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What is YA Literature Anyways? by Dr. Michelle M. Falter

10/12/2022

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Michelle M. Falter is an Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University. Currently, her research and scholarship are comprised of three major strands: critical approaches to teaching literature/texts (young adult and canonical), emotion and affect in teaching English Language Arts, and English teacher preparation and development. She can be reached at mfalter@ncsu.edu
What is YA Literature Anyways? by Dr. Michelle M. Falter
What is YA literature anyways?  For me, it is a combination of factors. Does it have a teen main character? Check. Is the story told through a teen’s perspective? Check. Is the book marketed to teens? Check. Do I recognize the author as someone who publishes other teen books? Check. Does the book cover depict teenagers? Check. I have learned, however, that for my undergraduate students (ages 18-23) who have grown up in the era of having YA books all around them, they actually struggle determining what a YA book is.  Some of that may have to do with the fact that YA literature isn’t a genre, but instead more of a nebulous category. This semester alone I have had students ask to read Lord of the Flies, Maus, To Kill a Mockingbird, and El Deafo, for their choice reading in my YA course. I have wondered if this is because a) they assume any book that has a kid in it is YA lit? b) their middle/high school ELA teachers have been saying these are YA texts? or c) maybe they believe that if a teen wants to read the book then it is YA by default? I am not sure. My students don’t seem to know either. All of these are excellent texts, but not, in my estimation, young adult. But, it made me think. Maybe my definition of YA Lit is too restrictive. Maybe distinctions between adolescent, childrens, middle grades, and new adult contemporary fiction, and canonical texts with teen characters don’t matter so much anymore. 

Because I do think definitions matter, I decided to see what other scholars, teachers, and librarians from English and English Education fields who research and teach young adult literature had to say about this topic through a short Google Form questionnaire I posted in various YA lit Facebook groups. Here’s what they had to say: 

Q: How do you define YA literature?

A:  The most common answer I received noted that YA literature is literature that is written and marketed expressly for adolescent readers, defined as ages 12-18, although some went as high as 22 and as low as 11 years of age.  This response indicates that intentionality of audience is important to scholars and teachers of YA literature. However, at least one person noted that sometimes YA literature is in part defined by readers, and can defy authorial or publisher intent. The Book Thief is an often cited example for this case, as Markus Zusak and his publisher first marketed the book for adults, but it was so widely received by adolescent audiences, that they remarketed it to teens. 

Another key feature is that the protagonist of the story must be an adolescent, again of the same age range as stated before (approx. 12-18), and told through their perspective (i.e. first person narration). Others noted that additionally, the adolescents demonstrate growth and movement toward independence and adulthood through the novels, they learn to negotiate the power structures present in society, they focus on identity development and rites of passage (whether informal or formal). In addition, the issues and topics in the book are relevant to adolescent lives.
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Q: What is a text that is quintessentially YA literature, in your estimation? 

A:  Several books by Laurie Halse Anderson were mentioned, including Speak and Wintergirls. One respondent wrote, of why they chose Speak: “This book focuses on a teen character who has experienced trauma. The primary setting is a high school. Melinda is a freshman in high school dealing with the trauma of a rape. Young people her age are the explicit audience for the book to show survivors they are not alone and to provide a window for others to think about the messages other people's behaviors send.” Another noted that Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is quintessentially YA lit because “the main character (Lia, a high school senior who lives with anorexia nervosa) grapples with issues such as identity and self-understanding, friendships and romantic relationships, and her future as a young woman.” 

In addition to books by Laurie Halse Anderson, the following additional texts were shared as being quintessentially YA:

Internment by Samira Ahmed: In this novel the main character is a teenage girl navigating relevant and relatable adolescent issues of identity, relationships, family, racism, trust, and power (among others); the writing is accessible, characters are diverse, and narrative is heavy on dialogue (versus exposition); the author relates these issues to adolescents readers through familiar experiences (e.g., disagreements with parents), common concerns (e.g., developing friendships) and current issues (e.g., societal racism) while engaging readers through a fast-paced plot and 1st person POV.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart. The novel features a sophomore in high school aspiring for the first time to chart her own identity in ways that violate the expectations of her family and friends while falling in love with a boy who expects her to be conventional. She is also not always entirely likable. And it is a smart book that reveals how language and tradition suppress creativity and equality (the boarding school she attends is named Alabaster for a reason!)

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It is fast-paced, features a 17-year-old protagonist, is written in the 1st person, involves a journey of identity formation, has a happy ending, is generally optimistic, contains no explicit sexual content, and has a strong appeal to teenagers because they can relate to the main character’s responses to the central conflicts. The main character is still in school and must respect parental figures — she is not independent yet.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. The book features three teenage protagonists in rural Tennessee all on the cusp of graduating high school. The story deals with issues important to them, the angst of growing up and next phases of life, and choosing a path forward for themselves. Does not shy away from teens dealing with real or “adult” issues. 

