This week's guest post is an example of a type that I love to see, a university professor and a former student working together. The issue is also important as Alli Behrens, from Whitehall public schools in Montana, and Dr. Rob Petrone, from Montana State University, discuss the importance of Contemporary YAL with settings in rural America. Many of us who work with students in urban and suburban settings can easily loose track of how many students are attending schools is rural settings. Once again, the fact that so many good examples of this topic can be found in the large body of YAL shows us the value of exploring and using these books in the classroom.

You don’t want to spend the rest of your life milking cows. Did I not know this? Of course I needed college to get out of Red Bend! I remembered it every second of the day! But I’d never realized Mom knew it too. I’d never heard her say it, say so bluntly, that I needed to escape. She sounded desperate…
Front and Center by Catherine G. Murdock

​I (Alli) grew up in a small town in Northeastern Arizona, an island of houses and dirt roads in a sea of Ponderosa Pine trees. It is a town that climbs up hillsides and spills into a canyon; a town that booms in the summer and has streets lined with empty houses in the winter; a town founded on logging, now searching for new industry; a town of ranchers, teachers, waitresses, builders, and vacationers.
 
A town I knew I would one day leave.
 
Like DJ, quoted above, from the YA novel Front and Center, and numerous young people in rural communities, I believed to be successful, I had to escape. A “good” future could only be found in the world outside my hometown. To stay was to fail. So, I (and many peers) left after high school graduation with no intention to return except for Christmas and 4th of July.  
 
In many ways, my departure began in the pages of novels. As a child and teenager, I read voraciously, devouring book after book—classics and young adult alike. Those pages provided a window into worlds vastly different from the place I called home, worlds that seemed far more exciting and superior to my own.  
 
Now, several years and a thousand miles from my hometown, I recognize a gap in the reading of my youth. I’d hardly ever read—or even knew about—books, especially YA, that depicted the rural people and culture I grew up knowing—and not as historical caricatures of hardy homesteaders but as contemporary, multi-dimensional people and places.
  
Where were the books about kids like me?
 
Now, as an English teacher in a rural school, I have become invested in finding those books for my students.

Literacy scholars have recently highlighted the importance of focusing on rural contexts and people as an issue of social justice, claiming that too often topics of rurality are overlooked or negatively essentialized. (See articles by Dr. Amy Azano, a leading scholar in rural literacy education: “Rural Context” and “The Other Neglected “R.”)
 
Given this broader context of stereotyping and social justice, we see great value in literacy educators integrating YAL depictions of contemporary rurality into their teaching. However, we recognize two challenges. First, there is just not much YAL with contemporary rural representations. Second, YA novels that do focus on rural often—though not always—perpetuate and potentially reify deficit and stereotyped views of rural people and places. (See Dr. Karen Eppley’s article on stereotypical rural representations in children’s literature: “Picturing Rural America.”) Therefore, we think it’s important to not just bring rural books into the classroom but to read them critically to recognize and challenge stereotypes of rurality.
 
Additionally, we believe integrating rural books could be useful in rural and non-rural classrooms (i.e., urban, suburban). While rural YAL can function as a mirror for rural students, it can also serve as a window for non-rural youth to better understand rurality. How might it be productive, for instance, for urban students to examine stereotypes of rurality through YAL?
 
Regardless of who is reading, it’s crucial that students recognize these texts only provide a single version of rural and read with a critical eye, questioning the textual representations they find. 

Below are synopses of YA novels we think could be generative for classroom use, along with questions to help students engage critically with depictions of rurality. As rurality is not a singular entity, the novels here are set across the U.S. and include characters of different races, sexual orientations, ages, and genders.

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord
 
This novel tells the story of Tess who lives on a small island off the coast of Maine and wants to be a lobster fisherman like her father when she grows up. However, her small island town is struggling to maintain the population it needs to survive. This story shows the challenges faced by rural dwellers trying to keep their communities alive as they rely on both local natural resources and community members to stay afloat.  
 
Some questions to consider:

• What is the relationship between the rural characters, like Tess, and their place? Are they there by choice? Do they want to stay? How is their identity connected to/determined by the place? 
• What are the conflicts faced in the novel? Which conflicts are a result of the rural setting?  What do those conflicts suggest about what it means to live in a rural place?

Knights of Hill Country by Tim Tharp
 
Set in rural Oklahoma, this is a wonderful sports novel. Hampton has been best friends with Blaine since 4th grade, but during football their senior year, Blaine changes as Hampton replaces him as the star of the team.  Blaine’s anger about losing the limelight stresses his relationship with Hampton. This novel emphasizes the importance of sports in small town culture, including the stereotypical dumb jock, as well as the pressure faced in a community where everyone knows your name.   
 
Some questions to consider:

• How do high school sports explain/define rurality in this context? What seems unique about sports and rural communities? 
• How are youth who are not interested/involved in sports depicted? How do sports in this novel marginalize certain characters?
• How does the rural setting hinder/help rural youth pursue future endeavors?  What does the availability of opportunities for the future suggest about living in a rural place?  

Far from Xanadu by Julie A. Peters
 
This novel is about Mike Szabo whose life changes completely when Xanadu, the most beautiful girl she’s ever seen, moves to her hometown of Coalton, Kansas. Mike becomes friends with Xanadu and wishes they could become more, but Xanadu isn’t interested. As Mike and Xanadu become close friends, Mike has to make some tough decisions about her future happiness. This story portrays the challenges that small businesses face, the difficulties of being different in a small town, and the hurdles rural youth face in attempting to plan for and pursue their futures.
 
Some questions to consider:

• How does the rural setting impact those outside the local social norms?  How does the rural setting hinder/help gay characters navigate everyday life?  How do rural people treat those who are different?  
• How is Xanadu, an urban character, depicted in relation to Mike?  Who is depicted as “better”/inferior/superior? What does this say about how rural is defined in relation to urban?   

Last Buffalo Hunter by Jake Mosher
 
This book provides an interesting perspective on rurality because the protagonist Kyle is not rural.  He lives outside of Syracuse and has always dreamed of Montana; his father grew up there and his grandfather Cole still lives there in a tiny town called Mistake. For his 14th birthday, Kyle’s parents send him to Mistake to spend the summer with Cole, an adventure Kyle will never forget.  This novel depicts a dying rural culture that cannot withstand the powers of money and outside interests. The contrast between a well-off, youthful city boy and an impoverished, dying old man embodies the death of the rural space.   
 
Some questions to consider:
Who tells the story? Is that person rural/urban? Whose perspective is most valued? Is that person rural/urban? Whose voices aren’t heard? How does that impact the story of rurality being told?
How is Cole portrayed in comparison with Kyle? How is their behavior normative/non-normative? How are those representations defining what it means to be a rural person?  

Dairy Queen by Catherine G. Murdock
 
This novel (the first of a trilogy), set in Red Bend, Wisconsin, tells DJ Schwenk’s story. Because of her father’s injury, 15-year-old DJ does the majority of the work on her family’s dairy farm.  Since she is so hard-working, the football coach of Red Bend’s rival Hawley sends his quarterback to DJ for training.  DJ realizes her love for football and goes out for Red Bend’s football team. This novel (and series) portrays the difficulties faced by modern farmers, the conflicts farm kids navigate between home and school life, and the importance of sports in rural cultures.
 
Some questions to consider:
·         How is life on a dairy farm portrayed?  How do the characters feel about farm responsibilities?  What does this suggest about life on a farm?   
   
·         How are rural girls like DJ depicted?  How does the rural setting help/hinder a girl’s ability to pursue her dreams?
 
·         How are sports and academics contrasted in the novel?  How does that characterize rural values?
 
·         How are urban settings, like Madison, depicted in this novel? What does this say about how the rural is defined in relation to urban?
 

Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

This book, set in Kentucky, is about Ricki Jo who is starting high school and ready to leave behind her country-self in order to become popular. She wants to be called Ericka, becomes a cheerleader, and buys a new wardrobe. Ricki Jo changes a lot in order to fit in but realizes that it’s harder to be popular than she thought. This novel illustrates the challenges rural youth can face when attempting to navigate a new, more urban place and the pressure they feel to leave behind their country roots, which are considered uncool and unimportant.
 
Some questions to consider:
·         Why is Ricki Jo convinced of the need to alter her identity? What must she do to accomplish that?  How do her efforts to change her identity affect her relationship with herself, her friends (old and new) and her family?
 
·         How does the physical residence of characters impact their opportunities and achievements?  
 
·         How are characters from urban settings depicted?  How do those characters interact with rural characters?  What does this say about how urban people view rural people? 

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
 
This book, set in rural Tennessee, is about three misfit friends about to graduate high school.  Their future opportunities are complicated due to a variety of home-life and socioeconomic issues, but before they can move on to what’s next, they have to survive their senior year of high school. This novel illustrates the complex nature of religion in small communities, the challenges faced by those who are different, and the hurdles rural youth face when pursing their futures.
 
Some questions to consider:
·         What role does religion play in the novel? How do the characters navigate the religious expectations of the community?  What does this imply about religion in small communities?   
 
·         How does the rural setting impact opportunities characters have, both in high school and beyond, to engage in their interests?  How does the internet influence everyday life/future choices?  Does everyone have the same opportunities?   
 

​Several books we did not have space to include in this list but do want to mention are: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy, Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon, Bull Rider by Suzanne Williams, and Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer. 

Next Steps
We strongly believe in the value that stems from reading rural YAL, and we’d love to hear your experiences making literary representations of rurality a classroom focal point. Similarly, we’d love recommendations of rural YA novels to share with our students.
 
abehrens@whitehallmt.org
 
robert.petrone@gmail.com

If you have been involved in the YA scholarly community for any length of time, you probably have met Mary Warner. Conversations with Mary are always interesting. I learn something new every time. As a result, my commitment to teaching my students and diving into more YA literature is renewed. Mary has contributed to the blog before. She wrote about using Karen Hesse’s Witness in a classroom setting and you can revisit her post here. This time she reports on how her students, from the current semester, learned about and embraced young adult literature. Many of us value and try to incorporate young adult literature; nevertheless, many of our preservice teachers are initially reluctant to see YA as an appropriate tool for literary instruction in the classroom. I love discussing this topic. It seems that just as we create a legitimate place for YA, a new crop of students show up and question the relevance of this body of literature all over again. I am glad that Mary has let us hear from her students.  

Most of us who teach YA Lit or librarians who promote YA already know its value.  In my Fall ’16 Literature for YA course, I decided to create a final exam allowing for my students – many of whom are planning to become middle or high school English teachers; but also for those who are creative writing majors or literature majors who take the course as an upper division English elective – an opportunity to articulate “Why YA?”

The students’ essays candidly and passionately captured the essence of YA; their essays speak for themselves and contribute a significant voice to the advocacy for YA Lit.

