Rebecca Maldonado is a high school teacher, research educator, and a doctoral graduate from the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focus is critical theory, teacher development, curriculum ideologies, global responsibility, arts integration, and young adult literature.

This edited volume blends two of the field’s (and my) favorite innovative practices—teaching through arts integration and young adult literature—into a beautiful cacophony of research backed and practically anchored chapters that both reinforce best practice while paving the way for new connections to be formed. Every middle and high school literacy-minded and students/learning focused teacher needs a copy of this book within reach as the challenges and opportunities of the classroom call for a constant evolution and deepening of our practice.

• AcknowledgementsForewordDr. Michael AngelottiIntroduction: A Story for the BooksRebecca MaldonadoSection 1 - Research & Rationale for Using Art Integration & Young Adult LiteratureChapter 1 - The Power of the Arts in the English Language Arts ClassroomKay W. Cowan and S. Rebecca LeighChapter 2 - From Stacks to Desks: A History of Young Adult Literature and the Case for InclusionChristian GregorySection 2 - Arts Integration and Young Adult Literature in ProseChapter 3 - Exploring Deadly Events Through Performance, Visual Storytelling, and Creative WritingYoung Adult Literature Text: What Made Maddy Run by Kate FaganThomas C. CrochunisChapter 4 - Impressions/Expressions: Using Arts Integration Strategies while Reading a Biography of an ArtistYoung Adult Literature Text: Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah HeiligmanSharon Kane with Deborah HeiligmanChapter 5 - Promoting Emotional Transformation Through Mandala MakingYoung Adult Literature Text: Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal SutherlandDonna L. MillerSection 3 - Arts Integration and Young Adult Literature in VerseChapter 6 - Digital Quilting: Weaving Words and ImagesYoung Adult Literature Text: Sold by Patricia McCormickPamela Hartman, Brandon Schuler, and Hannah FultonChapter 7 - The Student X: Centering Student Identity and Agency via Public Art and Young Adult LiteratureYoung Adult Literature Text: The Poet X by Elizabeth AcevedoStephen Goss and Jennifer S. DailChapter 8 - The Transpoemation Project: Poetry, Heterosexism, and Digital-age StorytellingYoung Adult Literature Text: October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Leslea NewmanToby EmertSection IV - Arts Integration with Other Young Adult Literature TextChapter 9 - Getting into Good Trouble: Exploring Visual Literacy with John Lewis’s MarchYoung Adult Literature Text: March, Book One by John LewisEmily Wender and Pauline Skowron SchmidtChapter 10 - A Bleak Picture?: Critical Pedagogy of Place and Finger Painting with SadieYoung Adult Literature Text: Sadie by Courtney SummersChea PartonChapter 11- Interrogating Boundaries Through Reader’s Theater Young Adult Literature Text: Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie ThrashAnn Marie Smith and Lisa A. HazlettAppendixAbout the EditorAbout the Contributors