Reference Sources:
The most valuable reference sources for your research will often be encyclopedias (academic/subject specific encyclopedias)
Recommended Reference Databases for your YA Literature essay:
Gale Literary Sources
Credo Reference
Gale Reference
The Sage Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies
Reference Article: Young Adult (YA) Literature (from the Sage Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies)
Contemporary Literary Criticism
by
Reference Article: Contemporary Young Adult Literature (from Contemporary Literary Criticism)
Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice
by
TThe Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender
Books are good to use when you are researching something that has happened further in the past, or if you want broader overviews of a topic. When you search for books, you will want to use broader terms in your search statement.
*Remember to the Books filter to limit to books and ebooks
Examples of keywords search in Books and More:
censorship AND "young adult literature"
"social justice" AND "young adult literature"
identity AND "young adult literature"
LGBTQ AND "young adult literature"
multicultural AND "young adult literature"
Subject Terms:
The library uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), a controlled vocabulary, to organize books by subject. Since subjects tell you what the book is about, this means that you can use these terms to find more books on the same subject.
The terms listed can be used as keywords in your search statements to help you find more books on your topic.
In the example below, I searched for the keywords LGBTQ AND "young adult literature". After narrowing down my results to include Books only, I found an ebook entitled Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum. The subject headings for this book suggest that I could try searching words or phrases like Gay people in literature, Lesbians in literature, or Homosexuality in literature "to identify other potentially useful books.
Book title: Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum
Subject Terms:
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Young adult literature—Study and teaching
Building Searches using Advanced Search Techniques
ex. Wom?n
This will return results for the words
woman
women
Examples of Search Statements
“young adult literature” AND “critical thinking” AND “high school” AND adolescent
(“young adult literature” OR “young adult fiction”) AND “critical thinking” AND (“high school” OR “secondary school”) AND curriculum AND adolescents
(“young adult literature” OR “young adult fiction”) AND “critical thinking” AND (“high school” OR “secondary school”) AND curriculum AND (adolescent OR teen* OR youth)
Research guides list the best resources for research in academic/subject areas. To locate the list of Research Guides:
Go to:
https://infotogo.meredith.edu/home
In the top banner, click on Research Support and then Research Guides
Recommended Research Guides for your YA Lit Research questions:
Education - (For YA Lit research questions relating to the classroom, curriculum, lifelong learning, reading, etc)
Psychology- (For YA Lit research questions relating to identity, gender, mental health, neurodivergent, etc.)
Sociology - (For YA Lit research questions relating to social justice, diversity, racial diversity, multicultural issues, social issues, etc.)
Other useful Research Guides:
Child Development
Women and Gender Studies
LGBTQ Resources
African-American History
Latine Research Guide
Asian-American Studies
The flow of information through our modern digital world has led to many new issues and controversies. Book Banning and Other Forms of Censorshipexamines how and why schools, special-interest groups, and governments attempt to suppress information in print and online. Compelling text, well-chosen photographs, and extensive back matter give readers a clear look at these complex issues. Features include essential facts, a glossary, additional resources, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Taking a critical, research-oriented perspective, this exploration of the theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical connections between the reading and teaching of young adult literature and adolescent identity development centers around three key questions: Who are the teens reading young adult literature? Why should teachers teach young adult literature? Why are teens reading young adult literature? All chapters work simultaneously on two levels: each provides both a critical resource about contemporary young adult literature that could be used in YA literature classes or workshops and specific practical suggestions about what texts to use and how to teach them effectively in middle and high school classes. Theorizing, problematizing, and reflecting in new ways on the teaching and reading of young adult literature in middle and secondary school classrooms, this valuable resource for teachers and teacher educators will help them to develop classrooms where students use literature as a means of making sense of themselves, each other, and the world around them.
Give your readers a truly global review of social justice and equality. Readers will learn from a variety of international perspectives. Across four chapters, readers will explore social justice's relationship to economic inequality, minorities, gender, and the global community. Compelling essays expose information that readers should know, such as whether economic growth in India and China as exacerbated inequality. Essay sources include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Amnesty International, and the Jubilee Debt Campaign. Essayists include Deepankar Basu, Mohamed S. Ben Aissa, Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, and Algernon Austin.