The Prompt: In an essay of 750-1,000 words (3-4 double spaced pages), discuss the following: Why YA Literature?  In the broad sense, what can YA Literature do to promote and foster literacy or the desire to read in a world where 40% of teens identify as “aliterate” – meaning they can read, but they choose not to? What is the value of YA Lit? Why does it deserve a place in English courses on the university level?

For those of you who plan on teaching, hone in more specifically, describing how you can incorporate YA Lit in high school or middle school.  How does YA Literature fulfill the concerns of those who might argue that YA Literature does not deserve a place in the Literary Canon?

Your essay will be evaluated on the specific examples and evidence you incorporate.  To that end consider referencing ideas from the six books we read in common, the texts--Literature for Today’s Young Adults (materials from the online handouts) and Adolescents in the Search for Meaning: Tapping the Powerful Resource of Story, the book talks, the Chris Crutcher video presentation; Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesdays, and the units of study/annotated bibliographies. As you discuss the importance of YA Lit., highlight points of information you now know about YA Literature, which you did not know before you took this course.

​Responses… (Note, I’ve excerpted and corrected some spelling/issues arising from on-site writing)

1.  “In the current public school system there is quite a leap from elementary school to middle and high school reading material.  In elementary school, the required reading is generally picture books or very short stories.  But once teens get to middle or high school, suddenly they are being prepared to read F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jane Austin and other incredibly difficult authors.  Most students struggle with these works because they’ve been forced to skip a very important transition period.  The students have not had time to become better readers and most certainly cannot relate to many of the characters in these novels, many of whom are grown men and women.  Teens need characters and settings they can relate to in order to feel more invested in the works they are reading.  Young Adult literature gives children and teens a bridge between picture books and academic novels.  I believe this because so many of the characters they are forced to read [about] in high school are not relatable to them.  Not many students are millionaire bootleggers who are madly in love with a married woman like Jay Gatsby, yet these are the characters students are being force to find themselves in.  A number of people say that YA literature is not important enough to teach in schools.  But these novels contain characters that students find themselves in; they are set in places that students can relate to, situations many of them have been in like high school classrooms or sports teams.

Being a teenager means learning how to function in society, how to speak for yourself even if you are afraid to and as Melinda in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak, ‘There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs.  Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me…’ (Anderson).  For most teenagers, high school is a very important period in their lives where they learn to speak for themselves…particularly young women could find an important message in Speak, one that is more relatable than the one the Bennet daughters give in Pride and Prejudice…

By having characters that they can relate to, students could be more inclined to read…In Matt de la Peña’s We Were Here the main character is described by another character as ‘a normal kid who did something very bad’ yet continues to beat himself up and believes himself to be a bad kid (Peña). I feel that many adolescents could find themselves in this particular work as many feel the need to be rebellious as teens…

When I was a high school student, I did not read very much.  I would be what is considered an ‘aliterate’ student.  It was not because I could not read well, it was because I could not find any literature that I could relate to.  I could not relate to Jay Gatsby or the pigs in Animal Farm, so I was not interested in the novels at that time.  It is because of my personal high school experience that I believe YA literature is important to teach in high school; these characters are ones that I know I would have related to because some of them went through experiences that I did.  Many of the characters faced situations that I faced, but I was sadly unprepared for all of them.  These novels could have helped me in those times and could probably help a great deal of other teenagers right now.  YA literature deserves to be taught in high school as well as in college because of its universality and its importance as a bridge between children’s literature and more academic works.  As someone who plans to be a teacher someday, I will try as hard as I can to include YA novels in my classroom…if they [my students] would rather read Whale Talk than The Great Gatsby that’s fine by me because they probably relate more to T. J. than to Jay Gatsby.”     Jason

2.  “Honestly, at the beginning of the class I was skeptical about what I would learn fromYA literature.  Despite how much YA literature I read as a young adult, I was embarrassed about much I loved the genre.  To me, YA literature wasn’t what I considered ‘real’ literature.  However, over the course of the semester, I realized that YA literature has a special and unique place in English courses whether it’s in junior high or even on the university level.  For example, strong female protagonists typically are rarely found in the literary canon, so YA literature gives young girls models and narratives that more closely reflect their own experiences.  The character of Kate from Robert Cormier’s After the First Death demonstrates courage even in the face of terrorism.  Many girls can relate to Kate’s struggles like her inner uncertainty about being ‘good enough.’  Moreover, her sacrifice and taking on the responsibility for the young children on the bus is heroic. Readers in that distinctive phase of their lives need YA literature in their lives in order to broaden their perspectives about the world and everyone living their lives around them.
 
Furthermore, YA literature also presents students with characters and narratives that they can enjoy and maybe even relate to.  As a teenager, I felt misunderstood and unimportant.  I didn’t think that my voice or my feelings mattered in the ‘real world’ of adults, but I learned through YA literature that I wasn’t alone in my thought process and that how I felt did matter.  According to Literature for Today’s Young Adults, before reaching the sixth and seventh stages of literary appreciation – aesthetic appreciation – readers tend to read ‘to find out about themselves, not simply to escape into someone else’s experiences for a few, pleasurable hours’ (LfTYA 5).  With that in mind, YA literature can also give the reader a sense of belonging and identity.
 
…However, I believe the most crucial element of YA literature is the ways in which the books deal with relationships.  Whether it’s dealing with parents, friends, teachers, bullies, significant others, authoritative figures, God, or even nature, YA literature usually gives an accurate portrayal of the inner workings of relationships.  Karen Hesse’s Witness deals with themes of racism and hate, but also shows the strength of human bonds and love can transcend hate.  Hesse’s character Sara Chickering exhibits this love through her mother-daughter type relationship with both Esther Hirsh and Leanora Sutter.
 
Moreover, Chris Crutcher’s Whale Talk and Matt de la Peña’s We Were Here both depict the difficult struggles of male adolescence.  In both novels, the importance of friendship is highlighted especially when confronting problems of that magnitude.  Miguel, Mong, and Rondell share the same brotherly love for each other as the Magnificent Seven do in Whale Talk. It’s important for young adults to know their family isn’t comprised [solely] of people that are related to them.” Trang

3.  “Having finally taken a course in YA literature, I can say that I wish I had learned earlier, a thing or two from this class.  I did not realize just how influential my reading material was when I was a young and how that shaped my reading material to this day.  Nor did I realize how the novels I read helped me as a young adult to understand certain topics or ideas, like learning to cope with the loss of a loved one or dealing with an overbearing parent.  Much of what I learned as a young adult shaped how I respond to certain situations and has taught me what is the healthy way to deal with difficult situations and what is the unhealthy way.

Probably one of the most important concepts as to why YA literature is so important is that it allows young adults to find an escape from reality.  When young adults read YA literature it allows them, in a sense, to broaden their surroundings.  The world in which they live will all of a sudden seem a lot [vaster] because of that, those who do not read may have a more narrow-minded view on the world, only drawing on the culture directly around them versus a broader scope of the world that is available in literature.  Furthermore, when young adults find a way to escape, they may find a sense of inclusion in the world they read about or in the characters they come to understand and love.  Having been a young adult I remember feeling that sometimes people did not understand me, but when I read about a character with similar trains of thought I felt like I was finally understood and that someone cared.  Along with this concept of inclusion, young adults will be able to find emotional support from their characters.  Young adults are not always placed in certain environments that are ‘ideal,’ and may not have an outlet for pent up emotions; however, reading about a character who is going through the same situation may allow the young adult to find a sense of comfort.  What any young adult should not feel is alone.  But this can translate to adults as well.  When young adults, or adults, feel along there is a desperate need to be understood or to find sympathy, and when that feeling of being alone grows then that is when problems start to arise.  That is when depression may set in and if a young adult cannot find an outlet or an escape, then those emotions can be translated into violence.  But YA literature can be that emotional support when upheaval ensues.
​
…YA literature [also] not only teaches young adults, but adults, how to deal with ideas like isolation, fear, or traumatic experiences.  Young adults can find comfort that these characters may be going through the same situations or feelings as the reader, but may also learn how to deal, in a healthy way, with difficult issues that arise.  For example, in Witness by Karen Hesse, the character Leanora Sutter feels isolation from her racist community.  Leanora, having dealt with some racist remarks explains in her own way her isolation: ‘I walked out of school/I didn’t know where I was going./I just walked out/without my coat,/without my hat or rubbers./I didn’t feel the cold,/ I was that scorched.’  Here, Leanora feels ostracized and alone from her community, and she has an emotional response to the discrimination she has endured.  Not only is she dealing with racism, a difficult issue to experience, but along with that racism Leanora feels alone in her own home.  This book will help young adults to be able to feel a sense of connection to Leanora, especially those who feel alone when dealing with racism…

YA literature addresses so many concepts and ideas that can be translated into adult literature as well.  YA literature is a stepping stone towards more complexity as well. While some students may feel that literature is too hard to read or understand, YA literature allows the young adult audience to understand that not all novels are ‘complex’ in language or in concepts.  However, certain concepts may seem mature or complex, but can be easily understood in the guise of a YA novel.  When students are able to understand the material, it is more likely that they will read it.  While many students may see novels as boring or cookie cutter, incorporating fantasy novels may allow students to expand their minds to new worlds, but still find a connection to the world in which they live.  Even by reading these novels on a university level, students will be able to use this knowledge for their own classes, but also understand that YA literature does not have to be boring or typical, but can be enlightening and interesting, that even complex concepts can be found in YA literature and can be used in the university canon.  Simply put it, reading allows students to gain knowledge of themselves, others, the world, their community…”   Mariah

4.  “…YA lit can be used to explore so much more than sexual assault [referencing Speak].  Karen Hesse’s vignettes in Witness explore the effects of prejudice through a town in Vermont in 1924 and their struggle with the Ku Klux Klan; We Were Here by Matt de la Peña explores themes of guilt, suicide, violence, and identity; and Robert Cormier’s After the First Death explores father-son dynamics, terrorism, the concept of the enemy, and patriotism.  YA literature contains many complex themes and experiences that act as a vehicle for helping teens contextualize, analyze, and deal with the world around them.
 
While YA literature is written for young adults, it also extends beyond them.  For one, teenagers eventually grow up.  They become adults, they vote, they work, they inherit the previous generation’s world and create the way for the future of the next generation.  The things that they learn in schools, media, and from experiences shape who they become.  Well written YA literature teaches readers to be empathetic, aware, and curious.  For these reasons, I also think that it is valuable to YA literature to be involved at the university level.  While college students are considered adults, most of them are fresh out of or just a few years from high school.  Two years into adulthood, ‘adults’ are still teenagers at eighteen and nineteen years old.  College is a big version of high school, with bigger campuses, social networks, people, and consequences.  YA literature still deals with the problems of living in this world, and while they may not be as immediate for adults as they are for teenagers, every adult still had to grow up to get there and can relate to experiences of adolescence.  In addition to all of this, many adults will interact with adolescents at one point or another.  They’ll become parents, educations, mentors, or work in administrations and business that affect the world that teenagers will live in.  Many teenagers are subject to the decisions of adults in this way, and YA literature is a great resource for adults to understand how their actions affect them.
 
