Literature for Today's Young Adults / Edition 9

by Alleen Nilsen

Overview

Long respected as the number one book in the field, Literature for Today’s Young Adults gives teachers, librarians, parents, counselors, and other group leaders—as well as instructors and students in college courses in Adolescent/Young Adult Literature—a comprehensive look at YA literature framed within a literary, historical, and social context as a means to motivating teens to become life-long readers. Included is helpful information on evaluating YA books of all genres, using YA literature effectively with English Language Learners, incorporating digital and other new literacies into classroom teaching, and dealing with today’s increasingly diverse and challenging censorship issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900132685770
Publication date:	04/09/2012
Edition description:	NE
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Alleen Pace Nilsen has been a co-author of Literature for Today’s Young Adults since the very first edition in 1980. She and Ken Donelson were also co-editors of the English Journal and founding editors of The ALAN Review. They both served as Presidents of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN) and as Directors of English Education at Arizona State University. Dr. Donelson retired from ASU in 2002 and Alleen retired in 2011. She is the author of two editions of Presenting M. E. Kerr as part of the Twayne United States Authors Series, 1986 and 1997, and of Joan Bauer: Teen Reads: Student Companions to Young Adult Literature, Greenwillow, 2007. She edited Living Language: Reading, Thinking, and Writing, Allyn and Bacon, 1999, and with her colleague and husband, Don L. F. Nilsen, she co-authored the Encyclopedia of 20^th-Century American Humor, Greenwood Press, 2000, and Vocabulary Plus: A Source Based Approach: K through 8 and High School and Up, Pearson, 2004. She has published widely in such journals as School Library Journal, English Journal, The ALAN Review, College English, and Humor.

James Blasingame is an associate professor of English at Arizona State University and Director of the English Education program. He is Past-President of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English and was the editor of The ALAN Review, a professional journal devoted to young adult literature, from 2003-2009. He is the editor of the Books for Adolescents pages of the International Reading Association’s Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy and winner of the International Reading Association’s Arbuthnot Award for the 2008 outstanding university professor of young adult literature. He was named the ASU Parents Association Professor of the Year in 2008. He has published over 100 interviews with authors of young adult literature and over 300 book reviews. Dr. Blasingame was a high school English teacher, coach, and administrator for 21 years in Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and Kansas before completing his doctorate at the University of Kansas in 2000. He has been at ASU for 12 years, teaching courses in young adult literature and methods of teaching writing, as well as supervising student teachers. He is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Don L. F. Nilsen is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at Arizona State University, but as an “extra” to his regular job, he also worked with young adult literature and with English Education students. With his wife, Alleen, he is the co-founder of the International Society for Humor Studies. The two of them also were co-presidents in 2009 of the American Name Society. Together they wrote Pronunciation Contrasts in English, which recently came out in a new edition (Waveland Press, 2010) and the Encyclopedia of 20^th-Century American Humor, (Greenwood) which was chosen by the American Library Association as an “Outstanding Reference Book for 2000.” Both his interest in humor and in the teaching of English as a second language are reflected in his contributions to the ninth edition of Literature for Today’s Young Adults. He and Alleen have also been co-presidents of the American Name Society and in 2007 they published the well-received Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature, Scarecrow Studies in YA Literature No. 27.

Table of Contents

( Each chapter ends with a Notes and Titles Mentioned in the Text of the previous chapter sections.)

I. UNDERSTANDING YOUNG ADULTS AND BOOKS.

1. Young Adults and Their Reading.
What is Young Adult Literature?
A Brief Unsettled Heritage.
Today's Authors.
Characteristics of the Best Young Adult Literature.
Stages of Literary Appreciation.

2. A Brief History of Adolescent Literature.
1800-1900: A Century of Purity with a Few Passions.
1900-1940: From the Safety of Romance to the Beginning of Realism.
1940-1966: From Certainty to Uncertainty.

3. YA Literature, Pop Culture, and the Mass Media.
Pokemon as Interactive Fiction.
A Survey of Students' Relationships to Mass Media.
The Ubiquitousness of Television.
Animation.
Magazines.
A Night Out at the Movies.
From Comic Books to Graphic Novels.
Concluding Comments.

II. MODERN YOUNG ADULT READING.

4. The New Realism: Of Life and Problems.
The Chocolate War as a Tragedy.
Post-Columbine Musings on the Value of Today's Problem Novels.
What Are the Problems?
Family Relationships.
Friends and Society.
Living in a Multicultural World.
Body and Self.
Sex-Related Problems.
The Future of the Problem Novel From Realism to Postmodernism.

5. The Old Romanticism: Of Wishing and Winning.
The Adventure/Accomplishment Romance.
Izzy, Willy-Nilly as an Adventure/Accomplishment Romance.
Other Symbols of Accomplishment.
Sports and the Game of Life.
Animal and Nature Stories.
Westerns.
Accomplishment Stories with Religious Themes.
The Love Romance.

6. Adventure, Mysteries, the Supernatural, and Humor: FromGoose Bumps to Giggles.
Adventure Stories.
Mysteries.
Types of Mysteries.
Tony Hillerman's Books.
Mysteries Written for Young Adults.
Stories of the Supernatural.
From Chills to Giggles.
Other Humor.

7. Fantasy, Science Fiction, Utopias, and Dystopias.
What is Fantasy.
Conventions of Fantasy.
Fears of Fantasy.
Seven Significant Writers of Fantasy.
Other Kinds of Fantasy.
Animal Fantasies.
Fantasy and the Mabinogion.
King Arthur and Other Myths in Fantasy.
Fantasy on Other Worlds: Here There Be Dragons.
What Is Science Fiction?
Types of Science Fiction.
Keeping Up-to-Date on Science Fiction.
Utopias and Dystopias.

