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Myths, Legends, and Histories: How the Printz Awards Re(Present) Racialized Stories by Dr. Ashley D. Black

9/28/2022

Dr. Ashley D. Black is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO. She teaches courses in Young Adult Literature, adolescent literacy, and writing pedagogy and is interested in Critical Whiteness Studies and racial literacy development.

Her most recent article, “Starting with the Teacher in the Mirror: Critical
Reflections on Whiteness from Past Classroom Experiences,” appeared in a spring issue of The Clear House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas.

Myths, Legends, and Histories: How the Printz Awards Re(Present) Racialized Stories by Dr. Ashley D. Black

As a teacher educator, I consider many factors when selecting texts for inclusion within my Young Adult Literature course reading list; for example, I strive to identify texts that are timely; include literary cohesive representations of YAL as a genre; consider potential for increasing students’ reading interest, engagement and motivation; and focus on inclusivity related to diverse authors and stories. Furthermore, in a saturated YA market, navigating the abundance of published texts can feel daunting, and lists like the Printz Awards provide those searching for new books a good starting point in that search. The impact of the Printz Awards can be linked to the curricular decisions teachers, teacher educators, and librarians make when selecting YA texts for instruction and/or inclusion within school and classroom libraries.

In a previous blog post in July 2020, I wrote about using summer sessions of my Young Adult Literature course to explore the Printz Award Winners. This has been a curricular move I have replicated, and returning to the same text set for several summers has deepened my analysis of both their content and sociocultural contexts. As such, I would like to use this space to share my critical content analysis (Short, 2017), which I am currently engaged in writing, on the Printz Award Winners from the last decade through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) (Jupp et. al, 2016). These lenses afford researchers the opportunity to interrupt how whiteness (defined here as a social construction, unearned privilege, and ideology/racial discourse) operates systemically and to challenge conditions of inequity.

This critical content analysis has been driven by the following research questions:

How have the authors positioned characters of color in the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?
In what ways are issues of race re(presented) within the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?

The last decade of Printz Award Winners has recognized stories from diverse authors in a variety of genres that offer YA readers the opportunity to see themselves and those unlike them in authentic ways. The list below includes the text set used for this critical content analysis.

Acavedo, Elizabeth. (2018). The poet x. New York: Harper Teen.
Boulley, A. (2021). Firekeeper’s Daughter. New York: Henry Holt.
King, A.S. (2019). Dig. New York: Dutton.
LaCour, Nina. (2017). We are okay. New York: Dutton.
Lake, Nick. (2012). In darkness. New York: Bloomsbury.
Lewis, John, et. al. (2016). March: Book three. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf.
Nayeri, D. (2020). Everything sad is untrue (A true story). New York: Levine Querido.
Nelson, Jandy. (2014). I’ll give you the sun. New York: Dial.
Ruby, Laura. (2015). Bone gap. New York: Balzer + Bray.
Sedgwick, Marcus. (2013). Midwinterblood. New York: Square Fish.

To answer the first research question (How have the authors positioned characters of color in the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?), I began by identifying the race/ethnicity of the primary characters of each text using these categorical codes: white, Black, Latinx, Native American, Middle Eastern, and other, and a summary of these codes is represented in the chart below.

I also considered the racial and ethnic representation outside and alongside the primary characters to include other characters who (1) operate in correlation to the primary character and/or (2) operate to develop the plot.

What stands out to me is that the inclusion of diverse races and ethnicities is multi-layered; while 50% of primary characters are white, the representation of characters of color represents a greater variety and inclusivity. This diverse representation also continues when considering the race and ethnicities of comprehensive characters, with the exclusion of Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick (fantasy).

These findings within themselves may not be surprising for YA readers who have noticed a shift in the last two decades towards YA texts seeking to give a voice to marginalized, othered communities. However, when addressing the second research question (In what ways are issues of race re(presented) within the Printz Award Winners from 2012-2022?), I have found a correlation between the race/ethnicity of primary characters and racialized sources of conflict.

