Presenting Robert Lipsyte

by Michael Cart

In 1967 the celebrated sportswriter Robert Lipsyte published The Contender, a novel that almost singlehandedly transformed the superficial, idealistic fare known as teenage fiction into the serious, realistic genre of young adult literature. In The Contender and other young adult novels - among them One Fat Summer, Jock and Jill, The Chemo Kid, and The Brave - Lipsyte explores with palpable authenticity such issues as social consciousness, self-transformation, and male identity.
With Presenting Robert Lipsyte, Michael Cart contributes the first study devoted to the writer and his work, a thoughtful examination informed not only by personal interviews with Lipsyte but by Cart's own extensive knowledge of young adult literature.
Beautifully written and filled with aptly chosen quotations by and about the writer, Presenting Robert Lipsyte will be applauded by teachers and librarians and embraced by students from secondary through graduate school. Included are a preface, a chronology, notes and references, a selected bibliography, an appendix listing Lipsyte's awards and honors, and an index.

163 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Former Director of the Beverly Hills (CA) Public Library and a Past President of the Young Adult Library Services Association, Michael Cart is a nationally recognized expert in children's and young adult literature. Now a columnist and reviewer for ALA's Booklist magazine, he is the author or editor of eight books, including From Romance to Realism, a critical history of YA literature; MY FATHER'S SCAR, a young adult novel that was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and the anthology LOVE AND SEX: Ten Stories of Truth, also a Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

Michael teaches young adult literature at UCLA and is the recipient of the 2000 Grolier Foundation Award. He lives in northern California.