Portrait of the Artist as a Young Adult: The Arts in Young Adult Literature by Lois Thomas Stover, Connie S. Zitlow (review)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Adult has a focused and clearly stated goal: “to explore how young adult literature can provide models for young adult readers who identify themselves as artists in their quest to answer the ‘Who am I?’ question” (2–3). In this latest volume of the Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature series, coauthors Lois Thomas Stover and Connie S. Zitlow expand on the work they began in a 2011 article in the ALAN Review. Throughout this book, Stover and Zitlow discuss approximately ninety-five arts-related young adult novels and include an impressive number of original interviews with the books’ authors. Although Stover and Zitlow acknowledge that the “young adult novels that we include in this book are not true Künstlerromans” (ix), they argue that the young protagonists of these novels are, like Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, both nurtured and alienated by their devotion to art. As the authors demonstrate, these young artists face many of Stephen’s challenges in their quests to discover their identities and to fit in when their families or cultures may not value the arts.

In the preface and introductory chapter, Stover and Zitlow consider the book’s foundational concepts, including theories of identity by Erik Erikson and others, plus definitions of “self-concept” and “self-esteem” based in educational psychology. Subsequent chapters that focus on specific challenges young artists face include “The Arts and Loss”; “The Arts and Solace: Abandonment, Abuse, and Mental Illness”; “Friends, Enemies, Rivals, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends”; and “Parents, Teachers, and Other Mentors: Adults as Positive and Negative Influences on Young Artists.” Each chapter begins with an examination of a specific topic—solace, for example—and its role in the lives of young people. The authors then outline numerous young adult novels in which that issue is prominent in the lives of the artist-protagonists. In chapter 4, “The Arts and Solace,” Stover and Zitlow break down the topic—and the many books reviewed—into the subcategories of “Abandonment and a Missing Parent”; “Resiliency and Escape from Abuse”; “Seeking Solace When Dealing with Mental Health Issues;” and “The Arts as an Outlet for Sorrow of Any Kind.”

In the final chapter, “Art and Young Adult Literature: Art in Literature, Literature about Art, Literature as Art,” Stover and Zitlow examine young adult novels in which the art itself—rather than the young-person-as-artist—is a focal point of the story. In some cases, like that of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the young protagonist is indeed an artist, and his art—in this case, Junior’s drawings—is a key component of the book. In other novels covered in this chapter, such as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the young protagonist is not an artist, yet the art (photographs included in the book) drives the novel’s plot and informs the characters and the reader of the mysteries yet to be solved.

The book’s chapters are followed by substantial appendices, which could serve as resources for an adult developing a unit of study or recommending books to young people. Appendix A consists of an annotated bibliography of young adult books about the arts, with a special notation for books that “include multi-cultural perspectives” (213). This list is subdivided into art disciplines: the visual arts, theater, music, photography, dance, and “other arts” including such varied endeavors as graffiti art, street performance, quilting, and film making. Readers should note that this book and its annotated bibliography focus on contemporary literature. Of the over ninety-five young adult novels cited in this volume, only eleven were published before 2000.

Appendix B offers a resource for teachers. Drawing on contemporary research in pedagogy, Stover and Zitlow present specific arts-based strategies for...