Ecotage/ environmental sabotage in Young Adult fiction

What is it about?

In this article, I undertake a comparative study of political constructions of childhood in contemporary environmental fictions for young adults and media discourses that infantilize real-life eco-activists. At stake in this shared discourse is a certain political possibility for the child and childlike, a license to react strongly, respond playfully, and get into trouble while protecting the environment. Focusing on Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot, Flush, and Scat, I make a case for what I call a “puerile politics” in young adult environmental fiction: a willingness to give children license to take grownups to task, and for children to do so without sacrificing their childishness.

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