In the chart above, I define an explicit source of conflict as one that positions racial issues at the center of the conflict for the primary character. For example, as an Iranian refugee, Daniel in Everything Sad Is Untrue (Nayeri, 2020) struggles to find acceptance from his white peers in Oklahoma. Language and cultural barriers place Daniel at the center of bullying and racism as he tries to adapt to his new surroundings.

Conversely, implicit sources of conflict are ones in which racial issues are subverted, operating as subtext. Boulley’s (2021) protagonist, Daunis, finds herself as an informant for the FBI, investigating meth production and distribution in her Ojibwe tribe. While the investigation itself is not the product of criminal injustice, it highlights the colonized history of Native cultures and the consequences that ensued.

Lastly, the not a source of conflict category represents texts in which racial issues were not a factor within the text even though diverse characters may be present. In Nelson’s (2014) I’ll Give You the Sun, Noah and Jude are white characters dealing with the death of their mother and its effects on their family. Likewise, Bone Gap (Ruby, 2015) centers on the disappearance of Roza within a supernatural Midwestern town.

A cross-analysis of race and ethnicities of primary characters alongside racialized sources of conflict reveals that for the five texts that include primary characters of color, racialized conflicts are present, both explicitly and implicitly. There is not one text within this list with a primary character of color whose central conflict that does not revolve around issues of race. Yet, for the other five texts featuring white primary characters, only one (Dig., King, 2019) contains an implicit racialized source of conflict and is a non-factor in the other four texts in this category.

These findings might lead us to ask: why are white characters immune from racialized conflict while characters of color are not? How might white character centric texts reinscribe issues of white supremacy and privilege by lacking cultural or ethnic characteristics? How do diverse representations within this text set challenge the notion of the “single story”? How might these stories, grounded within racial conflict and/or trauma, affect our students of color?

I do not have answers to these questions, but I am working through them alongside my pre-service teachers who will one day enter middle and secondary English classrooms. When they do, I hope they are able to select texts that are both challenging and comforting to their future students. I hope that they seek out authors and stories that are varied and layered and lead to deeper levels of understanding. Lastly, I hope that they interrogate award winning lists with a critical eye.

References
ALA American Library Association. (2022). The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. YALSA. https://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz
Jupp, J. C., Berry, T. R., & Lensmire, T. J. (2016). Second-wave white teacher identity studies: A review of white teacher identity literatures from 2004 through 2014. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1151-1191.
Short, K. G. (2017). “Critical content analysis as a research methodology.” In H. Johnson, J. Mathis, & K. G. Short (Eds), Critical content analysis of children’s and young adult literature: Reframing perspective (pp. 1-15). Routledge.

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Sealing in Whiteness: Williams-Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James by Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides & and Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black

9/21/2022

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Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides is Professor of English Education at Westfield State University. Her research interests include antiracist teaching in the ELA classroom through literature, the study of social class through literature, and representations of adolescence in YAL. Her recent book, co-authored with Carlin Borsheim-Black, earned AACTE’s 2022 Outstanding Book Award in Education.

Carlin Borsheim-Black, Professor of English Education at Central Michigan University, researches possibilities and challenges of antiracist teaching, especially in predominantly white spaces. Her recent book, Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students, co-authored with Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, was nominated for the Grawemeyer Award for Education.

Sealing in Whiteness: Williams-Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James by Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides & Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black

Though Rita Williams-Garcia has received extensive recognition for novels like One Crazy Summer and its two sequels, as well as Jumped, No Laughter Here, and Every Time a Rainbow Dies, far less attention has been given to her 2021 historical fiction novel, A Sitting in St. James. Our post seeks to address this gap. We do so not by discussing all the beautiful merits of this novel, but by showcasing how this slavery story, written by a Black author, cleverly depicts whiteness in many ways, but especially through the symbol of the portrait sitting.

Summary
Set in St. James Parish, Louisiana in the 1860’s, A Sitting in St. James is the story of the Guilbert family. The matriarch, Madame Sylvie Guilbert, finds herself in Louisiana after Bayard Guilbert travels to France to coerce her into marriage. Madame journeys, first to Haiti and then to America with little more than a family heirloom, a signet ring that connects her to her family’s vineyard and the social education she received as a member of the queen’s court.

