Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Weekly Posts
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023
  • Monday Motivators 2023
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Contributors
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Lesley Roessing's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • 2021 UNLV online Summit
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
  • 2018 Summit
  • Contact
  • About
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday has a new Feature-- A YouTube Channel

Don't worry, it is easy to find.  Just go to YouTube and search for Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.

Check Out the YouTube Channel

Rereading the past and excavating the foundation: Cormier, Hamilton, Zindel, and Myers.

1/12/2017

0 Comments

 
As the new year starts, I have been considering what I should reread.  I need to thank Jo Knowles for part of this trip down memory lane, but more about on another posting soon. As Young Adult Literature (YAL) continues to expand, I believe we shouldn’t forget those who paved the way. I picked four authors from the early years of YA. (I know there could be a host of others—please feel free to add your selections in the comments or shoot me an email. Or, better yet, you might want to write your own post recommending other authors.) These four jumped to mind, because of the gigantic presence when I was starting out as a young teacher and, unfortunately, they are now gone. I picked Robert Cormier, Virginia Hamilton, Paul Zindel, and Walter Dean Myers. Walter has only been gone since 2014, but the other three have been gone for 17, 15, and 13 years respectfully. Do people who have recently entered the field in any capacity know about the tremendous contributions of these authors?
​
I have two concerns. First, I worry about creating a canon of YA authors and books that limits our understanding of the past. Second, while social media and the internet can keep teachers, librarians, and academic stay current with new authors, current award finalist, and new releases; how do we keep older, great books alive in our classrooms.
​Robert Cormier has always been a presence in my teaching life. I entered the classroom with The Chocolate War and I am the Cheese. They were always on the shelf. On the other hand, I was not always as proactive about promoting YAL as I should have been. Still, it was I am the Cheese that showed me that young adult literature was complex, sophisticated, and worthy of our attention at every level. I return to this wonderful novel more frequently than I care to admit. If the only novel by Cormier that you know is The Chocolate War, it is time to expand your horizons. I would pick I am the Cheese, but I don’t think you can go wrong with any of this titles. Grab the first one in your library.
​Virginia Hamilton is a trailblazer worthy to follow in the steps of such pioneers as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Her books were published and respected when a female African American children’s and young adult other was a rare commodity. Indeed, her first novel was published in 1967, a year often considered the beginning of the modern beginning of adolescent literature. It would be hard to ignore the impact and guidance of books like M. C. Higgins, The People Could Fly, and The Planet of Junior Brown.  Hamilton was the first African American author to receive the Newbery Medal. Once again do you know these wonderful books?
​Paul Zindel wrote his most successful play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds in 1964. It was performed in my high school when I was a senior. I had friends that acted in the play that ran on Broadway and garnered Zindel the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1971. Perhaps, it doesn’t hurt if Edward Albee was your teacher, mentor, and advocate. For high school teachers he was long the go to author for the students who were alienated, quirky, or heard a different drummer. The first book of The Pigman Trilogy, The Pigman, is a good place to start. Nevertheless, My Darling, My Hamburger or Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on My Eyeball! are books that will remind you why Zindel was an important fixture in the syllabi of early Young Adult literature courses.
​Last, but by no means the least on this list is Walter Dean Myers. With more than 100 books to his credit his reputation is secure. He won the Coretta Scott King Award five times and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature three different times. Novels such as Game, Scorpions, and Slam engaged many reluctant readers. Novels such as Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah remind us how much the USA depends on and requires of our young men in uniform. While many may not know some of Myers early work, it would be hard to miss the impact of Monster over the last ten years in America’s classrooms.
I hope you add some books by these authors to your “books to be read soon” list. I think you will enjoy them and will want to share them with students. If you would like to write a blog post about one of these authors, I would welcome it with open arms. If there are authors I missed, and there surely are, I would like hear about those as well

Until next week.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    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.

    Co-Edited Books

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Chris-lynch

    Blogs to Follow

    Ethical ELA
    nerdybookclub
    NCTE Blog
    yalsa.ala.org/blog/

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly