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Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century
"Young Adult Literature" is an in-depth literature survey that also models how to teach literature and reading to middle school and high school students. The first three chapters familiarize teacher candidates with the reading process of teens, discuss teen attitudes toward reading, and examine their interests and reading abilities. The genre chapters (Chapters 4-13) discuss genre characteristics and themes, survey young adult literature within the genre category, and examine relevant young adult literature in terms of style and structure. Each of the genre chapters also includes selections to illustrate methods for teaching reading to all learners - including methods that focus on writing skills - and provides the teacher candidate with additional resources in the field of young adult literature.
720 pages, Paperback
First published November 19, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 10, 2009
This is a fine overview of the full field of Young Adult literature as it stands today. Written as a textbook, I assume for future educators, it still makes for interesting reading. It's full of short contributions by YA writers and great book lists on dozens of different YA genres and themes. Each chapter also has some good strategies for helping readers engage with the literature. This is perhaps the best overview I have seen of YA books.
August 11, 2019
If you are ever in a position of having to teach pre-service teachers about young adult lit, this is your book.
If you are ever in a position of having to explain YAL to people, this is your book.
If you've never read YAL and want recommendations based on genre, topic, and/or themes, this is your book.
If you're a middle or high school English teacher looking for strategies, this is your book.
If you're a librarian looking for titles, reader advisory, book lists, recommendations based on genre, topic, theme, etc., this is your book.
For everyone else, skip. It's not overly scholarly, which may be a plus to some readers. It's easily broken down and written by many people, so a lot of perspectives are covered. But many--too many, really, references are for white and/or male writers, even when not discussing YAL. It's not clear who the audience is for this--teachers? librarians? scholars?
The layout is also confusing. Too many confusing inserts make the flow difficult. And, I've pointed out other errors that were missed in editing this book. Overall, this was frustratingly not what I wanted or hoped for, nor does it add to the field in a new or exciting way.
If you are ever in a position of having to explain YAL to people, this is your book.
If you've never read YAL and want recommendations based on genre, topic, and/or themes, this is your book.
If you're a middle or high school English teacher looking for strategies, this is your book.
If you're a librarian looking for titles, reader advisory, book lists, recommendations based on genre, topic, theme, etc., this is your book.
For everyone else, skip. It's not overly scholarly, which may be a plus to some readers. It's easily broken down and written by many people, so a lot of perspectives are covered. But many--too many, really, references are for white and/or male writers, even when not discussing YAL. It's not clear who the audience is for this--teachers? librarians? scholars?
The layout is also confusing. Too many confusing inserts make the flow difficult. And, I've pointed out other errors that were missed in editing this book. Overall, this was frustratingly not what I wanted or hoped for, nor does it add to the field in a new or exciting way.
May 2, 2021
I read this as a text for a YA class, but thoroughly enjoyed the insights and book lists. In addition, there are some great reading lessons provided.
August 22, 2014
This oft-cited text provides a comprehensive overview of young adult literature. It begins with descriptions of adolescence, the young adult reader, and trends/issues in YAL. From there, Cole provides complete histories of the genres with the field of YAL with abundant examples of texts to fit each of her examples. The text features are most remarkable—YA authors weigh in on issues that Cole discusses, and the author boxes are both intriguing and informative. The text ends with chapters by two guest authors (Faith H. Wallace and James Blasingame), who weigh in on the influence of popular culture and integration of writing.
November 11, 2014
A well-written, thorough study of Young Adult Literature from its origins. I especially enjoyed the added notes and stories from YA Lit authors. While it seems particularly aimed at future educators, the study is not exclusive, and I really enjoyed learning more about all the facets of this genre.
July 22, 2011
Excellent resource on current YAL and complementary teaching strategies!
July 24, 2011
This is a great teacher resource for middle or secondary teachers. I also found it to be a great resource for writing a young adult novel.
July 28, 2014
Teachers of middle school and young adults will find this book useful in teaching and selecting young adult materials.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews