Synopses & Reviews
...an invaluable resource for appropriate titles as well as for advice about defending them against challenges. - California English, Winter 1999...helpful to teachers involved in book selection and would provide some encouragement for teachers to risk trying potentially controversial texts.This well-organized book would be most useful to practicing teachers, teachers-in-training... - Choice, June 2000This volume emphasizes the importance of teaching young adult literature in middle and high schools and offers guidance for dealing with the resulting challenges that may arise. - School Library Journal, July 2000Rationales for Teaching Young Adult Literature addresses two related concerns. Teachers and students today are eager for quality literature to replace or supplement traditional fare. Yet finding appropriate modern reading materials can be a time-consuming chore. Furthermore, the very content that makes a work interesting and germane to adolescents will frequently open it to attack by parents or others in the community. While no one book can be expected to provide complete solutions to these problems, Rationales for Teaching Young Adult Literature is an invaluable resource for finding appropriate books and, when necessary, defending them against challenges. Twenty-five educators recommend proven novels, nonfiction works, and short story collections that adolescents enjoy. Contributors provide synopses, sample excerpts, and brief author biographies, along with activities and objectives for teaching the works. Also provided are ways to deal with potential challenges. Comments from teenagers supplement many of the rationales. Selection guides categorize titles by theme and by age level. Finally, each rationale offers alternative and related titles. This is truly a book for everyone involved in the teaching of young adult literature.
Review
...an invaluable resource for appropriate titles as well as for advice about defending them against challenges.California English, Winter 1999
Review
...helpful to teachers involved in book selection and would provide some encouragement for teachers to risk trying potentially controversial texts.This well-organized book would be most useful to practicing teachers, teachers-in-training...Choice, June 2000
Review
This volume emphasizes the importance of teaching young adult literature in middle and high schools and offers guidance for dealing with the resulting challenges that may arise.School Library Journal, July 2000
Synopsis
Twenty-five educators recommend proven novels, nonfiction works, and short story collections that adolescents enjoy.
Synopsis
Rationales for Teaching Young Adult Literature addresses two related concerns. Teachers and students today are eager for quality literature to replace or supplement traditional fare. Yet finding appropriate modern reading materials can be a time-consuming chore. Furthermore, the very content that makes a work interesting and germane to adolescents will frequently open it to attack by parents or others in the community.
While no one book can be expected to provide complete solutions to these problems, Rationales for Teaching Young Adult Literature is an invaluable resource for finding appropriate books and, when necessary, defending them against challenges. Twenty-five educators recommend proven novels, nonfiction works, and short story collections that adolescents enjoy. Contributors provide synopses, sample excerpts, and brief author biographies, along with activities and objectives for teaching the works. Also provided are ways to deal with potential challenges.
Comments from teenagers supplement many of the rationales. Selection guides categorize titles by theme and by age level. Finally, each rationale offers alternative and related titles. This is truly a book for everyone involved in the teaching of young adult literature.
About the Author
Jamie Hayes Neufeld is a graduate student in English education at Colorado State University. She is a licensed English teacher with experience teaching in Japan.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence edited by Marion Dane Bauer ( Nancy Prosenjak )
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block ( Karen Williams )
The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks ( Chris Crowe )
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes ( Rene Schillinger )
The Crazy Horse Electric Game by Chris Crutcher ( Shirl Chumley )
Ironman by Chris Crutcher ( Lisa A. Spiegel )
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer ( Sylvia Pantaleo and Rebecca Luce-Kapler )
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines ( Durthy A. Washington )
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden ( Lynne Alvine )
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse ( Jackie E. Swensson )
Jack by A.M.Homes ( Greg Hamilton )
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ( Dawn Latta Kirby and Angela Dykstra )
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver ( Rebecca Luce-Kapler and Sylvia Pantaleo )
Spite Fences by Trudy Krisher ( C.J.Bott )
Memoirs of a Bookbat by Kathryn Lasky ( Donald R. Gallo )
In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason ( Lou Orfanella )
Out of Control by Norma Fox Mazer ( Linda Broughton )
Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori ( Connie S. Zitlow )
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers ( Jolene Borgese and Susan Ebert )
If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan ( Jeffrey S. Kaplan )
When She Hollers by Cynthia Voigt ( Suzanne Lustie )
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson ( Susan McGinty )
Afterword: Listening to the Readers
Titles Annotated in this Book
Selection Guides