Essentials of Young Adult Literature

Kathy G. Short teaches graduate courses in young adult and children's literature, inquiry, and curriculum at the University of Arizona and taught in public schools in Ohio and Indiana. Her books include Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers, Literature as a Way of Knowing, and Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity. She is also co-author of Essentials of Children's Literature, eighth edition , published by Pearson in 2014, and director of Worlds of Words ( www.wowlit.org), an initiative to encourage the use of literature to explore global cultures.  She serves on various book award committees and is President-Elect of the National Council of Teachers of English.  Carl M. Tomlinson taught graduate and undergraduate courses in children's literature and language arts at Northern Illinois University. He was an elementary and middle school teacher in Thomasville, Georgia, public schools, and taught classes in English in Norway. He co-authored Essentials of Children's Literature, eighth edition, published by Pearson in 2014, and is the editor of Children's Books from Other Countries, published by USBBY and Scarecrow Press in 1998. Carol Lynch-Brown taught graduate and undergraduate courses in children’s and young adult literature, reading, and language arts education at Florida State University. She was a teacher in elementary school and middle school in St. Paul and Minneapolis Public Schools, and taught English in French Public Schools. She co-authored Essentials of Children's Literature, eighth edition, published by Pearson in 2014 and is a former editor of The Reading Teacher, a journal of the International Reading Association.  Holly Johnson teaches graduate courses in adolescent literature, adolescent literacy, and literacy as a linguistic and cultural tool at the University of Cincinnati.  Her books include Creating Confident Adolescent Readers: Key Elements for Building Proficiency and Developing Critical Awareness at the Middle Level: Using Texts as Tools for Critique and Pleasure. She was a middle school language arts and reading teacher in Kentucky and Arizona, and taught as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana, Africa.

Essentials of Young Adult Literature has become the best text for blending the online instruction world with the traditional classroom world through its careful discipline. While brief, the text has focused upon key issues and illustrated the practice of 7-12 classroom English teachers without drifting into personal reminiscence or academic fluff. Its structure allows for creative development of online mediums while its cautious and concise chapters set the stage for traditional classroom interaction, giving this text the versatility to engage in several learning environments. Its approach is such that it offers insights for the classroom English teacher while still providing background for the literature major planning on teaching college literature, or the creative writer with an eye on the young adult market. Essentials of Young Adult Literature has gleaned the key elements that present young adult literature as a gateway toward more advanced reading of “classical literature” by demonstrating that young adult literature connects young readers to a wider literary world. —- Dr. Thomas Eaton, Southern Missouri State University  This text is the perfect one for college students. It is engaging, accessible, and informative. This text is a smart combination of genre study and author biography and self-identity. I believe my students welcome using a text that is inviting, informative, and relevant to their teaching lives. The authors beckon their readers to learn so much through its many ancillaries and critical thinking questions and activities. This is the perfect text for college students and teachers eager to learn about good books for teens and how best to motivate lifelong readers. -- Jeffrey Stuart Kaplan, University of Central Florida  This text is excellent for providing an overview of young adult literature. It offers comprehensive recommended reading lists organized in meaningful ways to assist students in selecting appropriate materials in the young adult genre. The organization of the text itself makes it very useful because novice readers of young adult novels can easily familiarize themselves with the subgenres simply by looking at the Table of Contents and skimming the chapters. By using this text, students have a balance between reading about young adult novels and reading young adult novels for themselves. -- Dr. Charlotte Pass, SUNY Cortland

• Brief Table of Contents Preface        Part One: Young Adults and Young Adult Literature      CHAPTER ONE: Understanding Young Adults and Their Literature CHAPTER TWO: Learning about Literature Part Two: Genres of Literature CHAPTER THREE: Realistic Fiction CHAPTER FOUR: Fantasy and Science Fiction CHAPTER FIVE: Historical Fiction CHAPTER SIX: Nonfiction: Biography and Informational Books CHAPTER SEVEN: Poetry and Plays CHAPTER EIGHT: Literature for a Diverse Society Part Three Literature in the Schools                                                                                          CHAPTER NINE: Literature in the Curriculum CHAPTER TEN: Experiencing Literature                                                                                 APPENDIX A: Book Awards                                                                                                APPENDIX B: Magazines                                                                                                       Index to Books and Authors          &nbs