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Like most modern YA, it has a protagonist who is a high school student and the story is rendered through her perspective and at her emotional level. The writing style is also extremely accessible, not dense or elevated. However, as a romance with themes such as alienation and disapproval of parents, it is less likely to be of interest to young children.
Additional books people suggested included:

The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
The Poet X by  Elizabeth Acevedo
Feed by M.T. Anderson
Q: What is a text that some people may believe is YA literature, but is not in fact YA literature, in your opinion?

A:  The first set of books mentioned were texts such as: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by Mark Twain, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (specifically), Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. In each of these cases, the respondents noted that the texts actually have children as main characters (under the age of 12) and were either intended for adult or children readers (and not adolescent readers). 

The other set of books people noted were canonical texts that are often taught in schools, such as 
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 1984 by George Orwell, Romeo & Juliet  by William Shakespeare, or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Several stated something similar to this respondent who argued that the confusion might come from “the mistaken belief that books commonly taught in high school English classes are necessarily YA….” 

Two interesting, and perhaps debatable, texts people proposed as not being YA are Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. One person noted that Salinger did not write Catcher for an adolescent audience, and as such it does not meet the definition. Another noted that Sarah Maas’ book certainly has appeal to older young adults but the content is “designed to titillate the reader” through explicit “sexual content,” and the character is 19 and living independently away from her family, and therefore not a “young” adult text. 
Q: Do distinctions between different categories of kidlit matter (e.g. childrens lit, middle grades, new adult fiction)?

A:  It appears that the majority of scholars, teachers, and librarians agree that the distinctions matter. One respondent noted, “I do think the distinctions matter because the intended readership is different. There are different writing craft moves and vocabulary used, different references and allusions, different levels of age appropriateness, etc.” Another person who works in the childrens’ publishing world noted “The distinctions absolutely matter, because why else am I publishing these books except because their audience needs them in some way? Children are at different development points at different ages, and general age groups allow us to target books to their developmental needs as well as their interests.” Another scholar noted how for a long time adolescent literature was not deemed as worthy of academic study, and as such having these distinctions is very important to legitimize adolescents in and of themselves. One person wrote, “I think more and more we are carving out a space for YAL as its own category separate from but related to children’s literature. It has become too distinctive and deals with many more real world issues and with adolescents being capable and independent human beings. I think this is starting to happen in middle grades literature too where we will have four distinct categories of literature for young people after adding “new adult”. The major distinction from canonical lit is that YAL is written in modern language that adolescents relate to and can consume more easily, and in many cases YAL offers the same rigor as the canon. “

However, one person did note that these distinctions can also be problematic and limiting. They wrote: “I find these descriptors to be restrictive structures imposed by publishing and k-12 education that do not accurately represent the range of material embraced by teenage readers. They represent adult desire to confine young readers for the market or to suit what adults think young people need.”
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Q: Just for fun, I posed the following:  Aliens have attacked and we have an hour to save the literature of the world. The thing is,  only YA Lit is worth saving!  If you could only bring 3 YA books to help repopulate all of literature,  what would you put in the bunker?  

A: Here’s what they had to say: 

The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak
Feed by MT Anderson
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume; 
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. 
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
The Unstoppable Wasp illustrated by Jeremy Whitley
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens by Marieke Nijkamp
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
I Kissed Sarah Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Redwood and Ponytail by KA Holt
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
So, what do you think? Do you agree with these answers? Are there other considerations that weren’t brought up that need to be unpacked? Are there other books that were overlooked? I think as YA literature continues to be in the spotlight for a variety of reasons, it is important (I think) to be on the same page about what it is and what it can do for adolescents.

Author's note: Thank you to my YA colleagues across the world who were willing to share your answers so that I could compile and create this post, including but not limited to Heather Matthews, Miranda Green-Barteet, Alyssa Lowery, Melanie Shoffner, Tara Gold, Shelly Shaffer, Katie Sluiter, Alisha White, Hunter Strickland, Christiana Salah, and Stacy Whitman.

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Modern Portrayals of Antisemitism; or How I Stopped Just Kvetching and Embraced the Struggle by Dr. Heather J. Matthews

10/5/2022

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​Heather J. Matthews, PhD, is an assistant professor at Salisbury University. Her specialization is in children’s and young adult literature. She is specifically interested in diverse representation within children’s literature.