After Bayard dies, Madame is left to run the struggling plantation with her son, Lucien, and his son, Byron, who is expected to marry well and produce an heir to keep the plantation viable and to carry on the family legacy. From her salon, Madame Guilbert tries desperately to hold her family to rigid social norms of polite French society--the old world--as their last best hope for marrying Byron off to a family of higher status and social standing. In 19th century Louisiana, with its complex mix of racial and socioeconomic standing among whites, slaves, free Blacks, and mixed-race people—retaining this status serves as one of the central conflicts of the novel.

A key strategy for sealing in her own and her family’s social standing is Madame’s insistence on sitting for a portrait, one the family cannot afford, that is to be completed by a French painter descended from a painter who portrayed Queen Marie Antoinette herself. We see this portraiture effort—the sitting—as a central symbol helpful for unpacking the ways in which whiteness attempts to work to seal in its power.

Symbolism
Whiteness as property. Readers are educated as to the purpose of sittings for portraits alongside Jane, Madame’s protege, the daughter of a wealthy neighbor who cannot seem to take on apt gender norms for a young lady. As Madame displays the jewelry she will wear, the way she will dress her hair for the sitting, she explains to Jane, “You see, a portrait is for eternity” (306). Comparing the sitting to an important party, Madame continues, “[W]hat happens at the party can last a lifetime, for the lifetime of the children and grandchildren to come” (307). As such, a portrait—like the complex social negotiations of 19th century formal parties—affects the social standing for current and future generations, something Madame seeks to stabilize for herself and her progeny given the family’s financial troubles.

So what is the social standing that Madame seeks to reinforce, to establish, to ensure? Her connection to the French royal court of Queen Antoinette and the social power that came with that. Her wealth, signified by the ring smuggled out with her from France. But also, in the slave-owning, plantation setting of 1860s Louisiana—and in a home where her profligate son, Lucien, seeks to introduce his mixed-race daughter, Rosalie, as a member of the family—she also seeks to seal in her whiteness and its place in the racial social hierarchy. The sitting, then, functions as a key symbol of whiteness: an opportunity to seal in racial identity and social class status onto canvas for eternity. It is one of the more valuable things she has to pass down to future generations.

Whiteness is an illusion, an invention. Racial and social status are both constructs, Madame’s social standing an illusion. The irony of the portrait is that Madame cannot afford the luxury at all. The portrait artist, Le Brun, begrudgingly agrees to do the painting as a favor to Countess Duhon, the favorite aunt of Madame’s future daughter-in-law. And Madame and Lucien know they will have to leverage what they have left to finance the purchase of the portrait.

“No one in polite society follows these practices. And when they do it, it is all for show” (425). Though Le Brun makes this statement about a different social practice, it easily works to sum up his view of her worldview as well, and even of portraiture. Le Brun is part of a group of artists who work to experiment aesthetically through portraiture, including by focusing on subjects like the Black field hands cutting cane outside, something that outrages Madame. He is aware of how Madame sees the enslaved people on her plantation and how she seeks to use the portrait strategically in society. Given his concerns about the family’s ability to pay him for his work, readers might expect some tension around the entire sitting, tension that proves satisfying in its ultimate handling.

Sitting for a portrait is an outdated practice, one that “polite”—wealthy, white, European—society used to engage in but does no longer. It was intended to offer viewers a curated view of someone powerful, often with invented details to secure the subject’s social—and often political—status.

Yes, portraits work to affect the workings of those social constructs, but ultimately, they also present artists—and viewers—and in this case, Madame’s intended audience, for an opportunity for subversion and disruption of those very social norms. And, in the hands of Williams-Garcia, this subversion works to satisfy readers’ disgust with the social norms Madame seeks to uphold.

Whiteness is a detriment to us all. Though we do not want to spoil this novel for readers, we will say that in Williams-Garcia’s hands, it is the stubborn clinging to whiteness, and its entanglements with classism, that lead to downfall. Relentless attachments to class and racial hierarchies lead to the greatest disappointments in this novel, since those willing to budge suffer far less.