Reading is a valuable skill and, like all skills, can be lost or numbed with neglect.  The fast-paced nature of YA literature is a great way to sharpen reading skills when [teens are] caught up in the busy routine of this fast-paced world.  The fact that it’s written for teenagers does not lessen its value any more than being a teenager lessens the value of a human being.  Life can get hard and quality YA literature teaches teenagers that they are not alone and there is more to come.    Allison

5.   Before this course, I didn’t know the importance of YA literature.  I used to read [YAlit] for enjoyment and to escape from my own reality.  When I wanted to forget something, books became my sole comfort.  Then I learned that I am not the only one who still enjoys reading YA books.  YA literature can tie into anything that a person can relate to whether it is fantasy/sci-fi or any other type of genre.  One of the quotes I love is from Laurie Halse Anderson in which she says, ‘Contemporary young adult literature surprises some people, because it is an accurate reflection of the way today’s teenagers talk, think, behave.  But these books must be honest in order to connect to the teen reader.  America’s teens are desperate for responsible, trustworthy adults to create situations in which they can discuss the issues that are of the highest concern for them.  Reading and discussing books is one of the effective ways to get teens to think through and learn the challenges of adolescence.’ (The quote is form “A Comment about Censorship” on the back of the book, Speak.)  I agree with her because it is the reason I tuned in to read books.  I am able to relate to them, even as a teenager.  When I had no one to talk to, I learned through the novels I read.  I am still learning through the novels.  YA literature is important to teach to students who find other works boring and end up tuning out from an entire lesson.  They [YA books] teach lessons that are hard to talk about or [are] about adventures teens may want to go on but can’t.”   Angela

6.   “One of the most beautiful aspects of the YA genre is the multiple perspectives I’ve been able to view life from.  I began realizing the importance of YA literature shortly after we read Witness, and Dr. Warner directed us to recount our memory of the unforgettable attacks on our country on September 11, 2001.  The responses were remarkable; they varied from personal accounts of the day to remembering the day from a victim’s perspective and even through the eyes of a victim’s family member. (9/11 Readers’ Theatre) What I realized after this exercise is why YA literature is important.  YA literature allows anyone regardless of age or gender or orientation to feel welcome.
 
      One characteristic of YA literature (which is closely related to Exeter Quality 6) presented in the online handouts Literature for Today’s Young Adults (chapter 1) says ‘The body of work includes characters from many different ethnic and cultural groups.’  The importance of this characteristic should be duly-noted.  In every classroom I’ve been in this year, the backgrounds of students are always mixed.   The book talks are proof of how YA literature can reach to all types of backgrounds.  Anton’s book talk on The Port Chicago 50 describes the hushed event during WW II in which an explosion killed many African-Americans.  Luke’s book talk on Gabi, A Girl in Pieces details the struggles of an overweight Mexican-American trying to fit in during dark times in her life.  An assigned book we read, We Were Here follows three young males who are all from different backgrounds: African-American, Mexican, and Chinese, on their journey.  These books invite those ethnicities who may have felt marginalized due to the importance of reading canonical works for so long to read YA books that tend to connect to a wider audience.
 
      This course on YA literature has allowed me to view life from a different perspective.  I once dismissed the genre simply based off of the negative comments and reviews I would hear from the naysayers.  The quick reaction to dismiss something I have yet to try and understand will forever be a valuable lesson.  During this semester, I lent a copy of one of my favorite YA novels, The Alchemist, to a friend who was struggling to transition in a hectic time of his life.  His response to the book was heartwarming. He revealed to me a few things: he appreciated how the novel was written.  The diction was simple and enjoyable which didn’t make it a difficult read.  He could connect to the protagonist in more than one way.  He revealed the novel made him grow as a person…Most important and also the most joyful part of the feedback is the fact that he shared that book with three other family members.  What he gained from the book prompted him to share that feeling with other people.  This is the beauty and importance of YA literature… In a day where technology consumes almost every aspect of our daily routine, it was refreshing to see how a book helped my friend in a time of confusion.  If a book like The Alchemist influences someone in his late 20s, I can only imagine how it can affect a young adult in middle or high school.  Not only is YA literature a valuable part of young adult education…the genre can very well resonate with adults too.”   Casey

7.   “According to a survey conducted by Dr. Mary Warner, 464 out of 1375 (34%) teenagers said that peer pressure was the biggest issue that they faced, with school issues following second with 254 (Adolescents in the Search for Meaning: Tapping the Powerful Resource of Story, 8).  In that same survey, the teenagers said that they had only one primary source of guidance, with the highest number of responses being either family or friends.  The survey also states that a staggering 772 (51%) of these same teenagers said that they had never gotten help with issues from a book.  While these numbers seem to point to the idea that teens do not want to find solace in a good book, it brings up one big question: why?  The best answer comes in the form of one of the Exeter qualities of good YA literature, ‘Characters who reflect experiences of teen readers, something not found in much of the literary canon, especially when it comes to strong female protagonists.’  This highlights the issue that it is not reading in particular that teens hate, it is what they are reading.  While the literary canon is important as it shows teens the classics and helps build their knowledge, works such as The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, and even my favorite work of all time, Animal Farm do not have characters that teens can directly relate to.  This is why YA literature is invaluable in the classroom and should be taught in conjunction; it can help fill in the gaps and give stories to help teens cope with the issues they face every day.
 
      One other Exeter quality…is ‘Themes that allow the possibility of emotional and intellectual growth through engagement of personal issues.’  Essentially good YA literature will allow students to directly tackle any personal issues that they are facing…There are plenty of books dealing with plenty of different issues, so tailoring a unit to a class becomes easy with resources such as Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesdays and our book talks/annotated bibliographies/units of study. (Students’ page) If for example, a Hispanic student is dealing with racial identity issues, I could easily recommend books such as Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña (Ricky Clark’s book talk) or Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero, (Luke Coulter’s book talk) because I already have background on them.  The large number of genres gone over in our unit of studies/annotated bibliographies makes it just as easy to give books to teens for pleasure.  If this class has taught me anything, it is that YA literature is a great tool for getting students interested in reading, and one that is severely underused in the classroom.  As a student who used to hate reading, I find that when I teach I must make an effort to use these resources to get students interested in reading.  However, using YA literature does not mean getting rid of the classics all together, or put any less importance on them.  In fact, the units of study/annotated bibliographies taught me that YA literature can help build on or even introduce the canonical works…
 
      When I was in middle school, I was bullied on and off.  In 7th grade, I was pushed to the ground and broke my wrist.  After that, the same bullies threatened to do it to me again as a sort of sick joke.  Despite the support from my friends and family, I never really had the tools for coping with it or even understanding why the bullies would do this in the first place.  This led to some depression in high school that I once again had trouble coping with.  I can’t help but feel that if I had a work of YA literature such as the book I did my book talk on, Endgame by Nancy Garden, that I could have felt like I was not the only one going through this.  While I will always love the literary canon for the great stories it provides, I am the first to admit that teens really need more.  They need stories that they connect to, that help show them how to deal with problems they cannot talk about with others.  Ultimately, I want to use YA literature in the classroom to help students, to give them a way to cope with life in a constructive way by showing them that they are not alone.”   Maximillian

8.   “…While the characters within YA literature hook young readers in ways that canonical literature may not, another enticing aspect of YA literature’s style is the voice and language that a young adult perspective allows.  For example, Miguel, the narrator of We Were Here by Matt de la Peña has a very unique and fun-to-read voice.  I know that as a young adult I would have gotten a kick out of reading passages like this: ‘I stopped chewing mid-chew, looked back at the guy.  Okay, dawg, I told myself.  Here it is. The shit’s finally gonna go down.’ (57).  In Level 3 of the Stages of Literary Appreciation, Nilsen and Donelson discuss the value of language that is ‘straightforward and written in a style that [readers] can understand.’  Students who might feel bored and confused with the flowery language of Shakespeare or Nathaniel Hawthorne will find it relieving to read such a unique and relatable voice. 
 
      Beyond simply making the book fun to read, this language provides a springboard for the class to explore language.  A high school class can discuss how Miguel’s language affects the reading of the story and perception of him, how it affects and marks his relationships with other characters, and finally how Mong’s, Rondell’s, Miguel’s, and Jaden’s voices help establish them as unique characters.  This discussion of language can open to a broader discussion of how language and voice shapes all texts and characters, not just those in YA lit.  The examination of characters’ unique language and its role in characterizing them can be applied to canonical texts like The Character in the Rye where Holden has an extremely unique voice; Huckleberry Finn where Huck, Tom, and Jim are limited and separated in some ways based on speech.  Language is essential in understanding characters as well as ourselves, and this is why Exeter Quality 5: ‘Lively, Varied, and Imaginative Language that is Grammatically Correct’ is so valid…”   Tyler

9.   “Prior to taking this course, I had not given much thought to YA literature.  I often read as a teen, but never considered the actual impact that YA novels were having on me.  What I learned from this course was that the YA literature I had been introduced to was helping me develop my reading skills and an appreciation for literature.  In Chapter 1 of Literature for Today’s Young Adults, I learned about the seven stages of literary appreciation.  The stages … point to the fact that it is important for readers to first develop an interest in reading at a young age, so that they can learn to appreciate all types of literature.  If I had been forced to read only difficult literature from the canon, I probably would have lost my appetite for reading.  YA literature helps to foster an interest in reading for teens by providing them with stories they can relate to…
      I know that growing up I had my fair share of existential dilemmas, and I too felt alone in dealing with.  Through literature, though, I was able to find comfort and answers to many questions.  The reason for this is that YA literature provided me with a safe place to confront my personal issues.  That is the power of YA literature.  It takes complicated adult themes and presents them in a way that adolescents can understand and learn from.  In Adolescents in the Search for Meaning: Tapping the Powerful Resource of Story, Dr. Warner explains that YA literature allows readers to vicariously experience difficult themes at a safe and neutral distance (Warner, XIV).  One of the things that I learned from this course is that these topics are far from childish.  The YA literature that I read in this class touched on serious subjects such as racism, sexuality, rape, death, grief, and depression.  These are all issues that adolescents will begin to deal with as they get older, which is why it is important for them to have literature designed to address these themes…”                            Ariel

10.   “…Teens have a tendency to be susceptible to influences and can easily be swayed to be something they are not, peer-pressured into doing something they do not want to do.  This could lead to vulnerability and sometimes, dependency on others.  Some teenagers start to feel alone so they start to look for a place where they can feel accepted and wanted.  This can be a tricky task to accomplish especially when they feel like an outcast and that there is no one that can understand them, that their suffering is unique.  Reading stories about people their own age can build a sense of trust and belonging which could encourage them to reading more, to continue their search for others who understand their struggles.  This could eventually lead to a love for reading as I have experienced when I was searching for others who could understand.  This is the main topic and struggle for most of the YA literature that I have read so far, be it a canonical work or not.  In Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher, T. J. struggles to find somewhere where he can belong, so does Harry Potter in the Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling.  Aristotle and Dante find themselves belonging to each other in their search in the novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.  Many other novels and authors have talked about this because it is a crucial topic among teens who are lost and do not know where they fit in life yet. Reading about other people with the same struggles can encourage them to read more and look for more people who can offer them guidance and comfort.

