ABSTRACT
This chapter clarifies some popular-press claims about the “teenage brain” and points to the difficult nature of research on the human brain when subjects are engaged in complex cognitive tasks such as reading. The gist of our argument echoes that of many scholars in the neurosciences: no brain study, especially when reported in the popular press, should be simplified and transformed into implications for practice in other fields.3 The first section of this chapter provides an
overview of findings regarding brain maturation and cognitive development during adolescence. The second section reviews behavioural evidence on adolescents as they read and reflect on “their” literature – the world of Young Adult fiction. Here we examine anthropological studies of how young adult readers behave in their reading. What do they do with the book in their hand and their eyes on the page? How do they view the book, their reading, and ways of making meaning?