To close, we want to help teachers, perhaps, guide students to understanding whiteness by suggesting they pair this novel with views of Kehinde Wiley’s subversive portraits. Teachers could juxtapose Jean-Louis David’s (1801) “Napoleon Crossing the Alps” against Wiley’s (2005) repetition of it in his “Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps.” Asking students to consider how Wiley takes up traditional features of portraiture in his image of the Black man whom he met on the street will go very nicely in a rigorous consideration of treatment across these two texts.

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YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

9/14/2022

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Roy Jackson is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in Information Sciences researching LGBTQIA+ book banning in Pennsylvania. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and traveling with his husband.

Erinn Bentley is a Professor and Program Coordinator of English education at Columbus State University, where she mentors pre-service teachers and leads study abroad programs. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

There is a massive wave of educational reform sweeping state legislatures across the nation. According to the exhaustive data Pen America has collected, over two hundred educational bills have been introduced specifically silencing educators from teaching and discussing certain topics. Thankfully, many of these bills have died, but an alarming number of states have, or will, pass ones that are concerning. Their aim is to prohibit the discussion of what certain politicians see as divisive topics. The language of these bills seems aimed at preventing students from feelings of guilt or discomfort in class. But to be clear, these bills are only meant to prevent one specific group from these feelings. That group is mostly white, straight males. Because erasure of other students does not cause them harm and discomfort. The bills specifically target discussions around CRT, LGBTQIA+, and gender issues. To educators, having uncomfortable conversations is a part of the core of education. We must take students out of comfort zones and present them with an array of issues and viewpoints to challenge and grow their worldviews.
One such topic that seems of utmost importance to explore is specific to the population these bills are seemingly trying to protect. That topic is toxic masculinity. At its most basic definition, toxic masculinity can be described as cultural pressures for boys and men to behave in a certain way. Those ways are negative. They harm themselves and others. They increase behaviors like bullying, homophobia, sexism, and racism. However, there are vast ways to present alternatives to the negativity of toxic masculinity. One way is through literature. The following books approach the topic of toxic masculinity in varied ways. They explore the root causes of them and are teaching tools to uncomfortable conversations that can lead to extraordinary positive change.

The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves

In The New David, Aceves’ protagonist is routinely bullied for his slim physique. This impacts his mental health and ability to accept himself. He is physically assaulted, regularly verbally harassed, and shamed on social media by his bully. He vows to get bigger over the summer after junior year only to fall into a group of men who are injecting illegal steroids. David begins his addiction to the gym and the drugs with the hopes of senior year starting out with revenge. But that fantasy never comes to fruition. Instead, he is shamed again by his bully who outs him for his illegal drug use and harassed and shamed on social media for this.
The novel explores layers of toxic masculinity that prey on young men. It isn’t just about what it means to not only be a man, but what a man should look like. David cannot accept himself physically. When he erroneously believes getting bigger muscles will solve his problems, the steroids come with a side effect in the form of physical violence not only to his enemy but to his family. The violence is a repetition of the toxic masculinity on an extreme level that he once faced from his bully.
The root cause of David’s toxic masculinity isn’t familial as often the case. His father is caring and supportive. Instead, it is akin to media portrayals of the male physique. It causes eating disorders and unhealthy life choices. David sees his appearance as the most important aspect to combat the abuse he endures. He doesn’t seek out adults in school or at home for help. That may be because he doesn’t see that as an option. He won’t tell anyone about the abuse as it is seen as not masculine to tell. As educators, we can meet the needs of students like David in a variety of ways and this book opens our eyes as adults to what may be lurking in the minds of young men.