Today's focus, on antisemitism as shown in current events as well as our everyday life, shows the power of YA literature as an antidote to hate.  Thank you, Heather, for this post!

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Modern Portrayals of Antisemitism; or How I Stopped Just Kvetching and Embraced the Struggle by Dr. Heather J. Matthews
As I write this blog, I have been following two recent news stories surrounding Judaism in America. 
The first story involves the Keller Independent School District, located in Keller, Texas. Keller ISD found itself the center of the conversation regarding book banning in recent days when the news broke that the district temporarily removed 41 books from its libraries while employees review the challenged books to determine appropriateness (Lopez, 2022). The list of books which were removed includes such titles as the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (1967), amongst others (Keller ISD, 2022). You may remember reading versions of this headline touting that Keller ISD had removed the Bible from its libraries’ shelves, but the list of 41 books under consideration include other titles like Mike Curato’s masterful Flamer (2020), George M. Johnson’s beautiful All Boys Aren’t Blue (2020), and Toni Morrison’s heartbreaking The Bluest Eye (1994). Upon examination, the challenged books had many commonalities: overwhelmingly, the list represents findings from PEN America’s 2022 report on banned books in America, which found that “a profound increase in both the number of books banned and the intense focus on books that relate to communities of color and LGBTQ+ subjects…” (2022). For me, the removal of the Anne Frank’s diary is startling and concerning for many reasons, but it isn’t surprising – the text is challenged often, and like recent removal of Maus (Spiegelman, 1990) from a Tennessee school curriculum, accusations often boil down to antisemitic accusations. ​
The second story comes out of Knoxville, Tennessee, which served as my home for the last three years. In this story, a Jewish couple was denied help from a state-sponsored adoption agency because of their Jewish identity. You read that right – a Jewish couple was rejected from a state-funded agency because of their religion (Whetstone, 2022). The Tennessee Department of Child Services was subsequently sued, in the first of what will surely be many strikes against the Tennessee’s adoption bill of 2020, which allows state funded agencies to discriminate against specific couples in matters of child adoption if placing the child will “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies” (Ebert, 2020). On July 5th of this year, a panel of judges dismissed the lawsuit brought by the Jewish couple, and by the time you are reading this sentence, the case could be going to appeals (Associated Press, 2022). Chances are, you haven’t heard this story, but it has garnered attention within the Jewish community of Knoxville and in other similar communities in other similar locations, who wait to see what precedent this court case will set. 
Perhaps you might remember watching a video this last winter of a snowplow directly seeking out two Jewish men on the side of the road, covering the men with snow and ice while the driver laughed (Reilly, 2022). Or, perhaps you saw recent Anti-Defamation League (or ADL) statistics which shows that antisemitic hate crimes rose in 2021 to an average of more than seven incidents per day across the United States (ADL, 2022). Or, perhaps like me, you saw more localized examples of antisemitism – threats causing synagogues to close, or antisemitic graffiti and vandalization in your community schools, centers of worship, libraries, universities, and sidewalks. 
All that to say, antisemitism has been on my mind as of late. It has been on my mind for the last 30 years of my life, and stays on my mind on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an airing of grievances. This kvetching (Yiddish for “complaining”) is purposeful – frankly, much of antisemitism is difficult to identify, and difficult to remedy. It is my belief, however, that to battle antisemitism, we need to scrutinize the media we take in. If you’re reading this blog post, then I would wholeheartedly suggest your YA reading habits as a place to begin. So, begin we shall! 
Before going any further, I would like to define a term, as many good scholars do. Throughout this post, you’ll see the word “antisemitism” styled as such. This is based on the recommendations of the ADL, who recommend the spelling “antisemitism” instead of “anti-Semitism.” This change highlights two distinct differences: a removal of a hyphen, and a lack of capitalization (ADL, n.d.). This change is also reflected in the Associated Press, which announced in 2021 that they too would embrace a lack of hyphenation or capitalization (Bandler, 2021). These changes are to reflect that using a hyphenated term (anti-semitism) implies that the term “semite” or “semitic” is in reference to a group of people, when in fact, “There is no such thing as a Semitic peoplehood” (ADL, n.d.). 
The very first step any reader can take in pushing back against antisemitism is to diversify your reading habits to include more Jewish representation. Like any other demographic group, specifically seeking out Jewish characters in YA lit is not necessarily a difficult task to undertake. There are entire blogs and Facebook groups dedicated to discussing, reviewing, and upholding Jewish representation in youth literature. Goodreads has several lists of Jewish YA books, as does the Association of Jewish Libraries and the Jewish Book Council. PJ Our Way publishes and disseminates Jewish YA lit each month to eager readers, and the American Library of Association awards the Sydney Taylor book award and manuscript award each year to exemplary Jewish literature. All of these places and more showcase and uphold Jewish representation in YA literature, and are fine places to start one’s journey if you wish to assess the quantitative elements of your reading habits or book collections. 
However, I would urge you to look beyond simply counting the Jews on the pages, and look at the quality of the Jewish representation. Specifically, I urge you to look for antisemitic representation within the YA you consume. When considering antisemitic representations of Jews in literature, there are a few main stereotypes and tropes, as identified by the Jewish Book Council (Baum, 2017), but this list certainly is not an exhaustive one. For example, the goblins within the world of Harry Potter (Rowling, 1998) are a fairly obvious example of antisemitic Jewish representation – long nosed, greedy creatures, solely interested in matters of money and banking  seems a little on the nose (if you’ll pardon the pun). 
How can we combat this? One solution is to seek out books which name and fight against antisemitism. I find myself craving texts like The Assignment (Wiemer, 2020), which shows young people that they can directly fight against antisemitism, even if they aren’t Jews, and even if it is scary or unpopular to do so. Texts like Some Kind of Hate (Littman, 2022) (which I read recently for the Sydney Taylor Shmooze, a predictive blog which examines children’s and young adult novels with Jewish elements to speculate on the year’s Sydney Taylor book award winners), which explores internet radicalization and antisemitic domestic terrorism.
At the same time, I find myself desperate for books like They’ll Never Catch Us (Goodman, 2021)– books which feature Jewish characters who are unlikeable, but not for antisemitic reasons. Novels like Color Me In (Díaz, 2019), which highlights intersectional Judaism, or Cry of the Giraffe (Oron, 2010), which highlights Jewish struggles across the world. Of course, there are too many books to name which portray positive Jewish experiences, and for those I am thankful as a scholar and as a reader, but books which highlight the multiplicitous iterations and facets of Judaism in all of their difficulties – these are the books which I believe are most valuable in the fight against antisemitism. ​
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To loosely paraphrase from Birnbaum’s Ethics of the Fathers, it is no one person’s job to finish the fight against evil, nor are we allowed to neglect it (1949). The fight against antisemitism is literally centuries old, and yet is a constant threat against Jewish people every day. To engage in the fight against antisemitism is not the sole duty of one person, and it is not reasonable to expect that one person alone can win – however, it is each person’s job to engage in the struggle against antisemitism. Our bookshelves and our reading habits are just one small way to take on antisemitism. 