This incisive study analyzes young adult (YA) literature as a cultural phenomenon, explaining why this explosion of books written for and marketed to teen readers has important consequences for how we understand reading in America. As visible and volatile shorthand for competing views of teen reading, YA literature has become a lightning rod for a variety of aesthetic, pedagogical, and popular literature controversies. Noted scholar Loretta Gaffney not only examines how YA literature is defended and critiqued within the context of rapid cultural and technological changes, but also highlights how struggles about teen reading matter to--and matter in--the future of librarianship and education. The workbridges divides between literary criticism, professional practices, canon building, literature appreciation, genre classifications and recommendations, standard histories, and commentary. It will be useful in YA literature course settings in Library and Information Science, Education, and English departments. It will also be of interest to those who study right wing culture and movements in media studies, cultural studies, American studies, sociology, political science, and history. It is of additional interest to those who study print culture, publishing and the book, histories of teenagers, and research on teen reading. Finally, it will offer those interested in teenagers, literature, libraries, technology, and politics a fresh way to look at book challenges and controversies over YA literature.
Taking a critical, research-oriented perspective, this exploration of the theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical connections between the reading and teaching of young adult literature and adolescent identity development centers around three key questions: Who are the teens reading young adult literature? Why should teachers teach young adult literature? Why are teens reading young adult literature? All chapters work simultaneously on two levels: each provides both a critical resource about contemporary young adult literature that could be used in YA literature classes or workshops and specific practical suggestions about what texts to use and how to teach them effectively in middle and high school classes. Theorizing, problematizing, and reflecting in new ways on the teaching and reading of young adult literature in middle and secondary school classrooms, this valuable resource for teachers and teacher educators will help them to develop classrooms where students use literature as a means of making sense of themselves, each other, and the world around them.
This book offers a multifaceted approach to the world of young adults, everything from Ray Schrock's use of Walter Dean Myers' sports stories to discuss race relations and cultural politics to Joyce Litton's analysis of the highly popular Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Quartet. The cover illustration is done by Joel Rudinger based on his experiences with the Inuit where he learned many of their legends and myths, resulting in his own excellent work on Sedna, the creation goddess, a story filled with deep tragedy, mystery and the world of the spirits. This mythic world slides into the discussion of Harry Eiss, one that focuses on The Isis Trilogy, best known of Monica Hughes many works, who writes, Science fiction and fantasy in particular are valid carriers of myth for the 20th century, and most especially for young people. Margaret Best and Susann deVries also give us literature that uses science. They begin, The science fair project is the central metaphor and the reality in Paul Zindel's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1970), Christopher Paul Curtis's Bucking the Sarge (2004), and Joyce Maynard's The Cloud Chamber (2005). After providing an overview science fiction, Sally Sugarman offers a study of the entire genre. For this study two hundred and thirty-nine high school students from two schools in Vermont and Massachusetts were surveyed. Alethea K. Helbig provides an overview of her important activities promoting literature for the young. She was a seminal scholar and educator when colleges and universities were just beginning to take the study of such literature seriously, when English departments were initiating serious undergraduate and graduate classes in what previously had been seen as inferior literature. Her life itself provides us with an entertaining and historically valuable autobiographical account of a person at the center of the change that has taken and continues to take place. Jerry Loving expands the horizons of the entire collection of essays, providing a firsthand account of how the young are educated in China, including a detailed history. It begins: I have been traveling to mainland China at least 4 to 6 times a year as a teacher or education evaluator since 2002. As the visits and years passed, I watched the education system of China slowly improve to the level my schools were like when I went to school in the 50's and 60's
There are novels that portray cities as magical places, others as stifling, imposing environments, and others still as a gritty but beautiful, living landscape. Cities can be the center of culture, business, the arts, and are the meeting places for diversities of all kinds. Examining Images of Urban Lifegathers contributions from scholars, educators, and young adult authors, like Benjamin Alire Saenz and e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, who consider how living in a city affects character identity and growth, and the ways authors world-build the urban setting. The collection discusses what the urban landscape means, and dispels the media-driven, anecdotally propagated preconceptions about city living. Urban life is varied and rich, just as its literature is. The collection revolves around a reconsideration of what the city represents, to its readers and to its inhabitants, and serves as a resource in urban settings, wherein teachers can select books that mirror and advocate for the students sitting in their classes. Perfect for courses such as: Young Adult Literature | Children's Literature | Elementary Literacy | Reading and Literacy | Methods of Teaching | Public Purposes of Education | Educational or Historical Foundations of Education | Urban Studies | Media and Library Sciences
This book explores how mental illness is portrayed in 21st-century young adult fiction and how selected works can help teachers, librarians, and mental health professionals to more effectively address the needs of students combating mental illness.Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature: Exploring Real Struggles through Fictional Characters highlights American young adult literature published since the year 2000 that features characters grappling with mental illness. Chapters focus on mental disorders identified by the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and OCD. Each chapter begins with a description of a mental illness that includes its prevalence, demographic trends, symptoms, related disorders, and treatment options before examining a selection of young adult texts in depth. Analysis of the texts explores how a mental illness manifests for a particular character, how that character perceives him- or herself and is perceived by others, and what treatment or support he or she receives. The connections between mental illness and race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and identity are examined, and relevant research from education, psychology, and adolescent health is thoroughly integrated. Each chapter also provides a list of additional readings. An appendix offers strategies for integrating young adult literature into health curricula and other programs.
