HIV/AIDS in Young Adult Novels: An Annotated Bibliography

by Melissa Gross, Annette Y. Goldsmith, Debi Carruth

Overview

Not long after becoming public health concerns in the 1980s, HIV and AIDS were featured in a number of works of fiction, though such titles were written primarily for adult readers. Mirroring the disease's indiscriminate nature, however, the subject would soon be incorporated into novels aimed at young adults. Despite a need for accessible information on the subject, it is difficult to identify fiction that contains material about HIV/AIDS, as these books are seldom catalogued for this content, nor is this content consistently acknowledged in published reviews.

In HIV/AIDS in Young Adult Novels: An Annotated Bibliography, the authors address this gap by identifying and assessing the full range of young adult novels that include HIV/AIDS content. This resource is comprised of two major parts. The first part summarizes findings from a content analysis performed on novels written for readers aged 11-19, published since 1981, and featuring at least one character with HIV/AIDS. The second part is an annotated bibliography of the more than 90 novels identified for use in the study. Each entry in the bibliography contains an annotation that summarizes the plot and how HIV/AIDS is depicted in the story, an indication of the accuracy of the HIV/AIDS content, a note on how central HIV/AIDS is to the story, and an evaluation of the literary quality of the book. This work will assist readers in collecting, choosing, evaluating, and using these works to educate readers about HIV/AIDS.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810874435
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/11/2010
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Melissa Gross is professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Florida State University. She is the author of Studying Children's Questions: Imposed and Self-Generated Information Seeking at School (Scarecrow, 2006) and coauthor of Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome Based Planning and Evaluation (2006).

Annette Y. Goldsmith is the founding editor of The Looking Glass, an international children's literature e-journal.

Debi Carruth is a doctoral candidate at the Florida State University College of Communication and Information.

Table of Contents

Foreword Virginia A. Walter v

Introduction: What Do Young Adult Novels Have to Say about HIV/AIDS" vii

Part I HIV/AIDS Content in Young Adult Novels 1

1 HIV/AIDS Novels for Young Adults 3

2 Who Has HIV/AIDS and How Did They Get It" 17

3 What Are We Afraid Of" Protagonist Views of Risk 53

4 How Controllable Is HIV/AIDS" 79

5 Young Adult Novels with HIV/AIDS Content as a Body of Literature 105

Part II Annotated Bibliography, 1981-2008 119

Appendixes

A Young Adult Novels with HIV/AIDS Content Publication by Year 197

B Young Adult Novels in Which HIV/AIDS Is Central to the Story 207

C Young Adult Novels in Which HIV/AIDS Is a Subplot in the Story 211

D Young Adult Novels in Which HIV/AIDS Is Mentioned in Passing 215

E Books First Published Outside the United States 217

F Coding Sheets 219

Index 225

About the Authors 231

Editorial Reviews

Gross, Goldsmith, and Carruth decided to research how young adult novels deal with HIV/AIDS. Using the following criteria: a main character in the young adult range (eleven to nineteen), at least one character who is either HIV positive or has AIDS, written in English, and published between 1981 and 2008, they found ninety-three young adult novels for their study. Each of the ninety-three titles are fully annotated and evaluated in the second half of the book. Their work—thoroughly researched, critically analyzed, superbly written, and accessible to the largest audience—leads to their conclusion that "the body of literature analyzed in this study is not doing all it might to demonstrate that youth and people they care about are at risk for HIV infection." Books set in Africa and Papua New Guinea, however, expose the realities these areas face in dealing with HIV. They conclude that more teen books are needed that portray the realities of HIV/AIDS in our country.

VOYA