Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

Humor as a genre is central to young adult literature, partly because humor is lighter, making the text more approachable for younger readers. Humor also creates a more relatable text, allowing reluctant readers to engage with the narrative; laughter becomes a connection point between the reader and the characters, and that connection builds motivation to continue reading. In Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, Lubar employs humor to draw readers in and create a safe environment to examine serious teen issues such as bullying and alienation. Lubar weaves fart jokes and self-deprecation with heavy situations that are relevant to young adults, and because the story is lightened by humor, the serious topics don’t dominate the narrative. In this way, Lubar examines uncomfortable truths while keeping young readers entertained.

For example, Lubar humorously presents the issue of bullying from the novel’s beginning. When Louden (Mouth) Kandeski switches to a jacket with a hood because seniors knock off his hats, Scott Hudson sees seniors “hang him from the top of a door by the wood shop” (54). The image is comedic, but Lubar mirrors it later in the novel as a