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Works Cited
The Associated Press. (2022). Judges panel dismissed lawsuit filed by Jewish couple alleging adoption bias. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2022/07/05/tennessee-judges-dismiss-adoption-lawsuit-filed-jewish-couple/7813787001/
Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. (n.d.). Spelling. https://www.adl.org/spelling
Anti-Defamation League [ADL]. (2022). ADL audit finds antisemitic incidents in United States reached all-time high in 2021. https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-audit-finds-antisemitic-incidents-united-states-reached-all-time-high
Bandler, A. (2021). AP changes spelling of “anti-Semitism” to “antisemitism.” Jewish Journal, https://jewishjournal.com/news/336003/ap-changes-spelling-of-anti-semitism-to-antisemitism/
Baum, D. (2017). The 12 most stereotypical jews in literature. Jewish Book Council. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/the-12-most-stereotypical-jews-in-literature
Birnbaum, P. (1949). Ethics of the fathers. Hebrew Publishing Co. 
Curato, M. (2020). Flamer. Henry Holt and Co. 
Ebert, J. (2020). Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signs controversial adoption bill, which takes effect immediately. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/24/tennessee-adoption-bill-gov-bill-lee-signs-controversial-law/4567731002/
Díaz, N. (2019). Color me in. Delacorte Press. 
Frank, A. (1967). The diary of a young girl. Doubleday. 
Goodman, J. (2021). They’ll never catch us. Razorbill. 
Johnson, G. M. (2020). All boys aren’t blue: A memoir-manifesto. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 
Keller Independent School District [Keller ISD] (2022). Current book challenges. https://www.kellerisd.net/Page/7364
Littman, S. D. (2022). Some kind of hate. Scholastic. 
Lopez, B. (2022). Keller school officials order 41 books – including the Bible and an Anne Frank adaptation – off of library shelves. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/16/keller-isd-removes-books/
Morrison, T. (1994). The bluest eye. Plume. 
Oron, J. (2010). Cry of the giraffe. Annick Press. 
PEN America. (2022). Banned in the USA: Rising school book bans threaten free expression and students’ first amendment rights. https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/
Reilly, P. (2022). NJ man fired after video shows two men plowing snow onto Orthodox Jewish men. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2022/02/06/new-jersey-man-donny-klarmann-fired-after-video-shows-two-men-plowing-snow-onto-orthodox-jewish-men/
Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone. Scholastic. 
Santana, S. (2022). San Antonio’s Temple Beth-El cancels services as FBI investigates potential threat. My San Antonio. https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-synagogue-temple-bethel-17294598.php
Spiegelman, A. (1990). Maus: A survivor’s tale. Pantheon Books. 
Whetstone, T. (2022). Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they’re Jewish. Knox News. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/holston-united-methodist-home-for-children-adoption-tennessee-refused-family-jewish/6582864001/
Wiemer, L. (2020). The assignment. Ember. 