The ideas and themes that reside within a YA novel are not only for young adults, but also for anyone at all really.  That is the beauty of humanity, that the pain we feel, no matter how unique, can still be universal.  There are others out there that go through some of the same things and problems, and there are ways to find them and get to know them by talking and communicating experiences through stories.  And maybe, just maybe, by telling others those stories, a community can be formed, a place to belong to.  That is why I believe YA literature should be taught to young adults.”   Miguel

11.   “…Clearly, YA literature is much deeper and more complex than at first glance.  Its ability to create circumstances and characters that students can relate to and understand is an invaluable asset to encouraging teens to read and think.  Although, it might be more accurate to call the genre ‘literature written for adolescents and young adults,’ as Dr. Marshall George writes in an article for Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesdays, “What’s in a Name? Adolescent Literature? Young Adult Literature? Does it Matter?”  However, while understanding the distinction between novels for teens and adolescents versus young adults is important, it is equally important to support that the material of YA literature is sophisticated and challenging enough to be observed on a university level, both as a subject to be studied and as a subject to be taught in schools for aspiring teachers.  Furthermore, YA literature serves as an effective complement and parallel to works in the literary canon, helping students in high school and middle school better understand and relate to the works they are studying.  Incorporating YA literature into units of study can breathe new life into classwork, drawing the attention of uninterested students and supporting the learning of aliterate students by generating activities and exercises that help to further their understanding.  The power of narrative shows itself in its ability to attract human interest, in the form of oral storytelling as well as the written word.  Humans have been enthralled by good stories throughout history, and in a sense, YA literature is the culmination of human storytelling experience, formulated first for adolescents and young adults and enjoyed by all ages.  For this reason and numerous others, YA literature deserves a place in the realm of education and the literary repertoire of students and adults alike.”   Brandon

12.   “There is no denying it: the classroom is an environment full of boredom and stress. Teens often dread the idea of listening to a monotone lecture for hours on end, nor do they wish to stress themselves by diving into the assignments and responsibilities associated with their classroom.  What’s more, it is this boredom and stress that contribute to students’ unwillingness to read despite having the ability to do so.  In short, many teens identify as aliterate simply because they do not feel like reading, and with the absence of any motivation to do so, they simply remain in this state at their own will.  Fortunately, YA literature possesses the ability to pry teens away from this mindset; with its ability to serve as entertainment, act as a teacher of life lessons, and nourish and build reading skills; the value and benefits provided by YA literature are simply too high to overlook.  In addition, the dynamic nature of the YA literature makes it a good subject to be taught in classes of various reading levels.

The first and most obvious trait of YA literature is that it can be entertaining; this allows for the attraction of teens who are reluctant to read.  As Miguel brings out in We Were Here, the sole purpose of reading should not be simple to read because it is a requirement, but also to read in order to ‘see what happens.’  Rather than having teens be made to read because they have to, which simply is not an attractive notion, teens would be more involved in reading if they actually enjoyed doing it.  Luckily YA lit has no shortage of entertainment.  From the magical vibes of Harry Potter to the heated interior of the bus in After the First Death, there is no limit to the material that teens can read to ‘see what happens’ rather than to ‘see what you’ll read because you have to.’

Moreover, the dynamic nature of YA literature further builds its use as a means of entertainment and can attract teens to reading, as YA literature consists of multiple genres, has the ability to take place in any time period, and includes multiples themes; teens will certainly find these qualities attractive, as they have the opportunity to either ‘lose’ or ‘find’ themselves when reading… For instance, many presentations [units of study and book talks] bring out the idea that YA literature can be used as teacher of life lessons.  Natalie Collier’s unit of study effectively utilizes the notion of death and the idea that the world can be a tragic place, and brings out the fact that young adults can read stories relating to the theme of death to understand the tragedies that make up their own environment.  This can easily be incorporated with a novel such as After the First Death by Robert Cormier, as its violence, fear, suspense, and tragedy reveal to teens that endings aren’t always happy in the real world.  On the other hand, Miguel Adea executes his unit of study in a manner that focuses on depressions; he reveals that YA literature teaches teens valuable lessons about mental illness, including the fact that they ‘are not alone.’  Teens can go about this approach by reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  They will see familiar effects of depression first hand, and then journey with the protagonist to recovery…”   Daniel

13.   “… Of course, for teens to know that there is such a treasure as YA literature available to them, adults will have to be knowledgeable about the topic of YA literature.  That starts with learning about YA literature at the university level so that it can then be taught to teens at a middle school or high school level.  Not only should future teachers take these classes, future librarians should as well, because as Dr. Bickmore says on his YA Wednesday blog about where it is teens are getting book suggestions from ‘librarians [are] true heroes.’  Why not just stay with the old works that have always been taught?  Why start a whole new section of teaching?  That is because, as shown above, YA literature offers so much for teens and adults as well.  The themes found in YA literature are universal and can be found anywhere and at any time.  Not only that, they contain many of the Exeter qualities so highly sought for in a book.  There is always a character to whom others can relate and an exciting and imaginative plot that may or may not go in chronological order, which may be even more exciting.  YA literature is also a great way to let teens further develop their reading skills.  From reading YA literature, they can then move onto even more complicated pieces or works…YA literature is a treasure trove of possibilities for young adults that just needs to be opened up to them.”   Poua

14.   “YA literature deserves a place in college classrooms because like Chris Crutcher says ‘YA fiction is not a lesser genre.’  Crutcher says the same themes addressed in Shakespeare can be found in YA literature and he is right.  The theme of rivalry between two different families in Romeo and Juliet is seen in a new way in Whale Talk.  T.J., the main character in Whale Talk comes head to head with his rivals – the revered athletes of his high school, proving that significant themes can be found in YA literature.  The material provided in YA literature makes it so that incorporating it into classrooms can be done with ease.  Adolescence is a time of discovery, growth, and self-identity.  Thankfully, YA literature has many great books that discuss identity.  I learned about many books (from the book talks) that are candid portrayals of characters coming to terms with their identity.  For example, there is Gabi, A Girl in Pieces about a young girl who struggles with her cultural identity.  Me and Earl, and the Dying Girl centers around Greg – a teen boy trying to maintain an identity for himself that ultimately proves to be destructive.  There are so many others too.  YA literature is significant.  Beyond this though, it is simply fun!  Many YA novels that I have been introduced to are quick-paced and suspenseful like After the First Death.  If a young person does not like reading, I believe it is because he/she just hasn’t read the right thing.  The more children read, the more they are bound to gain an appreciation for YA literature and literature in general.”  Beverly

15.   “YA lit can also help open up teens’ views of the world and people of other cultures like we read in We Were Here by Matt de la Peña.  I admit before reading this book, when I saw kids like the characters in this book, I would brush them off or look the other way.  I often just thought they were trouble makers.  Now I am not so quick to dismiss them.  Now I wonder what their story is, where did they come from and where are they going.  How will different events shape their lives?  I wonder if they would be good students if given the opportunity.  I see that we are all dealt different cards.  Since I plan on teaching, it’s beneficial for me to read about kids from different backgrounds with different experiences from mine…”   Elizabeth

16.  “YA literature is not very respected in academia.  Currently, it has no place in the canon of literary works.  Instead this canon is filled with epistolary novels from the point of view of eighteenth century chambermaids, plays about long dead political leaders, and poetry about pieces of pottery.  All of these works are valuable, and they certainly deserve to be studied, but focusing on them in high school literature courses creates absurd and terrifying statistics like 40% of teenagers identifying as ‘aliterate.’  Rather than forcing this abundance of dense and nearly impenetrable writing on teens, it would be far better to design and execute a more accessible canon, filled with books young adults might actually want to read.  This would serve multiple purposes.  First, it would help alleviate the disgust and fear associated with reading and improve the aforementioned statistic.  Second, and far more importantly, YA literature can develop empathy and critical thinking skills in everybody from elementary school students to adults.

The best YA literature contains several qualities that can help imbue this empathy. Unlike ‘much of the literary canon,’ it can ‘reflect experiences of teen readers’ (Literature for Today’s Young Adults).  Rather than being about an ancient king, Speak begins on the protagonist Melinda’s ‘first morning of high school.’  By starting with something identifiable and easy to connect with for high school students, Speak is able to ‘go beyond typical experiences.’  Most high school students have not been raped, but walking in Melinda’s shoes as she attempts to survive her freshman year opens that experience up to everybody.  This helps those students who have had something similar happen to them by giving them a chance to step outside their own fear and anxiety, and it helps to establish a community around them that is more understanding of the damage that they might have.  It fosters empathy and understanding among the entire class – something that a canonical work might have significantly more trouble doing.  By addressing a theme that students can connect with, Speak provides a much better opportunity for ‘emotional and intellectual growth’ (Literature for Today’s Young Adults).

This ‘intellectual growth’ leading to ethical understanding is easier to attain with YA literature than it is with more ‘academic’ works, as well.  In Whale Talk, T. J.’s mother says ‘as long as we’re going down this road, let’s go all the way.’  She then proceeds to lay out the sequence of events that would occur if T.J. were to assault Mike Barbour.  Whale Talk engages the reader’s interest by setting up a typical excuse for justified violence and then subverts the expectation caused by this in an organized, logical way.  Whale Talk provides a model for engaging with an emotional situation intellectually, which is a tool directly useful to teenagers’ lives.  These tools show up fairly frequently in YA literature.  These models almost always appear in themes that emphasize facing past troubles with honesty and integrity, rather than running and hiding.  We Were Here’s protagonist Miguel is about to flee America for Mexico when he realizes that he can’t.  There is a deep upwelling of emotion within him, and he recognizes that trying to run away from his problems won’t work.  He lacks the introspective ability to recognize why, but he intuits it all the same.  Similarly, in Witness, Merlin van Tornout decides to stop running from the law and accept what awaits him back in his home town.  Canonical works seldom provide these ethical models, and even when they are there, the texts themselves get in the way of the lesson more often than not…”   Luke

17.   “… Before taking this course I was unaware of the multitude of possibilities of incorporating YA literature into a classroom.  To be even more honest, I was unaware of the benefits YA literature afforded young adults.   However, by coming to understand the various levels of reading, learning that not all YA novels need to be considered great, and by being given traits to look for in good novels, as well as reading and hearing many presentations on how to incorporate YA novels in a classroom, and by being introduced to many resources, I now more clearly understand their importance and merits.  No classroom is complete now without incorporating YA literature.  If more educators understood the benefits of incorporating YA literature in class, more lifelong readers would come from their classrooms…”   Natalie

18.   “One way to alleviate this sorry situation [aliteracy] is to supplement young adults’reading lists, either in or out of the classroom, with YA literature.  Contrary to common misconceptions, not all YA books are about vampires, gossip, and romance – not all YA books that do have those features lack depth.  YA literature often contains similar themes to those found in the literary canon, presents a wider variety of diverse and inclusive perspectives, stars protagonists of similar age or sensibilities to young adult readers, and provides a safe avenue for vicariously gaining new experiences.  If young adult readers find the subject matter or characters in a book compelling and connect to the story, they are more likely to be interested in continuing reading.

