About us

Reading Mentors explores how readers make sense of the relationships between adolescents and adults in speculative young adult (YA) fiction. We're interested in the mentors, teachers, guides, rebels, and complicated authority figures who shape the journeys of characters in worlds of what-if and how real readers interpret these relationships.

So who is behind Reading Mentors?

This reader-response study is part of a PhD research study at Ghent University.
That would be mine, hi! I'm Janieke Koning.

For my PhD, I analyze and interpret representations of adolescent-adult mentoring relationships in speculative YA fiction. The books and series offered as options in the survey and interview are part of my research corpus. I explore how conventional ideas of adolescence and youth mentoring are subverted, complicated, or reinforced in YA literature, showing how literary mentoring relationships reflect, impact, and inform real-world interactions between young people and adults.

Prof. Dr. Elly McCausland is my doctoral academic supervisor and oversees the research process, including here for Reading Mentors.

By listening to readers' perspectives, we seek to better understand:

• how YA fiction represents adolescence and adulthood
• how intergenerational relationships resonate with young(er) audiences
• how fictional mentors can empower or constrain young protagonists and readers alike
• how young readers respond to these dynamics in imaginative, personal, and critical ways

With Reading Mentors, I aim to highlight young people's voices and show how their insights can deepen our understanding of literature, education, and intergenerational relationships.