Predicting and Reflecting Changes in Culture

With millions of adolescents participating in sports each year and with the popularity of sporting events ranging from the Super Bowl and the NBA playoffs to the Olympics, athletics is an important part of many teenagers’ lives. However, young adult sports literature is not just about the big game or the vicarious feeling of elation that comes with winning or the catharsis that comes with reading about defeat. Instead, as young adult author and scholar Chris Crowe (2004) notes, many young adult sports books are about more than sports. Instead, they “deal with realistic social issues that real people, not just athletes, often confront” (p. 36).