​In fact, good YA literature can bridge a gap between the surface-level simplicity of Winnie the Pooh and the surface-level complexity of Jane Eyre, preparing young adults not only for the increased complexity and critical analysis of adult literature, but also for the increased complexity and critical analysis of their rapidly-approaching development of adult lives.  In their book, Literature for Today’s Young Adults, authors Alleen Nilsen and Kenneth Donelson posit that good YA literature contains protagonists who reflect teen readers’ experiences or ‘go beyond experiences so that readers can use the fictional experiences to learn and develop in their own lives.’  Through these characters and their stories, young adult readers can form their stances on their identities and ethics, learning such concepts as love, death, life, fear, courage, depression, hope, self-expression, and human relations.  Although the protagonists of YA literature tend to be teen themselves, the depth of themes and variety of perspectives provided in YA literature are universal and readers of any age or background can find entertainment and wisdom in these stories…”   Nichelle

19.   “…As a final point to be made on why there is so much value in YA literature, I’m currently 23 years old, not old by any stretch, but my days of being high-school aged are far behind me.  Even so, many of the books I’ve read for this class will stick with me for many years.  Moments like the heart-drop feeling I felt when Mong decides to walk into the cold morning ocean in We Were Here, the frustrations I feel alongside Melinda when she tries to process all that’s happened to her since her rape, and my relief when she finally speaks up about it in Speak, or even my reaction to how the story arch of John Paul Jones ends in Whale Talk.  Moments in these ‘simple books for kids’ that will remain with me for a long time to come.  There’s so much power here.  It would be a shame to simply write them off, as many do.”  Eduardo

20.   “…YA literature can be paired with canonical literature.  For example, We Were Here by Matt de la Peña can certainly be paired with Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck who is considered a canonical writer in American literature; both novels depict similar narratives and themes of friendship and rejection.  de la Peña’s novel is set in a more modern time and has colloquial language that is more engaging for teens.   The themes in de la Peña’s are rather mature and students can take more meaningful lessons from the book because they can be more engaged with the text.  Steinbeck’s novel takes place in a rural setting and is a narrative regarding the plight of migrant farm workers during the Great Depression and is not something to which most, if not all high school students can relate.  The power and effectiveness of reading YA literature is that it embodies the same themes as canonical literature, but at the same time engages the average reluctant teen reader…”   Anton

21.   “…Both examples [The Princess Diaries and Speak] I have used are from the Contemporary Realistic Fiction genre, but that does not mean the other YA novels are any less worthy of being covered in a course.  According to Literature for Today’s Young Adults, the most successful YA novels deal with emotion that are important to young adults.  Marc Aronson says that what makes realistic novels succeed is their level of intimacy: ‘Does a book have the potential to touch readers so deeply that, in the struggle with it, they begin to see and shape themselves?’  This is important, this is something that needs to be noticed and shared.  This is what the point of YA literature is all about.  And even long past the age of ‘young adult,’ even years after my issues were resolved, books like these spoke to me on a level no other book has.  Books like these – ones which speak to people on such a deep level -- need to be taught to people even at the university level because it [YA literature] is something that can help others identify with and understand young adults, but also better understand who they were as young adults.   Caitlin

22.   “YA literature is salient in young adults’ overall growth into contributing adults.  The many novels in the genre cover a wide array of themes but, most importantly, they instill two key qualities of confidence and understanding identity.  Reading at any early age sets youth up with tools to succeed in life – giving them a chance at conquering real life issues before they arise.  The inclusion of YA literature will allow these future leaders to have a grasp on the world – an understanding that allows them to be better prepared as friends, parents, and innovators.  YA literature is as diverse as the readers and the lives they live, making it an effective genre to instill life values that are fundamental to social advancement.  Furthermore, the incorporation of YA literature allows for safe experimentation of young adults through the eyes of characters, giving them an edge in the understanding of the world.  In other words, YA is seminal and the reason for this is simple: the novels in the genre do more than tell the stories of fantastical lands, familial drama, and love stories; they give teens a better understanding of the world through something that is relevant to them – a story that is relatable. YA literature gives teens a chance to mentally and spiritually develop into strong, independent, and contributing adults to the world they live in, and that alone is reason enough to include it in English courses across the educational sector.   Jordan

23.   “…A particular instance in Speak that highlights the insight it has to offer young adults comes on page 122:
                  Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar.  It makes you gag…
                  The next time you work on your tree, don’t think about trees.  Think about
                  love, or hate, or joy, or rage – whatever makes you feel something, makes your
                  palms sweat or your toes curl.  Focus on that feeling.  When people don’t express
                  themselves, they die one piece at a time. You’d be shocked at how many adults
                  are really dead inside…
This quote is representative of the book in the way that it expresses the true depth in theme that Speak covers.  Many students can and will be impassioned by this kind of insight as it is presented in a way that is clear, concise, and not fogged over with flowery language or content to which teens can’t relate.  Young people are in a constant state of finding themselves, and Speak offers a tremendous amount of guidance within its themes.
      In addition to Speak’s relatability to teens on a personal level, it has huge potential to be paired successfully with traditional canonical works of literature.  The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a wonderful potential pairing with Speak.  Not only is The Scarlet Letter referenced in the book, Speak, the main characters of each story, Melinda and Hester have common trials that they each go through.  One particular commonality between Hester and Melinda is the fact that each of them has been harshly judged by the society around them.  Hester is branded as an immoral adulteress, and Melinda is viewed as a reject and troublemaker, both of these labels unfair and incorrect of each protagonist…”                   Annie

24.   “…Another book that has multiple themes for young adults is We Were Here by Mattde la Peña.  This book not only covers identity, but guilt, friendship, and family as well.  Twenty-five percent of adults choose not to read – and the protagonist of this story, Miguel, is one who goes against those numbers.  He is a kid that is sent to juvenile hall for accidentally killing his brother, and then [to] a group home, but in his introduction he states that he loves to read, ‘I even read some on my own, though I never let my bro catch me…So I might as well read a damn book, you know?’ (37-38) Miguel tries to make it seem like he does not think reading is cool, but in actuality he loves doing it and makes it a point to try and read every book in the group home by the time he is out.  The fact that he is in a group home and still loves to read even though the kids make fun of him shows that he has decided to be his own person and not let the judgment of others influence him.  This is important for students because there is a lot of pressure on students to do or not do certain activities because of the judgment that may be passed on them; reading is one of them.  As Miguel says in We Were Here, ‘Trust me, where we’re from it ain’t cool to read no book unless some teacher’s making you’ (38).  Many young adults might also feel this way, but having a fictional character that they can relate to might ease their comfort a little bit and reassure them that being their own person with their own decisions is okay…
 
      The value of YA literature is underappreciated by most, as I would personally know.  Coming to this class I was unaware of just how crucial it was for young adults to be exposed to this literature; but leaving, I would like to go out and promote its value.  If I do go into teaching, I will incorporate not only YA literature into my curriculum, but also probably teach [or use] some of the books that we have read in class.  The value is in the personal connections with the readers as well as the necessity to think critically -- YA does both.  It deserves a place in English courses at both the high school and university level because the themes are relevant to all ages, but especially [to] those in high school.  I know personally that I did not connect with the literature that was assigned in high school because it did not relate to me; but YA literature does – it has characters and themes that almost all can relate to because they are so real and have real-life problems.  For this, it deserves to be in the literary canon and is vital for the teen reader.”   Randi

One of the great joys of hosting Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday is working with great people who work tirelessly to teach adolescents and promote, study, and critique young adult literature. This week we have a special Friday edition contributed by Stacy Graber. She a faculty member in the English Department of Youngstown State University, a proud graduate of Arizona State University, and contributed twice in the past. You can find those posts here and here. This week Stacy discusses books that were written for adults, but might easily have been YA. This is a topic that many of discuss frequently and Stacy adds to the conversation. Thank you Stacy.

As all parents do, I used to play games to occupy my son on car rides that seemed interminable by a kid’s internal GPS, and one of the games was “5 of…” which gave my son a mental workout and offered me an opportunity to do one of my favorite things: make lists.  In retrospect, maybe it was a fetishization of categories, a transparent celebration of order, Linnaeus-style.  The game went like this: Name 5 kinds of trees, spices, fish, etc.  I happily sorted the world into groups of five examples and I created lighter quiz questions for the kid like, name 5 states, rivers, or musical instruments.  We amused ourselves that way on the 50 minute drive to the high school where I worked at the time, unless there was a rainstorm, in which case we pretended we were gods who could stop the downpour at will by commanding the heavens at the exact moment when driving under an overpass.

I was thinking about the 5 of… game while driving along the 224, the main artery between the cities of Canfield and Poland in Northeastern Ohio.  The drive can be tedious unless you create little challenges for yourself like arranging the world in categories by attributes.  On this occasion, I asked a work-related question that I resolved to answer in the time it took to drive past the wild bird feed store: Name 5 titles of books written for an adult audience that might have been dually categorized as young adult literature, but were published before the extreme moment of popularity of the genre.
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Now, we might debate over the definitional criteria for the task, but I believe that I have arrived at four serious contenders for such a list based on specific aspects of appeal for adolescent readers, and I invited a few of my colleagues from the English Department at Youngstown State University to supply a fifth title. 

​#1: John Updike, The Centaur (1962).  This dreamy mash-up of mythology and small town, ethnographic lore features a high school science teacher who imagines he is Chiron the Centaur.  In chapter one, the Golden Age tutor to Achilles/Pennsylvania pedagogue has taken an arrow to the fetlock/ankle, and he listens to the clatter of his hooves on school linoleum.  The fantastic drama of the opening scene establishes the seamless drift between the imagined and real lives lived by a father and his 15 year old son.  This book reads like YAL primarily due to the passages in which Peter, the Centaur’s son, painfully describes his embarrassment over his father’s idiosyncratic antics and suffers the catalogue of personal failures his father recites throughout the text.  At the same time, the description of Peter’s skin condition (psoriasis), which seemingly prevents him from being the Byronic hero of his own life, is rendered so authentically that the reader understands well what it feels like to be branded an outcast by school kids for physical difference.  