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

9/28/2022

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​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.

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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. ​
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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. 
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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).
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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. 

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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

1 Comment

 
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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. 

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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. 
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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. 

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​Alan Cole Is Not A Coward
by Eric Bell
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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. 

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Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
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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 . 

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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.

1 Comment

YA Texts and Toxic Masculinity by Roy Jackson and Erinn Bentley

9/14/2022

1 Comment

 
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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
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. 
Picture
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.

Picture

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. 

Picture
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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.
1 Comment

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

9/7/2022

1 Comment

 
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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.

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Rebelwing - by Andrea Tang
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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.

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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
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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.

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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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1 Comment

Exploring Representation of Rural Language Varieties in Young Adult Literature by Dr. Chea Parton

8/31/2022

1 Comment

 
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Chea Parton grew up on a farm and still considers herself a farm girl. She has been a rural student, a rural English teacher, and is currently a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University where she works with future teachers through the Transition to Teaching Program. She is passionate about rural education. Her research focuses on the personal and professional identity of rural and rural out-migrant teachers as well as rural representation in YA literature. She currently runs Literacy In Place where she seeks to catalogue rural YA books and provides teaching resources, hosts the Reading Rural YAL podcast where she gives book talks and interviews rural YA authors, and serves on the Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature selection committee. You can reach her at readingrural@gmail.com. ​
Exploring Representation of Rural Language Varieties in Young Adult Literature by Dr. Chea Parton
On a recent phone call with my mom, we were talking recipes, and I was explaining that my daughter and I made sugar cookies because I “didn’t have no shortenin’” to make the oatmeal cookies I really wanted to. To which Mama replied, “Didn’t have none? Aren’t you supposed to be some kinda English teacher or somethin’?” and then chuckled. Since when did she become the language police? I reckon it’s probably payback for my own language policing after I learned in school that the way we talked was wrong. In my defense – I didn’t know no better at the time. I hadn’t yet been introduced to the wonderful world of sociolinguistics. 
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What my mom demonstrated was a keen understanding of the position of our language variety and its inferiority to the kind of English that ELA teachers are supposed to speak and value and teach. And she’s not the only one who gets it. Blue Collar TV, a sketch comedy show that evolved out of The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, had a segment called “The Redneck Dictionary” where the comedians would take common words or phrases and present them as “redneck” speech. For example, one episode defined “mayonnaise” by using the sentence “Mayonnaise [Man, they’s] a lot of people here.” This move is also showcased in memes like those shown below. 
Rural people and their language are always the butt of these jokes that continue to other and diminish the language practices of rural people.
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In my work and personhood, language diversity and linguistic justice (Baker-Bell, 2020) are things that I think about often. I’ve even undertaken cataloging my own Appalachian-infused Hoosier rural ways of speaking and written about it on the blog I host on Literacy In Place. 
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Recently, these two things came to a head when talking with Monica Roe and Ginny Myers Sain as part of the Author Talk interviews I’m conducting for my YouTube series/podcast Reading Rural YAL. I have noticed in my reading of YA literature that while there may be some code switching in rural YAL, for the most part they are written in what I call White Middle-Class Mainstream English (WMCME). 

*Note:* I know that there are different names for the type of English that is privileged in academic spaces as standard and the measuring stick against which all other versions of English (e.g., African American Vernacular English; Appalachian English; Acadian) are judged. However, I find that most of those terms focus on race and omit the very real and important aspect of social class. For example, though I am White, I didn’t grow up speaking what Baker-Bell (2020) calls White Mainstream English. Because of my class position, rural raising, and closeness to my Appalachian family, I grew up speaking a version of English that I very quickly learned was considered non-standard and lesser than the version of English favored and privileged in school spaces. So, though it is still unlikely to capture all the nuances amidst speakers of English varieties, I use White Middle-Class Mainstream English to refer to the type of English considered to be “standard” in academic and other spaces of power. 

