Marginality.  Overwhelmingly, this theme appears in YA fiction.  Perhaps due to the high school hierarchy, the feeling of being on the outskirts of society is one many teenagers might be able to identify with.  I would use caution assigning such books, though.  Texts like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Earth, My Butt, and other Big Round Things would not be suitable for all students.  I'm not certain some kids could understand Charlie's odd behavior or relate to Virginia's obsession with her body.  True, even the star quarter back of the football team may have self-doubt, but not like these characters.  A book about power, community, and marginality, Walter Dean Meyer's Shooter would be a good whole class read, and it would be a challenge to get students to see that we are ALL responsible for each other.  This is a good lesson for all kids, and it would be worthy challenge to teach it.  Still, this pattern of marginality is a complex one, and it proves that teachers need to read in order to make a proper connection between student and text.  Sometimes a book is a whole class read, sometimes it is a small group read, sometimes it is an individual read.  Nuances within the books distinguish them and determine the right fit.

Justice.  Books that appeal to a teenager's sense of right and wrong can facilitate wonderful discussions in the classroom.  I have seen students get angry when something doesn't turn out the way they wanted in a book.  They go so far to say, "I hated this book."  I would get sad when I first heard this, but now I've learned to ask, "Why?" before I sigh.  Often, they will say that they were mad about the ending or some other element of the story or its characters.  I have to point out to them that tthey in fact DID like the book, otherwise they wouldn't have had such a strong reaction.  Christopher Paul Curtis is good with the theme of injustice.  The Art of Keeping Cool is another good example.  These, and others, will get students to say, "That's not fair!" which can be the basis for discussing "Well, what is fair?" and "How can YOU make it so?"

Humor.  This is why kids watch The Simpsons, and it's why you groan at their goofy jokes and potty humor.  Boys, especially, want to be entertained--right away.  Humor can do that.  Besides, I think there is a belief among high schoolers that the books they read for school always have to be depressing and serious.  Teachers should make an effort to add more humor into their libraries or find authors with funny voices.  In The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, Carolyn Mackler writes about serious topics, like date rape, sex, and depression, but her character Virginia is sarcastic and funny.  Christopher Paul Curtis' Luther T. Farrel is the same.  Understated humor can be found in a lot of YA fiction.  In Speak, Melinda goes through serious psychological trauma, but gives crazy names to her teachers, like Hairwoman and Mr. Neck.  It is part of life to deal with tough issues, but it is also important to find escape from them.  Sometimes you just need to laugh.

Touchy subjects.  After reading YA and professional literature, I have found that you cannot avoid subjects like sex and drugs, or students will think you are fake.  No matter whether they are exploring the reality of life as a teen, as a college student, or as an adult, the books you put in students hands should not shy away from the topics that the world argues about.  On the other hand, as author Rob Carlson (in a 2004 interview) notes, it is unnecessary to give a gratuitous description of them: "Adolescence is a time of huge, ungainly, intimate, embarrassing changes; to ignore them would be to lie.  But to present them too graphically would derail the book . . . [G]et a balance which would be sensible and still intriguing, honest, and colorful."  In Gordon Korman's novel Jake, Reinvented, the main character wins fake friends by throwing huge keggers every weekend.  Drinking while mom and dad is away unfortunately has become a common teen activity, but it is not going away by avoiding it.  Rather, we should use books like Korman's novel to discuss its consequences.  In Light Years, confused about her own place in life after the loss of her fiancee, young coed Maya Laor fills the void with one occasion of casual sex.  She's at the lowest of the low at this point in the novel, and the incident becomes a wake-up call for her.  Most of the characters who engage in activities like sex and drinking realize their errors, so the book becomes redeeming.  However, there are other books where the character does not recover, and then the book becomes a lesson for others.  Such is the case of Len in Shooter, who does not resolve his anger issues but commits suicide after killing and injuring other students at his school.  It is difficult to allow books with touchy subjects into the classroom because of censorship issues; that's why it is important to find that balance between the truth and literary greatness.  To start, you can use these books as small group or individual reads.  Incorporate the issues smoothly by making it a lesson in subtlety or inferencing.  I think students would appreciate that, too.  After all, there is a satisfaction in "Oh, I get it."