8. History and History Makers: Of People and Places.
Trade Books for History Study.
Historical Fact and Fiction.
Outstanding Writers of Historical Fiction.
Books About War.
Literature of the Holocaust.
Japanese Internment Camps in World War II.
Personal Experiences.
More Upbeat Personal Experiences.
Biographies.
Collective Biographies.
Debunking Versus Fawning Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Connections Between History and Biography.

9. Nonfiction: Information, Poetry, and Drama.
Information Books.
Narrative or Storytelling in Nonfiction.
New Journalism.
Evaluation of Nonfiction.
Contemporary Influences on the Publishing of Informational Books.
Need for Scientific Literacy.
Books to Support and Extend the School Curriculum.
Nonfiction to Help Teenagers Learn Who They Are and Where They Fit.
Authors of Nonfiction for Young Adults.
Russel Freedman.
James Cross Giblin.
James (Jim) Haskins.
Albert Marrin.
Milton Meltzer.
Laurence Pringle.
Poetry.
Reading Drama in English Class.

III. ADULTS AND THE LITERATURE OF YOUNG ADULTS.

10. Evaluating, Promoting and Using Young Adult Books.
Evaluating Young Adult Literature.
Writing About Books.
Keeping a Record of Your Reading.
Writing Annotations.
Writing Reviews.
Writing Scholarly and Pedagogical Articles.
Deciding on the Literacy Canon.
Teaching Ethnic Literature.
Using Young Adult Literature in the Library.
Matching Books With Readers.
Discussion Listservs.
World Wide Web Sites.
Booktalks.
Displays.
Programs.
Magazines.
Using Young Adult Books in the Reading Classroom.
Guided Reading Classes.
Using Young Adult Books in the Social Studies Class.
Parents and Young Adult Literature.
Clarifying Human Relations and Values.

11. Literature in the English Class: Short Stories, Novels, Creative Writing, Film and Thematic Units.
Principles of Teaching English.
Using Young Adult Literature in English Classes.
Using Short Stories in English Class.
Using Novels in English Class.
Using Young Adult Literature in Creative Writing.
Teaching Film in the English Class.
Using Thematic Units in the English Class.

12. Censorship: Of Worrying and Wondering.
A Brief History of Censorship.
The State of Classroom and Library Censorship Today.
Some Assumptions About Censorship and Censors.
Attacks on Materials.
Who are the Censors?
What Do the Censors Censor?
Why Do Censors Censor What They Do?
Some Court Decisions Worth Knowing.
Court Decisions About Obscenity and Attempting to Define Obscenity.
Court Decisions About Teaching and School Libraries.
Extralegal Decisions.
What to Do Before and After the Censors Arrive.
Before the Censors Arrive.
After the Censors Arrive.

Appendix A: Glossary of Literary Terms Illustrated by YA Literature.

Appendix B: Book Selection Guides.

Appendix C: Some Outstanding Books and Articles About Young Literature.

Appendix D: A Brief Bibliography on Films Generally and on Transformations of Print into Film.

Acknowledgements.

Subject Index.

Critics and Commentators Index.

Author and Title Index.

Editorial Reviews

I have used the text Literature for Today's Young Adults again and again; the book was very thorough, and the background it gave about young adult literature helped me to understand the importance of using this genre in my classroom. I have used the booklists to find books that fit into certain genres or help students find a great book about a certain topic. For example, when my colleague and I prepared a unit on bullying, we used the list on "Buddies and Bullies" in Chapter 4. I have also used many of the ideas about using YA literature to create stronger reading and writing assignments. Notes I have made in the margins include: "Good book questions to ask..."; "Good quote, could use when writing short stories or narratives"; and "NOTE TO ME: Don’t forget to look at humor in literary analysis."

— Shelly Shaffer, Brimhall Junior High School, Mesa, Arizona

Literature for Today's Young Adults has served as a wonderfully useful resource in my role as both a practicing teacher and teacher educator. During my first year of teaching, I dedicated myself to reading every title listed on the Honor List to enhance my familiarity with texts available to teen readers. In the university classroom, I regularly draw upon the censorship materials to help students engage in preemptive behaviors to ward off the likeliness of such attacks and know how to best respond should they arise.

— Wendy Glenn, University of Connecticut

My field is ESL and I took Dr. Nilsen's course in an effort to learn new ways of engaging international students in the world of literature as I aimed to develop their reading and writing skills in English. I found that Nilsen's Literature for Today's Young Adults serves me well not only as a guide and reference but as a rich source of insight into American culture and modern English literature for young people.

—Thomas Washington, American English and Culture Program, Arizona State University

Teachers need a good resource library which will enable them to teach to all students across varied interests and literacies. I use VideoHound to find films, and Literature for Today's Young Adults to find YA books.

—Stacy Graber, Desert Vista High School, Tempe

I purchased the 7th edition of Literature for Today's Young Adults in 2007, and I still refer to it four years later, as I prepare for my English methods courses and as I write and review articles. The pages are bookmarked, dog-eared, highlighted, and annotated, and the book itself holds a prominent place on my shelf so that it is easily accessible to me and my students.

— Katie Mason, Wichita State University

All librarians working with teens should have Literature for Today's Young Adults on their reference shelf. As a middle school librarian, I relied on the Honor List to build a collection of the best reading material for my students. When I moved to a university library, I used the book as a guide in the creation of a collection of young adult e-books for future English teachers. Literature for Today's Young Adults continues to be my number one resource for young adult literature collection development.

— Ann Dutton Ewbank,Arizona State University

From the Publisher