​#2: Paul Theroux, The Mosquito Coast (1982).  Another text featuring a father-son conflict, this book pits 14 year old Charlie Fox against his frustrated, visionary, and unrelenting father who transports his family to Honduras in search of a haven from materialism and utopia inaccessible in capitalistic America.  The book is intensely allusive, in constant conversation with classic texts such as Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, and Lord of the Flies.  And, though many critics read the father’s character as a gigantic whacko, his critiques sound with meaning for this reader raised on the writing of John Berger, and for young Charlie who wants to believe in his dad’s potential to humanistically remake the world.  Kids would appreciate the way the book weaves energetically between genres: bildungsroman, horror, and travelogue.  Furthermore, birds haven’t looked so scary since Hitchcock, and they loom menacingly throughout the text as the ill-omened “scavengers” (Theroux, 1982) materialized from the father’s nightmares.  These raptors are feathered doppelgangers for the rapacious entrepreneurs and insatiable consumers the father longs to escape.   

​#3: William Wharton, Birdy (1978).  Speaking of birds… This book centralizes one of the most critical features of youth: The ability to invest so wholly and imaginatively into something (e.g., a hobby, a subject, an animal), that the world dissolves except for the fantasy life that emerges from the creative endeavor.  In Wharton’s tale, we follow a young man who kids call “Birdy” from age 13 to 17 as he becomes a hobbyist dedicated to raising canaries.  This activity rapidly develops into an obsession as it fuses with Birdy’s desire to fly, ostensibly to escape a violent and oppressive childhood on the streets of Philadelphia.  Ultimately, in the manner of Cortázar’s (1952) remarkable work of magical realism, Axolotl (full text in Spanish and English here) Birdy straddles an existence something between bird and human.  The book “hops” between the past and present with the agility of a robin (one of the author’s observations of bird-kind), as Birdy’s account is spliced with reminiscence from his childhood friend, Al Columbato, who is enlisted to bring Birdy back to reality. 

​#4: Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (1983).  This macabre, surrealistic nightmare portrait of a carnival family is paradoxically fused with a poignant, mother-daughter parallel narrative.  The Binewski brood consists of a group of children specially engineered as sideshow attractions by the Ring Master, Al Binewski, and his wife, “Crystal Lil,” a celebrated circus geek.  Braided with the ultra-violent historical account of the rivalry between the Binewski siblings, ages 10 to 18, is the present-day story of (adult) Olympia Binewski, as she attempts to protect her daughter from a psychotic frozen-food heiress with money sufficient to bankroll illicit surgeries proposed to “save” young women from the ruinous attention of men.  Although Roper (2014) attributes the book’s fascination for young people, in part, to its meta-conversation on the gifts of comic book characters, I think kids (--too often the victims of cruel social sorting) would more immediately recognize Dunn’s critique of the de-legitimization of bodies deemed “socially unacceptable.”  This book exacts a ferocious, Stephen King-like vengeance for the smug entitlement of “norms,” as most people are referred to by the Binewski children.    

As for the fifth book in the grouping, I will provide some of the titles recommended by colleagues in the Youngstown State University English Department:

Dr. Tiffany Anderson: James Baldwin (1974), If Beale Street Could Talk
Dr. Rebecca Barnhouse: Robert Heinlein (1961), Stranger in a Strange Land
Dr. Gary Salvner: Charles Dickens (1850), David Copperfield
 
My hope is that the reader of this article might (also) propose a fifth title.
Please direct all correspondence to: sgraber@ysu.edu

Hi all. This week's blog post has been provided by a connection through Georgia McBride. Georgia works tirelessly for the benefit of the reading lives of children and adolescents She is the operator of Georgia McBride Media Group (GMMG). This is the home of Month9Books, Tantrum Books, Swoon Romance, and Tantrum Jr.  This post is written by Jennifer Bardsley, one of authors in the Month9Books.

How much is too much, or not enough, when it comes to mature content in YA fiction?

Before we can answer this question, we need to ask a bigger question. Who are YA books for? Is the intended audience teens, or is it the flocks of adults who whip out their credit cards whenever Sarah J. Maas publishes a new book? Some research suggests that as many as 55% of all young adult fiction readers are adults. Teens are busy and loaded down with required reading from their teachers. It makes sense that so much of the YA market is built by adults with fewer restrictions on their lives.

When I look back at my teen years, I rarely had the opportunity to read for fun. There was always a book in my hand, but it was usually on the syllabus for an AP class. The one book I remember reading for pleasure was “Say Goodnight Gracie” by Julie Reece Deaver. I enjoyed it so muchthat it is no wonder I sought out YA fiction as soon as I was the master of my own free time.

Frankly, both posts from last week -thank you once again, Susan and Michelle-had me thinking about the value of (re)reading. Susan had me thinking about the impact of Chris Crutcher's books. People talk about binge watching a television series; well, I am pretty sure I binge read most of Crutcher's books while thinking about the students I had missed sharing these books with over the years. Michelle and I had been communicating for a couple of weeks about the chatter around 13 Reasons Why. I felt it was time to comment on the issue and was glad that Michelle was clearly up to the challenge. (Just this morning, as I finished up, I found out that Literacy and NCTE blog referenced Michelle's post extensively). As people responded to the series, I began to think more specifically about my first reading of this incredible book. I realized I wanted to reread the book more than I wanted to watch the series. With my first reading, I thought the book was an interesting study on bullying within a High School. I didn't remember thinking that Asher's narrative even remotely glamorized suicide, any more than MacBeth glamorizes mass murder.

What I did want to do was reread the book in order to rethink my perspective on this narrative. There are books I think about reading all of the time. Some I consider teaching every time I design a course. Some I think about just because memory of reading the book is so powerful. Many people consider one of the marks of great literature is it stands up over multiple readings. I think it is also a sign of great YA literature as well. I love the books that keep resurfacing in my mind. I find I have created a list of books to revisit by putting them together on a shelf. Of course, as a YA scholar I am reading new stuff all of the time, but some books just stay in the back of my mind begging to be revisited. I still have favorites from my childhood, Berries Goodman, The Secret Garden,  A Wrinkle in Time, and Henry Huggins Jump to mind. These books and many others shaped my life as a reader. I hope we don't criticize kids who we find rereading their favorite books over and over again. Nobody was ever hurt by multiple readings of Harriet the Spy or To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact, they probably gained a great deal.

YA is a bit different than the classics. Those of us that study the field understand that in many ways the field is still trying to claim its legitimate place in the academy.  As a preservice teacher I read some of the early books in the history of YA--The Outsiders and The Contender, but I spent too much time focusing on the classics. Not that the classics don't have their place and that some students didn't love them; they did. The problem is that I missed the chance to usher in quite a few more kids into the reading habit. I needed a big dose of influence from the book pusher, Susan James 30 years ago. For the past 15 years, I have been immersed in YA fiction. 
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I have been think about rereading as a point of academic research since I was in graduate school. That is a post for another time, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out a few texts that discuss this if you are interested. The three I selected are: first, Matei Calinescu's Reading is the most academic; second, Particia Meyer Spack's reflects on her own reading history in On Reading; Last, Anne Fadiman has a edited volume, Readings, in which 17 academics  revisit a favorite text.

Only one of the four books is an award winner. I readily argue that many great books don't get awards. The three above are prime examples. They have great themes, characters, and narrative style. At the same time, I try very hard to keep up with the major YA awards. I try to read the short list and talk about these awards with students, teachers, and colleagues. While I contemplated rereading I thought about the Printz award. I decided to look at the winners and the Honor books and see if any of them begged to be reread. At first, I thought I would highlight the winner (They are grouped below in the gallery.) I was struct, however, with some of the honor books that drew my attention with a stronger pull than the winners. Don't get me wrong, I think these five books are fantastic. It will be a long time before I forget the impact of Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun--it might never happen. March: Book Three (John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell) was by far the run away winner in the awards category last year and I hope its powerful, visual story will be in classrooms for a long time to come. Again, any of these books are worth your time if you don't know them, so to stop and get reading. I think these particular five winners demand rereading.

For me, the real joy of this exploration into rereading and staying within the last five years of the Printz Award has been how some of the Honor books drew my attention and reminded me of the joy of reading. In some years, I could have easily picked a couple of books. For the purpose of this exercise I decided to pick just one from each year. In all honesty, these five books are books I love. Even though they are relatively new, I have taught several of them and have already read three of them more than once. Most don't need my introduction, the reviews are glowing and most of them are amazingly popular; yet they are of remarkable literary quality.

In my mind there is nothing not to love about Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. It reminded me of the importance and power of my adolescent friendships. Regardless of your sexual orientation I think the book will motivate you to reach out to old friends. 

Some of you know that I think about YA literature and its strong connection to music. (Yes, I promised to archive more of that on separate page in the blog. It is started, but there is more to do.) There is still a great deal to say and write about Rowell's Eleanor and Park. The love story is wonderful. The focus on race and class is compelling, but the cover slays me every time I see it. Music connects me to memories. Hearing Edwin Star's War throws me right back into the middle of a high school assembly. Listening to James Brown's Get on the Good Foot, reminds me that I used to dance like nobody was watching. Maybe we all need to re-listen to The Temptations sing Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today). I love how Rowell captures these two characters connecting through music.  

I am quite sure that finding Kurt Vonnegut kept me sane in college. His books helped to remind me to think deeply and question the status quo even as I feel in love with the classics. For me, Vonnegut follows Twain and Smith follows Vonnegut. I genuinely feel that we are living in an absurd time. Thank goodness Smith has provided us with something like Grasshopper Jungle.

I could talk about how Ashley Hope Pérez's Out of Darkness is great historical fiction about race, class, and gender, but what you really need to know is that it is beautiful.

My final pick is one of my most recent reads. It has only been a few weeks since I finished Nicola Yoon's The Sun is Also a Star. I love the frame of a story told in a single day. The narrative bounces back and forth between the two main characters. The ending was surprising and wonderful.

I hope you have favorites, like I do.  Which books to you love to return to over and over again? I would love to hear about them. If you know these books, let me know if they would be on your list of books to read again. If you don't know them, well, you now have some more books to add to your summer reading list.

