YA Literature about Pandemic and Epidemic Events by Emily Pendergrass and Melanie Hundley

3/23/2020

Two of my great friends and colleagues at Vanderbilt University have a robust set of young adult resources for their pre-service and in-service teachers in their area on their own website. One of the great things about resources that we put out into the web is that they are available to everyone, not just the people who initially inspired us to build them.

I put out a call to ask colleagues how they were doing and how they were coping with social distancing. One of the people who respond quickly was Emily Pendergrass. She mentioned that Melanie had just finished a list of YA books on Pandemic and Epidemic in real and dystopian contexts.

I asked for permission to share it on Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.

First--here is a link to their webpage: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/yabooklists/topics/pandemic-epidemic/

Second, I love what they have done.

Below is the body of the text with a new introduction, a slide show of covers, and links to all of the books:

YA Literature about Pandemic and Epidemic Events

The words “pandemic” and “epidemic” are a scary part of our current reality. A pandemic is a disease that is present across a country or the world. An epidemic is the outbreak of a disease that spreads rapidly and hits a lot of people at once. Long before our current pandemic of Covid-19, there were epidemics that effectives countries and continents—think of plagues and large scale flu outbreaks.

Young adult authors have written a lot of novels about epidemics that actually happened and imagined epidemics and pandemics in different time periods, societies, and planets. Here are just a few of the ones that we have found. Please let us know if you have others! Contact us at e.pendergrass@vanderbilt.edu

Pandemic / Epidemic

A Death-Struck Year Makiia Lucier
The Eleventh Plague Jeff Hirsch
Fever, 1793 Laurie Halse Anderson
The Last Dog on Earth Daniel Ehrenhaft
Plague Michael Grant
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum Mary Hooper
The Way We Fall Megan Crewe
Chasing Secrets Gennifer Choldenko
Deadly Julie Chibbaro
The Plague Joanne Dahme
The Goodbye Season Marian Hale
Agnes at the End of the World Kelly McWilliams
The Treatment Suzanne Young
Pandemic Yvonne Ventresca
A Matter of Days Amber Kizer
The Program Suzanne Young
Conversion Katherine Howe
Love is the Drug Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Fear Charlie Higson
The Sacrifice Charlie Higson
Plague 99 Jean Ure
Virals Kathy Reichs
Peeps  Scott Westerfield
Seizure  Kathy Reichs
Fever Year: The Killer Flue of 1918 Don Brown
Breath Donna Jo Napoli
The Plague Tales Anne Benson
The House on Hound Hill Maggie Prince
Hero of Lesser Causes Julie Johnston
The Heaven Shop Deborah Ellis
Footprints at the Window Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
The Cure Sonia Levitin
Masque of the Red Death Bethany Griffin
Dance of the Red Death Bethany Griffin
I Am Rembrandts’ Daughter Lynn Cullen
The Sunbird Elizabeth E. Wein
All Fall Down Susan Geason
Suicide Notes from Dead Girls  Lynn Weingarten
Survive the Night Danielle Vega

1 Comment

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

Meet
Evangile Dufitumukiza!

Evangile is a native of Kigali, Rwanda. He is a college student that Steve meet while working in Rwanda as a missionary. In fact, Evangile was one of the first people who translated his English into Kinyarwanda.

Steve recruited him to help promote Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media while Steve is doing his mission work.

He helps Dr. Bickmore promote his academic books and sometimes send out emails in his behalf.

You will notice that while he speaks fluent English, it often does look like an "American" version of English. That is because it isn't. His English is heavily influence by British English and different versions of Eastern and Central African English that is prominent in his home country of Rwanda.

Welcome Evangile into the YA Wednesday community as he learns about Young Adult Literature and all of the wild slang of American English vs the slang and language of the English he has mastered in his beautiful country of Rwanda.

While in Rwanda, Steve has learned that it is a poor English speaker who can only master one dialect and/or set of idioms in this complicated language.

Blogs to Follow

Stay tuned for information regarding the Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature!