I do not mean this in a bad way, but after intensively reading YA literature for the past two and a half years, I have determined that the story almost always (I cannot in good conscience say "always" since I have not read all YA literature.) comes down to the struggle for identity and finding ones place in the world. It has been an almost depressingly long time since I was a teenager. Luckily I have spent most of my career working with teens, observing their behaviors, so I do not feel out of touch with the youth of today as many adults do. I also feel this allows me to read YA literature and assess its authenticity with some authority.
Jo Ann Beard's Novel In Zanesville, is not action packed, it is not earth shattering, it does not feature anyone with supernatural powers, its characters are not extraordinary in any way....except they are normal and it is our individual normality that makes us each extraordinary. The narrator (who has no name - is this symbolic of her nebulous identity? -maybe) and her friend Felicia begin the story with a babysitting catastrophe involving the fire department and some interesting pets. While their friendship has been solid up to the present (some time in the 1970s in Zanesville, OH.), it is tested by boys, popular girls, family, and each girl's need to be an individual as well as belong to a group. Neither girl has a perfect home life, nor has either suffered grievously, but the influence of an alcoholic father or inattentive mother resonate without causing overt damage. Instead the damage and decisions it influences are more subtle and perhaps more insidious for their subtlety.
The story is not sad, nor is it uplifting. We care for the narrator and hope her life will turn out more satisfying than that of the few adults who appear significantly, but we worry as we are a part of the teenage hurts she suffers (being the odd girl when a group of boys visits a sleepover party), wondering if a few bad decisions as a teen can be overcome later.
By setting the novel in the 70s, Beard does not need to confront the role of media, the Internet, and cell phones. In one way it is a simpler time, but one in which face to face interactions and all their awkwardness are not replaced by somewhat anonymous and protected technologic interactions.
While I believe some of the nuances of the narrator's experiences may be lost on a teen reader, adults may be taken back to their own early teen years with an opportunity to reexamine and reflect.