When I asked Monica Roe about how she goes about deciding what to write in dialect and what not to, she described a couple of salient factors: (1) what would be authentic to the rural regional language practices of the characters; (2) what will the editor/publisher allow; and (3) how much can she include without alienating readers unfamiliar with the dialect. 
I asked Ginny Myers Sain, author of the Whippoorwill Award winning book Dark and Shallow Lies the same question because her book takes place in the rural Louisiana bayou where folks speak a Cajun dialect called Acadian. There were instances where Acadian speakers were clearly using their dialect but then others where it seemed they were speaking WMCME. She gave a very similar answer to Roe and described feeling a need to strike a balance between representing the speech and culture of her characters authentically and writing in a way that doesn’t alienate readers. 

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I’m grappling with this. 
I understand the tense negotiation that must occur because of the way places of power, including the publishing industry, privilege WMCME. But I wonder if not representing the rural language dialects characters would speak serves only to reify the power disparity instead of disrupting it. 
So, now I’m thinking – what does that mean for our work with students? In my multiculturalism class, over one quarter of my students identify as rural. When we talk about linguistic justice, I assign my language variety blog as one of the readings for that week and all of my rural students have talked about how important it was for them to read and think about their language variety. Now they want to know how to do it with their students. 
One way would be to read rural YAL like the books I’ve mentioned here. Asking students to inquire into the way the characters’ speech is represented in their book and the ways that they do/n’t relate to it by cataloging their own would be a great start. Comparing and contrasting the different ways rural language is represented across different rural YA books could also be enlightening. 
I have also found that even when I’m reading WMCME, I actually read it in my Appalachian-infused Hoosier rural variety of English. When I read it aloud, especially, I notice the ways I alter words (e.g., making contractions where there aren’t any, dropping g’s when they’re still present). Asking students to vocalize the characters as they’re written and as they hear it in their own way of speaking could open up conversations about language diversity, power, and linguistic justice in significant ways.  
If you’re interested in doing this work with your secondary students or preservice ELA teachers (and I really hope you are!), here are a few books that offer rich opportunities to do that:
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From Thoughts and Prayers to Action and Reform: Gun Violence in 2022 by Dr. Shelly Shaffer

8/17/2022

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We are grateful to benefit from  Shelly Shaffer's wisdom this week. Shelly is a professor of Literacy at Eastern Washington University. Much of Shelly's research focuses on how school shootings are portrayed in YA literature. That interest has led to an edited collection about gun violence in the ELA classroom-Contending with Gun Violence in the English Language Classroom.  Shelly is also working on a book related to the Toe Tag Monologues.  
From Thoughts and Prayers to Action and Reform: Gun Violence in 2022 by Dr. Shelly Shaffer
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had already worked for several years on reading and researching YA literature related to mass violence, specifically school shootings. With the hope that knowledge and critical thinking accomplished through reading and discussing YA literature might impact this unfortunate trend, I tried to advocate for the inclusion of books portraying stories of school shootings (including the viewpoints of survivors, outsiders, and shooters themselves) in K-12 classrooms. I presented at conferences, co-edited a book (Shaffer et al., 2019), and continue to work on projects related to this topic. I still believe that talking about gun violence and creating more awareness of warning signs will make a difference in prevention. Learning about school shootings and watching for warning signs will still not be able to prevent a teenager from obtaining a gun from home or from friends or relatives, which according to Cox et al. (2022) is the case for more than 85% of shooters. And, since some of the most recent mass shootings took place after 18-year olds purchased automatic weapons (Oxner, 2022) without a background check, psychological evaluation, or training, access to guns is still a larger issue altogether. 
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Parents, students, teachers, and others continue to live in fear of school violence (e.g., Columbine, CO-1999 - Uvalde, TX- 2022). According to Vigderman and Turner (2022), there have been 304 deaths from school shootings since the shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The government response always seems to be “thoughts and prayers” after an incident. No action. Very little gun reform. Few changes in regulations on who can own guns. No difference on which types of guns are being sold. Guns are big business. Apparently, the loss of children’s lives is the cost of doing business. After all, not many have died in these past 23 years from school shootings: 304 children and teachers. A pretty low number percentage-wise. Though many more than 304 students have been exposed to the trauma associated with school shootings, pro-gun folks figure the more than 311,000 students who have experienced gun violence at school since 1999 (Cox et al., 2022) are less important than their guns. These students have died, have been injured, and have been profoundly traumatized by violence in their schools. Yet, gun folks refuse changes to the laws, making claims of second amendment rights. But our Constitution also promises “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”--doesn’t this type of violence take that promise away from those who are impacted? 
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Often we don’t even hear from the survivors–the 311,000 students who have lived in the aftermath of a school shooting. The students who hid behind doors, who watched their friends die, who now live with constant fear, who no longer feel safe, who are angry their lives have changed, who are angry at adults who failed to protect them–these students are supposed to just move on with their lives. Heal and move on. But how are they supposed to move on when nothing has actually changed? Schools aren’t any safer. Guns are still just as accessible–and just as automated. The “grown-ups” still aren’t protecting kids by passing safer gun laws. 
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In 2018, students got angry. And they had a reason to be mad. They decided that their voices needed to be heard. #NeverAgain became a rallying cry after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018. It was supposed to be a start to ending school violence. Students across the nation staged walkouts protesting the government’s inaction toward passing more restrictive gun laws; young people marched on Washington and lobbied lawmakers. Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School published books. David and Lauren Hogg wrote #Never Again: A New Generation Draws the Line (Hogg & Hogg, 2018), which shares their journey to becoming activists following the shooting at their high school. Both David and Lauren were in the school February 14, 2018–hiding and texting their friends and family as they feared for their lives. Parkland Student Journalists published the book We Say #Never Again (Falkowski & Garner, 2018), a collection of news articles and editorials written by student survivors of Parkland. The book has four sections: “Introduction,” “Part 1: Activism,” “Part 2: MSD Strong,” and “Part 3: What Comes Next.” With 24 student contributors and 2 faculty advisors/editors, this book offers a personal and compelling voice about how a school shooting impacts a high school community. Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share Their Stories (Lerner, 2019) adds to the voices of student survivors of this tragic shooting. Sarah Lerner, an English and journalism teacher at Parkland, edited this collection of photos, art, poems, stories, letters, speeches, and journal entries from student contributors. It is a gripping collection full of heartbreaking loss–and hope, reminiscent of a class book. The Founders of March for Our Lives published Glimmer of Hope: How a Tragedy Sparked a Movement, which chronicles the evolution of the March for Our Lives Movement. Twenty-three of its 25 contributors were students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and the collection includes a diverse array of text types as readers learn about these young activists’ experiences. These four books–written by the students who were there, and survived–provide a priceless look into the impact of trauma, grief, anger, determination, healing, and hope felt after school shootings. 