Alan Cole Is Not A Coward by Eric Bell

Alan Cole’s life is one of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s father forces his sons to lie at his company dinner to make an appearance in hopes of them making him look good. An artist, Alan must hide that and instead pretend to play sports and be a real boy. The father treats his mother in a dominating, unloving manner. His older brother abuses him physically and mentally, engaging him in dangerous games he doesn’t want to play. But Alan is gay, and his brother uses that information to torment him and get him to do things he shouldn’t. The novel ends with Alan outing himself and finding self-acceptance.
Bell has crafted a very important example of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s older brother is humiliated and abused by his father, and feeling powerless, takes his abuse out on Alan. Bell shows how the power of generational influence passes toxic masculinity down from father to son, and brother to brother. As an educator, Bell presents small scenes with teachers that are powerful. Using a parent-teacher conference, Bell constructs a scene where a teacher can be an ally to their student. It is a small, but powerful moment that resonates.

Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake
Blake’s novel takes the messiness of toxic masculinity and ramps up the chaos and messiness of it even more. The protagonist, Mara, is a twin whose brother is accused of rape. Through her eyes, readers see how seemingly liberal, well-intentioned parents immediately fall into the trap of the male trope to support their son. The school seemingly doesn’t address the issue at all, even though it appears to be a school where SEL would be the normed, yet when the student who is raped comes back to school, she is met with vile shaming and words. Blake’s novel isn’t clear and easy regarding outcomes, but the chaos that envelopes the novel is perhaps the most real regarding just how toxic American masculinity is.
Not an easy read, this novel shows how difficult it can be for victims of assault to tell their stories, especially when one is attacked by a person one trusts and, perhaps, loves. It also shows how “the system” - whether legal, familial, and/or educational - can fail victims by not bringing about justice or providing them with support. Mara’s shattered relationship with her brother prompts readers to consider just how well any of us can truly know the people we care the most about in our lives. In spite of all the painful and messy topics explored, this novel is written with tenderness and offers moments of hope and glimpses of self-discovery.

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YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

9/14/2022

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Roy Jackson is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in Information Sciences researching LGBTQIA+ book banning in Pennsylvania. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and traveling with his husband.

Erin Bentley is a Professor and Program Coordinator of English education at Columbus State University, where she mentors pre-service teachers and leads study abroad programs. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves
In The New David, Aceves’ protagonist is routinely bullied for his slim physique. This impacts his mental health and ability to accept himself. He is physically assaulted, regularly verbally harassed, and shamed on social media by his bully. He vows to get bigger over the summer after junior year only to fall into a group of men who are injecting illegal steroids. David begins his addiction to the gym and the drugs with the hopes of senior year starting out with revenge. But that fantasy never comes to fruition. Instead, he is shamed again by his bully who outs him for his illegal drug use and harassed and shamed on social media for this.
The novel explores layers of toxic masculinity that prey on young men. It isn’t just about what it means to not only be a man, but what a man should look like. David cannot accept himself physically. When he erroneously believes getting bigger muscles will solve his problems, the steroids come with a side effect in the form of physical violence not only to his enemy but to his family. The violence is a repetition of the toxic masculinity on an extreme level that he once faced from his bully.
The root cause of David’s toxic masculinity isn’t familial as often the case. His father is caring and supportive. Instead, it is akin to media portrayals of the male physique. It causes eating disorders and unhealthy life choices. David sees his appearance as the most important aspect to combat the abuse he endures. He doesn’t seek out adults in school or at home for help. That may be because he doesn’t see that as an option. He won’t tell anyone about the abuse as it is seen as not masculine to tell. As educators, we can meet the needs of students like David in a variety of ways and this book opens our eyes as adults to what may be lurking in the minds of young men.

Alan Cole Is Not A Coward by Eric Bell
Alan Cole’s life is one of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s father forces his sons to lie at his company dinner to make an appearance in hopes of them making him look good. An artist, Alan must hide that and instead pretend to play sports and be a real boy. The father treats his mother in a dominating, unloving manner. His older brother abuses him physically and mentally, engaging him in dangerous games he doesn’t want to play. But Alan is gay, and his brother uses that information to torment him and get him to do things he shouldn’t. The novel ends with Alan outing himself and finding self-acceptance.
Bell has crafted a very important example of generational toxic masculinity. Alan’s older brother is humiliated and abused by his father, and feeling powerless, takes his abuse out on Alan. Bell shows how the power of generational influence passes toxic masculinity down from father to son, and brother to brother. As an educator, Bell presents small scenes with teachers that are powerful. Using a parent-teacher conference, Bell constructs a scene where a teacher can be an ally to their student. It is a small, but powerful moment that resonates.

Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
Poignant, and at times hilarious, this novel may be lighthearted, but Giles’ commentary on toxic masculinity is serious. In pursuit of his childhood crush, Del accidentally joins his church’s Purity Pledge group. He simultaneously enrolls in his high school’s sex education course and becomes increasingly confused with the two group’s mixed messages. Meanwhile, his peers cause a commotion when 9 girls become pregnant at the same time. As the novel progresses, Del must face the fact that he may not be the “good guy” he thinks he is and confront his past and present treatment of the females in his life, ultimately leading to a redemptive end to this narrative.
Giles does a wonderful job capturing teenage uncertainty when it comes to sex itself, hormones and the embarrassing ways they manifest among teens, sex eduation, and what “it means” to be a certain kind of boy or girl. This novel explicitly addresses the slut-shaming that often happens to females and acknowledges that males are revered for their sexual activty. One such scene portrays Del’s father, who admits to his role in perpetuating masculine toxicity. He says, “‘Junior. It’s not all your fault, because I’ve been encouraging you in a way my father and my uncles and a bunch of other guys I looked up to encouraged me…like it’s a rite of passage. ‘Go get the girl..’” (Giles, 339). Del is, in spite of his bravado, a virgin, which spins the plot into interesting directions.
Overall, the characters and situations are relatable and realistic. Some of these situations are awkward, but the humor throughout makes this a good text to dig into toxic masculinity, evangelical Christianity and sex education, and overall adolescent identity development .
Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake
Blake’s novel takes the messiness of toxic masculinity and ramps up the chaos and messiness of it even more. The protagonist, Mara, is a twin whose brother is accused of rape. Through her eyes, readers see how seemingly liberal, well-intentioned parents immediately fall into the trap of the male trope to support their son. The school seemingly doesn’t address the issue at all, even though it appears to be a school where SEL would be the normed, yet when the student who is raped comes back to school, she is met with vile shaming and words. Blake’s novel isn’t clear and easy regarding outcomes, but the chaos that envelopes the novel is perhaps the most real regarding just how toxic American masculinity is.
Not an easy read, this novel shows how difficult it can be for victims of assault to tell their stories, especially when one is attacked by a person one trusts and, perhaps, loves. It also shows how “the system” - whether legal, familial, and/or educational - can fail victims by not bringing about justice or providing them with support. Mara’s shattered relationship with her brother prompts readers to consider just how well any of us can truly know the people we care the most about in our lives. In spite of all the painful and messy topics explored, this novel is written with tenderness and offers moments of hope and glimpses of self-discovery.

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The Future and Technology in YA Science Fiction by Dr. Amy Piotrowski

9/7/2022

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Dr. Amy Piotrowski is an associate professor of English education at Utah State University. She teaches undergraduate courses in English education and secondary education as well as graduate courses in literacy education. Her scholarly interests focus on digital literacies, young adult literature, and teacher education. Before going into teacher education, she taught middle school Language Arts, high school English, and college composition in Texas.

The Future and Technology in YA Science Fiction by Dr. Amy Piotrowski

YA science fiction authors raise interesting questions about technology’s impact on our lives, the future, and our very notions of what it means to be human. Could artificial intelligence become capable of its own thoughts and emotions? How could cybernetic technologies advance human capabilities? Will time travel become possible, allowing someone to change the past and future? What might space travelers find on worlds beyond Earth? These questions become even more important in light of recent debates such as whether or not Google’s LaMDA language model is sentient. Readers, and their teachers, can turn to young adult literature to think about these questions.

Posthumanism deals with the relationship between humans and technology. This paradigm has its origins in Donna Haraway’s 1985 essay “A Manifesto for Cyborgs.” Haraway defines cyborgs as “a hybrid of machine and organism,” (2001, p. 2269) and argues that the boundary between what is human and what is machine has been blurred. Scholars of YA literature (Hayles, 1999; Ostry, 2004; Flannagan, 2014) have used the lens of posthumanism to examine how literature can provide readers with ways to question how humans and machines relate to each other. Several recent young adult novels dealing with artificial intelligence, time travel, and space travel can be read through the lens of posthumanism and would be great additions to secondary literature instruction.

