Table of Contents
Foreword Roger Sutton xi
Introduction xiii
Part 1 How We Got Here
The Outsiders, Fat Freddy, and Me: A Librarian's Memoir 3
A (Not So) Short History of YA Lit 11
Twayne and Scarecrow: An Editor's Memoir 20
Part 2 Trends and Tendencies
Drowning in Success 33
YA Lit and the Deathly Fellows 38
So What Really Happened? 43
Vetting the Verse Novel 48
The Death of Animals 54
The Lit of Chick Lit 60
Part 3 Defining YA
Middle Muddle 67
Our Side of the Fence 73
Smash/Crash/Slash 78
A Loving Farewell to Robert Cormier 85
Researching YA in the Elysian Fields 89
Part 4 First Looks at Masterworks
The Gift of The Giver 97
Monster as Radical Change 101
The Last Cormier 106
Part 5 The Dawn of Graphic Novels
Maus: A Survivor's Tale 113
Whaam! in Paris 119
Part 6 Censorship Near and Far
The Pottymouth Paradox 125
?Who's Afraid of the Rig Bad ...?? 130
Perplexing Censorship in Germany 136
Visiting Dubrovnik Public 142
Part 7 Inside ALA
The Not-So-Smart Alex 149
Blood on the Table: Looking at Best Booking 153
Prizes and Paradoxes 160
Bookstores and Libraries: Common Concerns 166
Part 8 Spiritual Matters
Godsearch 173
Wrestling with God 179
Part 9 The Critic's Life
Shooting at the Library 187
Visiting Francesca 199
The Belly Dancing Critic 207
Reality and Fiction at the Reichenbach Falls 212
Ending the Perplex 217
Appendix: Twayne's Young Adult Author Series 223
Subject Index 225
Author and Title Index 233
About the Author 245