This thought-provoking book will provide masters students, teachers and researchers with a toolkit and theoretical framework for teaching literacy through children's literature. It features innovative ideas for developing student and teacher experiences with literature and popular culture texts in the classroom, providing practical examples and teaching aids throughout. Taking a collaborative approach, Curtin explores how teachers and learners can engage with literature and its authors for the development of literacy in classroom practice. Connecting reader and writer identities and worlds through interviews with and suggested classroom activities from authors themselves, this text combines author, teacher and learner perspectives in the development of creative pedagogies that extend understandings of literacy beyond reading, writing and text. Exploring fairy-tales, comic books and graphic novels, children living in literature (i.e., texts which portray children, their lives and experiences), popular culture, young adult fiction, and non-fiction and digital texts such as blogs etc, this text develops a sociocultural understanding of literacy as a lived and contextually dependent practice where meaning is derived through relationships between people, settings and culture. Different contexts for literacy are explored, including reading and writing strategically (to learn about literacy and literature), widely (for personal purposes) and deeply (to transform understanding) (Short, 2011). This text will be an invaluable resource for teachers, researchers or anyone interested in reading and writing stories. The author interviews will also be of particular interest to older learners themselves as a way to develop their understanding of their own reading and writing practices. Pedagogies can be adapted to any age group, ranging from the early years to young adult.
In this book, RodrÃguez uses theories of critical literacy and culturally responsive teaching to argue that our schools, and our culture, need sustaining and inclusive young adult (YA) literature/s to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse readers and all students. This book provides an outline for the study of literature through cultural and literary criticism, via essays that analyze selected YA literature (drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) in four areas: scribal identities and the self-affirmation of adolescents; gender and sexualities; schooling and education of young adult characters; and teachers' roles and influences in characters' coming of age. Applying critical literacy theories and a youth studies lens, this book shines a light on the need for culturally sustaining and inclusive pedagogies to read adolescent worlds. Complementing these essays are critical conversations with seven key contemporary YA literature writers, adding biographical perspectives to further expand the critical scholarship and merits of YA literature.
Requests for the removal, relocation, and restriction of books--also known as challenges--occur with some frequency in the United States. Book Banning in 21st-Century American Libraries, based on thirteen contemporary book challenge cases in schools and public libraries across the United States argues that understanding contemporary reading practices, especially interpretive strategies, is vital to understanding why people attempt to censor books in schools and public libraries. Previous research on censorship tends to focus on legal frameworks centered on Supreme Court cases, historical case studies, and bibliographies of texts that are targeted for removal or relocation and is often concerned with how censorship occurs. The current project, on the other hand, is focused on the why of censorship and posits that many censorship behaviors and practices, such as challenging books, are intimately tied to the how one understands the practice of reading and its effects on character development and behavior. It discusses reading as a social practice that has changed over time and encompasses different physical modalities and interpretive strategies. In order to understand why people challenge books, it presents a model of how the practice of reading is understood by challengers including "what it means" to read a text, and especially how one constructs the idea of "appropriate" reading materials. The book is based on three different kinds sources. The first consists of documents including requests for reconsideration and letters, obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests to governing bodies, produced in the course of challenge cases. Recordings of book challenge public hearings constitute the second source of data. Finally, the third source of data is interviews with challengers themselves. The book offers a model of the reading practices of challengers. It demonstrates that challengers are particularly influenced by what might be called a literal "common sense" orientation to text wherein there is little room for polysemic interpretation (multiple meanings for text). That is, the meaning of texts is always clear and there is only one avenue for interpretation. This common sense interpretive strategy is coupled with what Cathy Davidson calls "undisciplined imagination" wherein the reader is unable to maintain distance between the events in a text and his or her own response. These reading practices broaden our understanding of why people attempt to censor books in public institutions.
Carlyle Campbell Library
Meredith College
3800 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
919-760-8532