Rebelwing - by Andrea Tang

Prudence Wu is a prep school student in what once was Washington, D.C., one of the few oases of democracy on a continent taken over by a brutal corporate conglomerate. She heads out on a job smuggling contraband media into the conglomerate’s territory where she is betrayed to the authorities and unexpectedly rescued by a cybernetic dragon called Rebelwing. This cybernetic dragon is powered by sentient A.I. and can win the war against the corporate conglomerate. Prudence must learn to pilot Rebelwing now that it has imprinted on her. Tang weaves a story about the power of connection as Prudence and her friends team up to save their city.

Waking Romeo - by Kathryn Barker
This novel is a mix of Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, the Back to the Future films, and the songs of Taylor Swift. In the future, traveling forward in time is possible, and time travelers seek a better life in the future. Unfortunately, these time travelers leave behind too few people and resources to build that better future while they keep going forward in time to find when a better future might be. In the wrecked world that is the year 2083, some families, including the Capulets and the Montagues, have decided to reject time travel. Juliet is recovering from her suicide attempt in the Capulet tomb, while Romeo lies in a coma. When a time traveler named Ellis (yes, Brontë’s Ellis) shows up, the world’s future depends on Juliet and Ellis teaming up to wake Romeo. Barker reminds readers that if we want a better future, we must work today towards making that future a reality rather than waiting for it to arrive.

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
Noemi, a pilot fighting for the colony world Genesis against imperial power Earth, and Abel, an A.I. created by Earth’s best cybernetic researcher, embark on a mission that could end the war between Genesis and Earth. Abel is the most advanced A.I. ever, expressing thoughts and emotions that are very human-like. At one point, Noemi reminds herself that Abel is not human, a “simulation of consciousness instead of the real thing.” But how much of a simulation is Abel? Noemi comes to realize that Abel is far different from, and perhaps more human than, the cold and cruel researcher who created him. The series delves into questions about the line between human and machine, suggesting that our humanity may be rooted in empathy and care for others.

Nyxia by by Scott Reintgen

Emmett Atwater is headed for the planet Eden with a group of other teens. He desperately needs to make money for his family. A corporation called Babel pits the teens against each other in competition to see who will get to go down to Eden to mine a mysterious and versatile substance called nyxia. Along the journey, Emmett learns some of Babel’s dark secrets, what nyxia is capable of, and about Eden’s inhabitants, called the Adamites. Emmett must find a way to not lose his humanity as he fights for survival.

References

Flannagan, V. (2004). Technology and identity in young adult fiction: The posthuman subject. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Haraway, D. (2001). A manifesto for cyborgs: Science, technology, and socialist feminisms in the 1980’s. In V. Leitch, W. Cain, F. Finke, & B. Johnson (Eds.), The Norton
Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2269-2299). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Hayles, N.K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and infomatics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Ostry, E. (2004). “Is he still human? Are you?”: Young adult science fiction in the posthuman age. The Lion and the Unicorn, 28(2), 222-246.

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Registration is open for the virtual Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature! Plan on April 21, 2023, 8:30-5:30 CST.

Myths, Legends, and Histories: How the Printz Awards Re(Present) Racialized Stories by Dr. Ashley D. Black

Sealing in Whiteness: Williams-Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James by Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides & and Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

The Future and Technology in YA Science Fiction by Dr. Amy Piotrowski

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Registration is open for the virtual Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature! Plan on April 21, 2023, 8:30-5:30 CST.

Myths, Legends, and Histories: How the Printz Awards Re(Present) Racialized Stories by Dr. Ashley D. Black

Sealing in Whiteness: Williams-Garcia’s A Sitting in St. James by Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides & and Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

The Future and Technology in YA Science Fiction by Dr. Amy Piotrowski

Dr. Steve Bickmore​Creator and Curator

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Dr. Steve Bickmore
Creator and Curator