Like many of you, I have been following the media buzz around 13 Reason Why as it was realized as a series on Netflix. I was surprised how people and commentators tended to turn on the story. I don't think this happened during the first few years of the novel's appearance in 2007 or in July 2011 when the paperback edition climbed to number one on The New York Time best-seller list. Social media was buzzing and, frankly, for me it was a bit confusing. In fact, the author has gone out of his way to advocate against bullying and its results. A quick check at his website reminds us that he conducted an anti bullying campaign, making a stop in all 50 states.  When I noticed that a colleague and fellow graduate for The University of Georgia Ph.D in Literacy Education, Michelle Falter, had posted a comment, I asked her to address this issue in a guest post. Thanks Michelle for providing a thoughtful post that includes student voices.

What I am about to say is not a popular opinion. And, I am okay with that. After spending the last two weeks reading the same narrative in social media, I felt compelled to offer a different perspective on the young adult novel and the subsequent Netflix series 13 Reasons Why that has been getting a lot of pushback and negative criticism. I can offer this perspective both as an English teacher of adolescents, and as someone who has firsthand experience with depression. I can offer my perspective as someone who has read and taught the book and now also viewed the entire Netflix series. Note: there are some spoilers…

Let me first acknowledge that I am someone who suffers from depression. I have not shied away from letting other people know this about me. In my 20s I was diagnosed, and I have, for the last 15 years, been treated off and on for the symptoms of depression and anxiety. When diagnosed for the first time, it was fairly clear to my psychologist that I most likely was suffering from depression as a teenager and was undiagnosed. Emotionally and mentally, middle and high school was hard for me, although I didn’t fully understand why. Despite having supportive parents, making good grades, and having friends, I was not okay. I sure was good at faking it though.

I choose to disclose this about myself because this is part of a larger systemic issue around mental health and illness—people 1) are afraid to talk about it 2) don’t want to talk about it or 3) are shamed when they talk about. So, then, conversations do not happen. Dialogue is not started. Thus, understanding is not happening. It can’t happen. And, I don’t want to be a part of a social construct that supports the silencing of my life, my narrative, because it is an uneasy topic. My role in the academy, as an assistant professor of English Education, I feel, affords me that privilege to speak on behalf of those who cannot. So, I talk about it. When we are afraid to talk about these issues, all people suffer. For me, mental health and support for mental illness is a social justice issue, and I have written about it before. Like other social justice topics, talking about it is uncomfortable. People do not know what to say or how to act. They sometimes say stupid, uninformed, or hurtful things. Even my own parents, who I love dearly, do not always understand how my depression operates within my life. 

Okay, so now that I have acknowledged this, let’s talk about 13 Reasons Why and why we should not just dismiss this book or TV series. While I certainly will not dismiss the real concern that psychologists and mental health professionals have issued around the graphic nature and potential for the series to trigger people (as I think this is a valid concern), I will push back on the idea that because of this we (parents, children, teenagers, schools, teachers, students, etc.) should not watch it or read it. I think this would be a huge mistake and waste. The story of Hannah Baker and the tapes she leaves for her classmates is a fictional story. Let’s remember that first and foremost. It is not real. But, despite its fictional storyline, it is one in which millions of teens can and do relate to on a daily basis. The backlash against this series demonstrates to me that a lot of people, with good intentions, are either blind, unaware, or willfully ignorant about what is happening in their children’s, friend’s, or student’s lives. And, this is so completely ironic because that is kind of the whole point of Jay Asher’s young adult novel.
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When I first read that people felt the series (and book) glamorized suicide, I am pretty sure that you would have seen a confused look on my face. I have read this critique over and over on just about every news outlet and magazine. I thought to myself, “Are we watching or reading the same thing?” I have several issues with this characterization. One, the story is not about suicide. The story is one of bullying and the consequences of our actions whether we are aware of them or not. This is also not a story of revenge. I lot of people argue that Hannah Baker’s tapes are a twisted fantasy of getting back at those who hurt her. However, if we think about the story from a literature perspective, we can see that the tapes are just a plot device tool that Jay Asher has used within the story to provide a narrative thread and to keep suspense. In order for it to be revenge, one has to be able to get satisfaction, and it is impossible to do so when one is dead. The Netflix series also does not shy away from the horror of suicide. And it is stated throughout the series (and in the book) that it is Hannah’s choice and hers alone to commit this act. This act has devastating consequences on all that knew her. Neglecting to hear that or gloss over this fact leads to believing her suicide and cassette tapes as potentially a fantasy. But, the final death scene is not fantastical. When Hannah slits her wrists, it is horrific. It is not pretty. It is real. It hurts. It is depicted this way on purpose.

​Even if I did think (which I do not) that this piece glamorizes suicide, and therefore should not be watched or read, then we need to do some serious examination of ourselves and why we feel 13 Reasons Why  is more damaging than the suicides in Shakepeare’s Romeo and Juliet? One might claim that when you read the story it isn’t as real or vivid or visceral. But most middle and high school students at least see clips from Baz Luhrmann’s film adaptation in conjunction with reading the play. In the movie, we see Romeo, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Juliet, played by Claire Danes, in one of the most glamorous and beautiful death scenes I have ever witnessed. 

Or even Edna Pontellier’s death, in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, which also might be considered a glamorous, or at least calm and inviting, suicide scene. She simply walks into the water and Chopin describes it with beautiful prose: “How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known. The foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out. The water was chill, but she walked on. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
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Why do I bring up these classic texts and the strong graphic representations within them? To make a point. Young Adult literature is often thrown under the bus as overly sentimental, overly controversial, overly ________ (insert any negative word here). Yet, classic literature inhabits all of those same qualities without the uproar. And, the movies that stem from them are afforded that same positive view too. I am not, and let me be clear, suggesting we stop teaching any of these aforementioned critically acclaimed texts. I am suggesting, however, that we reframe our view of what 13 Reasons Why is.  It is a tragedy. It is in the genre of tragedy, just as much as the plays and stories I just described. We do not consider the canonical texts or films as glamorous stories of suicides because that is not what the stories are about. Neither is 13 Reasons Why.

When I read the negative or cautious reviews of the series, I also worry about the false correlation and conclusion people are drawing between the show and what is happening in real life. Three days ago, on one of my area’s major news websites, it was reported that since the debut of 13 Reasons Why, calls into Raleigh's suicide prevention hotline nearly tripled. Here is the problem with this correlation. There is an assumption here that people have become more suicidal because of the television show. However, what this number is actually indicating is that more teens are using helplines and resources after this show has aired than before it aired. This is not something to be scared about. This is absolutely something to celebrate! More kids are getting help, rather than silently and individually attempting to deal with their problems and potentially making an irreversible and life-ending decision. Rather than issuing statements to parents telling them that schools do not recommend students watch this Netflix series (see this letter from my local school district as one of many examples), I firmly believe that instead we should be watching this series in school, with English teachers and counselors together. We need to first investigate this series as an extension of the novel itself, and talk about it as a literary piece with literary conventions to promote a particular message. Using critical analysis skills, we can see that Hannah Baker is a flawed character. That suicide was a poor choice. By having guidance counselors as co-teachers of the novel, we can have real conversations about the events depicted, which include drug use, alcohol, rumors, social media, bullying, depression, rape, and yes…suicide. 

​We need to be brave. Braver than we ever have been. Brave because our students are braver than us, and are ready to talk about these things. Kids will be watching this Netflix series with or without their parents. They will. And we can either ignore this, or we can acknowledge it.  As parents, as teachers, as friends, we can and MUST have these conversations about the topics this book/series presents. Parent, educator, filmmaker, and social worker, Nina Rabhan, offers 13 insightful questions, in her review, as a starting place for this dialogue. We also need to give a little bit more credit to kids. As a middle and high school English teacher, I have witnessed my students tackle all sorts of difficult topics in my classroom as we read literature. I have put into their hands hundreds and thousands of stories over the years that some might consider too difficult, too controversial, or too “adult.” But, you know what? I have never had a kid come back to me and say, I can’t handle this. Usually, they want to talk to me about the book. And I leave my door and my ears open to doing this. Suicide and depression are still very much taboo topics. But, as someone who has been treated for depression, I know firsthand how important it is that teens have a place to talk about it. Literature and film can be a powerful springboard to do so, if we rise to occasion, and answer the wakeup call. If it isn’t 13 Reasons Why, then there are many other Young Adult texts that might also be used to present the same topics to our youth. Some that have similar content to 13 Reasons Why include: All the Bright Places by Sara Niven, I was Here by Gayle Foreman, My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand, The Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff,
Falling into Place, by Amy Zhang, By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters, and Hold Still by Nina LaCour.

As I end this post, I want to draw on the reviews of adolescents who have read and watched 13 Reasons Why because, honestly, I am most interested in what they think.  Missing from the mainstream media’s response are their voices. Although, I just found one recent high school student’s excellent review here speaking back to the critiques. I have also not heard from English teachers in the media either who have successfully taught this book and had powerful conversations about it and the Netflix series. I urge my English teacher family to share these positive stories, because they need to be heard just as loudly as the critics. But, I want you to read firsthand what kids have to say, and let it sink in.  These quotes, and many more, are taken from Common Sense Media’s page. As an interesting aside: If you haven’t used their webpage before, I would point out that the kid reviews are almost always more insightful and positive than the adult/parent ones.

I close this post with some thoughtful commentary by another highly acclaimed Young Adult author, Jacqueline Woodson. As I attended a local book talk that she was having at one of our independent book stores this past fall in Raleigh, NC, I asked her about the advice she would give to teachers who were afraid to tackle tough topics in their classroom. She offered three pieces of wisdom that I think apply here. Here is a summary of her response: 

1. There is no such thing as tough topics-- just real topics that happen to real people.
2. Never assume that you don't have students in your classroom who haven't experienced these real issues or don't know people that have.
3. You have to confront your own issues about race, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status, mental health etc. before you can begin to open up your classroom to the world of others.

It’s time we start becoming comfortable with our own discomfort. It’s too important to just put our blinders on.

Need to talk?
Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) anytime if you are in the United States. It’s free and confidential.
Find more resources at http://13reasonswhy.info
Find out how you can help someone in crisis at http://www.bethe1to.com

​Michelle M. Falter is an Assistant Professor of English Education in the department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Previously, Michelle worked for over 15 years as a middle and high school English teacher both in Wisconsin, and abroad in Germany and the Dominican Republic, and also as a high school instructional coach in Georgia. Michelle’s scholarship focuses on the role of emotion in the English classroom, and helping educators co-construct knowledge with their students using participatory, critical, and dialogical teaching practices. Michelle can be contacted at mfalter@ncsu.edu or on twitter @MFalterPhD.

This week we have another guest contributor, Dr. Susan James. In many circles she is known as the Book Dealer. Like many of us, she continues to do her work in the face of family challenges. We do our work, don't we? We love kids, teachers and librarians and so we move forward. We talk about books and how to use them in the classroom. Take it away Susan.