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Unfortunately, #NeverAgain did not come true. Three months after February 14, 2018 - after one of the worst school shootings to ever occur - more shootings, more death, more injury, and more trauma: Forest High School, Santa Fe High School, Noblesville West Middle School, Dixon High School, North Scott Junior High School…the list goes on and on. Forty-two shootings in 2021, according to the Washington Post (Cox et al., 2022). The third deadliest school shooting took place just months ago (in spring 2022) at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, resulting in the death of 21 people and injuring 17 others (Flourish team, 2022). Incidences of mass violence in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, Maryland, oregon, Georgia, Colorado, Alabama, California, New Jersey, Tennessee, South Carolina, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington D.C. have threatened the lives of schoolchildren, teachers, and staff since 2018 (Flourish team, 2022)--since Parkland’s deadly shooting had America saying #NeverAgain. 
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So depressing. So maddening. I feel helpless and frustrated, so I’ve continued my work with YA books focused on school shootings, still hoping to make a difference. So many of the books I’ve been studying recently feature survivors trying to “move on” with their lives, like the Parkland students and the 311,000 other students who have been impacted by school shootings.
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Thoughts and Prayers by Brian Bliss (2020) follows the lives of three students who survived a school shooting by hiding in a stairwell. A year later, all three suffer from trauma and guilt, and all three have trouble moving on with their lives. One has such terrible PTSD that she struggles to attend school; another is so angry that she started wearing T-shirts stating “Fuck Guns,” resulting in being targeted and threatened by pro-gun groups, and the other escapes into the world of “Wizards and Warriors” a fictional RPG similar to “Dungeons and Dragons.”

Every Moment After by Joseph Moldover (2019) takes place at senior graduation and the summer that follows. Three students who lived, after a shooter killed every one of their classmates, still struggle to figure out how to move on - even after 12 years. The shooting happened when they were 6 years old, in first grade; yet, their lives continue to be haunted by their lost classmates and thoughts of “What if?”

Liz Lawson’s The Lucky Ones (2020) tells the story of May, who is a survivor of a school shooting that killed her twin brother. She is angry - so angry that she vandalizes the  house of the lawyer representing the shooter, gets into fights at school, and blames herself for not saving her brother. Anger paralyzes May, and even eleven months after the shooting, she cannot move forward.

