman\u2019s vantage point,\u201d Holmes points out. For a young person, a novel like Blume\u2019s was an invitation to imagine what life might be like someday. But perhaps more important, it was a chance to see their own desires and anxieties reflected back at them\u2014to feel validated in the thoughts that can feel too scary to say out loud. Today\u2019s newsletter explores the singular power of the art we discover as teens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><strong>On Teen Novels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">The Classic Teen Novel I Still Haven\u2019t Forgotten<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">By Anna Holmes<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"\">\n<p>My secret first encounter with Judy Blume\u2019s Forever<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><a data-event-element=\"inline link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/2025\/09\/judy-blume-forever-50th-anniversary-teen-classic\/684363\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the article.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">Judy Blume Goes All the Way<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">By Amy Weiss-Meyer<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"\">\n<p>A new generation discovers the poet laureate of puberty. (From 2023)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><a data-event-element=\"inline link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2023\/04\/judy-blume-books-are-you-there-god-margaret-movie\/673091\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the article.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">The Books We Read Too Late\u2014And That You Should Read Now<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">By The Atlantic Culture Desk<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"\">\n<p>One of the great, bittersweet pleasures of life is finishing a title and thinking about how it might have affected you\u2014if only you\u2019d found it sooner. (From 2022)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><a data-event-element=\"inline link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/books\/archive\/2022\/09\/books-younger-selves-recommendations\/671601\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the article.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><b>Still Curious?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/books\/archive\/2023\/03\/books-briefing-judy-blume-megan-abbott\/673234\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>The importance of the coming-of-age novel<\/b><\/a><b>:<\/b> The transitions from child to teenager and teenager to adult are full of triumphs and struggles, Elise Hannum wrote in 2023.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2025\/09\/adrienne-salinger-teenagers-in-their-bedrooms\/683567\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>No parents allowed<\/b><\/a><b>:<\/b> In the 1980s and \u201990s, Adrienne Salinger photographed teenagers in their bedrooms. Her images recall an era before smartphones and social media, when you constructed your identity on the walls of your room.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><b>Other Diversions<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\"><b>P.S.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Hopewell Rocks\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"Image_root__XxsOp Image_lazy__hYWHV ArticleInlineImagePicture_image__I79fR\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758998112_775_original.jpg\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\"\/>Courtesy of Maureen T<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Maureen T., 75, from Toronto, Canada, shared these photos of the Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy, in New Brunswick, Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">I\u2019ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">\u2014 Isabel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-455985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115277708892169249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}