Early this morning, after a night of tossing and turning in my bed, anxious to get a report on his condition, I walked into my father's hospital room. Just a few days before, he endured a life-threatening surgery. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or divine intervention, but upon first glance, I looked toward the small glow of light in the corner of the room; and there I saw a figure that appeared to be a tow-headed angel sitting in an over-sized recliner, book in hand.

After blinking my eyes to clear the morning out of them, I realized the young lady was my father's caregiver who had been assigned to stay with him during the night hours. Once I saw my dad was peacefully sleeping, I introduced myself to the young lady and, nodding in the direction of her book, asked her what she was reading? I shared the story of how one of my students honored me with the name "The Book Dealer," due to my ability to entice young adults to read. Her eyes lit up as we talked about our all-time favorite reads. This was a welcomed respite from the stress of my father's illness, as the conversation was about my all-time favorite topic: Young Adult (YA) Literature (lit).

Our common interest instantly bonded us, and similar to life-long friends, we sat close to each other and whispered our secrets about what reading means to us. I relayed the story of how just that week I was certain my dad's neurosurgeon was the right surgeon due to the book I was reading. In The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (a book I should add was "dealt" to me by my friend, Dr. Patricia Wacholz) a sentence caught my eye. "A doctor without love is just a mechanic." I thought about my father's doctor and the inordinate amount of time spent with my family and the compassion he demonstrated, and I knew he was the one we would entrust to operate on my dad. As I relayed this story to Melodee, the nursing student, she wrote down the title of the book and asked for other recommendations. We talked about all we had learned from reading, and she, too, believes in the important life lessons learned through YA lit. She shared with me how YA lit was the 'rock' that got her through her parents' grueling divorce, and I nodded in agreement, as Chris Crutcher's Period 8 was the book that opened my eyes to another view on the topic of divorce and relationships.

This kindred conversation reminded me of the thousands of "people" I have "met" through YA lit and the many lessons I have learned through these characters. I kept thinking about the all-important "P" word that I mention in almost every one of my lectures: PURPOSE. In both reading and life, PURPOSE is critical in terms of successful navigation of barriers. Purpose helps us stay focused. Looking for that purpose in the form of lessons learned, YA lit can be the best medicine for what ails us, as it feels good to know there are others (albeit fictional characters) who face adversity and survive it.

My initial list of recommended reads was at first miles long, so I tried to limit it by some of the most important lessons learned within my recent reads. This is by no means a complete list, as what I have learned through reading YA lit outweighs knowledge gained through hard experience.

When I first was "dealt" this book by Matt de le Pena (Newbery award-winning author of Last Stop on Market Street and author of many amazing YA books), I truly wondered how a fictional book about a fox could be one of Matt's top picks.  Well, Matt was right.  This amazing story about a young boy named Peter and his pet fox named Pax is now one my all-time favorites.

Although there are many lessons Pax teaches  that can be applied to our lives, the one that resonated most with me was the scene between Peter and a war veteran named Vola.  As Peter journeys to find Pax, he stumbles upon a safe shelter at Vola's house.  The time he spends with her is mutually benefiting, as Peter learns as much from her as she does form him.  Peter tells her about the Rising Phoenix, a story told to him by his deceased mother.  His story reminds us that no matter how difficult life gets, we can rise up from the ashes.

I have witnessed first hand the impact this book has on people, as I read parts of it to my college students, and there wasn't a dry eye in the room!

Lesson learned: Life is not easy, but we can always pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and find a newer, stronger version of ourselves!

Facebook has been such a gift to me as The Book Dealer because I am able to see what my friends are reading.  My media specialist friend, Jennifer Close, moved to Colorado, but I still follow what she is currently stacking on her bedside table.  When I read her review, I thought my adopted teen daughter, Elena, and I could read it together, thing Elena would gain a lot form reading about a girl who, just like her, does not know about her early life.

In this heartwarming tale, the main character, Heidi, is the child of a mentally disabled woman.  Her mother possesses a vocabulary limited to 23 words, so trying to find answers to her life proves to be a challenge.  A new phrase spoken by her mother and an old roll of film leads Heidi across country in search of the truth.  What she finds is not what was expected, as Heidi discovers sometimes family is not necessarily comprised of only blood relatives.

Lesson(s) learned: Home is where the heart is!  Can anyone guess who learned more from this book (the teen or the mom)?  Yes, I did!  Although Elena received the message of the book loud and clear, I think I learned more, as I now better realize the pain of not knowing your childhood history.  I have taught countless teens who did not know their parents, and this made me understand their feelings, as well as giving me a new appreciation of what my own daughter feels.

I cannot say enough about this remarkable book. There is something comforting in reading about others who are searching for answers and their "purpose" in life. In this story, three vastly different young girls help one another to solve the problems in their lives. Within the first few pages of the book, the reader actually feels the pain of the main character, as it is revealed that,"Raymie Clark was without a father.... Sometime the pain in her heart made her feel too terrified to go on. Sometimes it made her want to drop to her knew. But then she would remember that she had a plan." The reader realizes this young girl holds the weight of the world on her shoulders, yet she finds comfort in devising a plan to remedy her situation to end her pain.

Lesson(s) learned: Life's challenges are much easier when friends are there to help. Also, dealing with life's challenges often supports one in finding purpose, or, as Raymie learns, just life the famous nurse Florence Nightingale, we need to help others who have "...fallen on the battlefield of life." No truer words have ever been spoken. If we all helped one another life the three characters in this book, the world would not have so much turmoil.

For Older Readers
Although my first three choices will be loved by all ages, as the Book Dealer who has always dealt to an audience of high school students, I would be remiss if I didn't select YA books that are geared towards older readers.  With so much buzz around Jay Asher's book 13 Reasons Why,  I have had various talks with adults and young people alike about the impact of this book on their thinking regarding the crisis in our schools related to bullying.  Asher's book generated a lot of talk in my high school classroom back in 2009.  Also, it spurred debate among the English faculty, as many of the teachers felt the topic of suicide should be off limits for teachers of high schoolers.  What I am finding in 2017 is a shift in thinking, as just today I was part of a discussion with several parents who claimed that the Netflix series of Asher's book opened up discussions with their teens about what constitutes bullying and whose responsibility it is to make sure it does not happen.  The talk of bystanders actually being a guilty party to bullying, as well as what to do when a friend or peer is depressed has been "trending" on Facebook and other social media outlets.  One of my friends stated, "My fear is for those [students] who don't or won't discuss these topics with their parents or adults."  Other comments suggest this books should be a core read for all high school students.

As promised, I want to share some new releases from the past year, and there was one book I have read this year related to depression/suicide that has, just like 13 Reasons Why, haunted me long after finishing it:

Theodore and Violet are two teens who run in completely different circles, but what they share is depression.  One is dealing with the loss of a sibling, while the other is from a home of divorced parents, one of which is abusive.  Surprisingly, one of these characters saves the other from jumping from the bell tower at school in a desperate attempt to end the pain.  From this point on, these two characters fall in love and work as a couple to attempt to end their individual pains. 

Lesson(s) learned: To prevent any "spoilers," suffice it to say, this book does not end on a happy note, but what is readily apparent is depression is not a one-size-fits-all disease.  From the first time in my 50-year-life, an author was able to capture this in a way that I understood completely.  Just as we are all individuals, depression is different for each person.  This is a lesson learned that I feel could truly save lives.  Too many times we THINK we understand how others feel when depressed, when in reality, we don't.  Sometimes we need roe help form professionals in the field than we are able to give each other. 

So, although I tried to include my latest reads, Chris Crutcher's work kept coming back to my mind.  First of all, his book Whale Talk was the first "real" YA book I ever read, and it was "dealt" to me by my book dealer, Kathie Fitch.  Kathie was also the media specialist who taught me the all-important lesson of allowing my young adult students to CHOOSE books for themselves, versus teaching one class novel (the one single lesson that created countless readers in my class).

From the adopted bi-racial TJ (Whale Talk) to the tries-to-always-be-truthful Paulie (Period 8), each one of Crutcher's characters is real.  Crutcher gives an honest view (which is sadly often not appreciated by parents and whose books are often listed on the banned book list), Crutcher blazed the trail for others to create characters that are not only "real" but characters who make our youngsters feel "normal."  Additionally, these characters create empathy in our youth, which, in my mind, is probably the most important reason why teachers should allow choice in YA lit.

I am including two of his books for personal reasons, and one due to the immense impact it made on my high school students.  All three stories are wrapped up tightly in sports, as TJ (Whale Talk) is a naturally talented swimmer who finds he has more of a purpose in life than winning.  His people skills are put to good use when he becomes the leader of a group of swimmers who are misfits, as well as his after-school hours spent working with youngsters who are in need of a strong mentor.  Ben struggles with being told he has a fatal illness, so he spends his senior year working through his bucket list, which includes being the best 122 lb. football player he can be.  Period 8 takes the reader back to the water, as the swimmer Paulie Baum wrestles with the lifelong, almost unanswerable question of the importance of honesty at all costs (even if it hurts).  These stories always appealed to my teen students, especially drawing in young males, as Crutcher's sports-action scenes are captivating even to the most reluctant reader.

• Lesson(s) learned: Whale Talk opened my eyes to those students in my class who were seen as outcasts to others.  I always loved each one of my students, but I never stopped to think about how those students felt in relation to their peers.  This book holds a special place in my heart not only because it was my first glimpse into YA lit., but because it made me see into the life of such characters as TJ and young Heidi, the little girl in the book who tries to scrub the color form her skin with a bristle brush in order that her daddy would love her.  The relationships built in this book are more important today than they were when Crutcher wrote it, as it delves into the values of humanity, and how we are all people, no matter what our background, and we should all be treated with respect. 

Lesson(s) learned: Deadline is the one book that I can truly say affected my students so deeply I saw tears (both genders), but in true Crutcher fashion, it inspired my students to think about what each person can do to make the world a better place.  It is never too late in life to make a difference.  Ben Wolf is the poster child for this fact. 

Lesson(s) learned: Period 8 was a book that helped me through the most difficult time in my life.  I come from a family that does NOT consider divorce an option, so when I went through this time in life, Crutcher's characters provided multiple viewpoints, which helped me to see that there are three sides to every relationship story (his side, her side, and the truth), and in order to grow, it is important to step outside ourselves to try and understand others.

What I hope readers will gain from this blog is all that was learned from just five (well, five plus) books.  What is important is to TALK BOOKS and share the joy of reading with others.  Sometimes it is in the oddest places (yes, even in a hospital) that we can learn about new books and make new friends.  Our prior experiences and differences in our backgrounds allow us to share various viewpoints on books and what each book has to offer in terms of life lessons.  These important discussions not only make us think and teach us lessons, they form connections with others.  This connection creates a wonderful community of YA Literature where people feel safe and excited enough to "deal" their favorite reads!