Aftermath by Emily Barth Isler (2021) is a middle school book about a 12-year old girl’s experience of moving to a town four years after a school shooting took place. When she starts school, the trauma is still thick in the hallways of the school. Almost every new classmate she meets tells her about the shooting - where they were, who they lost - and it seems like the entire town is stuck. Lucy finally meets Avery, who seems to be an outsider, but Lucy finds out that Avery has a different kind of connection to the shooting; the shooter was her step-brother. Lawson does an excellent job helping readers to see how difficult it is to move on, and how hard it is to forgive.

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Marisa Reichardt takes readers on a personal journey of trauma and recovery in Underwater (2016). Everything changed on October 15th, the day of the school shooting. Morgan used to be outgoing, competitive, and friendly, but after the shooting, she becomes trapped in her apartment by her own trauma. She can’t move on; she literally can’t step outside of her own front door. Reichardt’s story poignantly illustrates just how paralyzing trauma can be. Though this is not an exhaustive list of YA school shooting novels that feature characters trying to heal, these 5 texts share stories of trauma and provide insight into what survivors of school shootings–even those students who weren’t physically injured–are facing years later. 

What can we do? What MUST we do? We cannot count the damage of school shootings simply by the number of lives lost or people wounded. We have to include the hundreds of thousands of people who are left behind to try to heal the emotional trauma they carry as a result of the experience. These lives are forever changed from a tragedy that should have been prevented. 
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We must change the narrative because gun ownership DOES NOT hold more value than human lives. Children’s lives cannot be the cost of doing business. 
References
Bliss, B. (2020). Thoughts and prayers. Greenwillow Books. 
Cox, J. W., Rich, S., Chui, A., Thacker, H., Chong, L., Muyskens, J. & Ulmanu, M. (2022, May 27). School shooting database. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/
Falkwoski, M., & Garner, E. (Eds.). (2018). We say #neveragain. Crown. 
Flourish team. (2022, June 10). School shooting timeline: Incidents with active shooters on school campuses from Columbine to Robb Elementary. Kiln Enterprises Ltd. https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/10219708/
Grinberg, E., & Mauddi, N. (2018, March 26). How the Parkland students pulled off a massive national protest in 5 weeks. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/26/us/march-for-our-lives
Hogg, D., & Hogg, L. (2018). #NeverAgain: A new generation draws the line. Random House. 
Isler, E. B. (2021). Aftermath. Carolrhoda Books. 
Lawson, L. (2020). The lucky ones. Delacorte Press. 
Lerner, S. (Ed.). (2019). Parkland speaks: Survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas share their stories. Random House. 
Moldover, J. (2019). Every moment after. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 
Oxner, R. (2022, May 25). Uvalde gunman legally bought AR rifles days before shooting, law enforcement says. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/25/uvalde-shooter-bought-gun-legally/
Reichhardt, M. (2016). Underwater. Farrar Straus Giroux. 
Shaffer, S., Rumohr-Voskuil, G., & Bickmore, S. (Eds.). (2019). Contending with gun violence in the English language classroom. Routledge.
The Associated Press. (2018, March 24). Fiery speech, and charged silence, from a Parkland student [video]. The New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000005817208/fiery-speech-and-charged-silence-from-a-parkland-student.html
The Founders of March for Our Lives. (2018). Glimmer of hope: How tragedy sparked a movement. Razorbill & Dutton. 
Vigderman, A., & Turner, G. (2022, July 6). A timeline of school shootings since Columbine. Security.org a Centerfield Media Company. https://www.security.org/blog/a-timeline-of-school-shootings-since-columbine/

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Tween YA books for Mental Health: Please Advise by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

8/3/2022

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​Gretchen Rumohr is Chief Curator of YA Wednesday.  She serves as a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.
Tween YA books for Mental Health: Please Advise by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

You may have noticed that this summer, YA Wednesday has taken on a less regular schedule (at least for Wednesdays).  In typical summertime fashion, there has been time to play, time to read, time to rest.  But behind the scenes of this summer, there have been other challenges:  children who are also off of school and require  care and attention; hospitalizations and follow-ups; disruptions in custody schedules.  Throughout these bumps, my goal continues to be an ongoing conversation about the value of YA literature in our, and our students’ lives.


Which brings me to today’s goal. My own summer’s theme has been caring for loved ones who struggle with depression and self-harm.  And in looking for support on this theme, I notice that there are plenty of books in the “grade 9 and up” category that address mental health–yet very few books in the “tween” category.  This is especially challenging if a tween is a reluctant or struggling reader.

Our tweens–who are on waiting lists at psychiatrists’ offices, can’t find counselors who participate in their insurance, or are struggling quietly, alone, afraid to even tell someone what’s actually on their mind–need to be seen and heard.  They need to see themselves represented in accessible, high-interest YA books. 

​Let’s use this space today to share all of our favorite tween books that address mental health.  

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    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

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