Keesha’s House Johnson, Kristine Keesha’s House by Helen Frost Frances Foster Books, 2003, 128 pp., $16.00 Poetry/Teen Problems ISBN: 0-374-34064-1 Stephie is pregnant; Jason is the father and an all-star on the basketball court. Dontay’s parents live in prison while he remains in foster care, and Carmen waits to be released from juvenile detention. Harris […]
Getting Beyond the Cuss Words: Using Marxism and Binary Opposition to Teach Ironman and The Catcher in the Rye Scherff, Lisa Abrief return to the high school classroom in 2004 provided me with the opportunity to teach young adult literature for the first time in my career. In the six years I taught English and […]
King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography DeAngelis, Len King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography Autobiography by Chris Crutcher ISBN: 0-06-050249-5 Greenwillow Books, 2003, 208 pp., $16.99 Chris Crutcher, the renowned author of Chinese Handcuffs and Staying Fat for Sarah Burns (among other award winners), has strung together a set of Christmas […]
Teens, Literature, and the Web Peterson, Karen Who is more “web savvy” than today’s teens? They have grown up using computers and the Internet. A recent study conducted by Yahoo, “Born to be Wired,” shows that 82% of teens have a computer and 78% use the web to help with schoolwork. It also shows teens […]
“Art Is Not a Mirror to Reflect Reality, but a Hammer to Shape It”: How the Changing Lives through Literature Program for Juvenile Offenders Uses Young Adult Novels to Guide Troubled Teens Greinke, Russell HECTOR: The best moments in reading are when you come across something-a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things-which […]
Spiritual quest in the realm of Harry Potter Radley, Gail While such a shifting, unreliable physical world seems fantastic, it is not hard to find parallels with the psychological realms we inhabit; how much more true this is for children for whom the world is mysterious, new, and filled with incomprehensible rules and ways of […]
New Perspectives in Young Adult Literature Kaplan, Jeffrey S All of us lead busy lives, and our ability to read everything about a subject we love-young adult literature-is impossible at best. Too often, we give a cursory glance to that we favor, hoping someday, we will have the time and the inclination to read all […]
Unsuspecting Gourmet (Missing Persons Book 4), The Frerichs, Joy The Unsuspecting Gourmet (Missing Persons Book 4) by M. E. Rabb Speak, imprint of Penguin Group, 2004, 169 pp., $5.99 Mystery/Romance ISBN: 0-14-250044-5 This delightful mystery centers on two orphaned girls, Sophie and Sam, who are living incognito in Venice, Indiana due to a conniving stepmother. […]
Consider the source: Feminism and point of view in Karen Hesse’s Stowaway and Witness Glenn, Wendy J The source through which we receive information can influence significantly the message ultimately acquired. In a trial setting, for example, attorneys for the prosecution and defense tweak details surrounding an event to shape jury members’ perceptions of truth. […]
24 Girls in 7 Days Young, Karolinde 24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley Dutton Books, 2005, 265 pp., $15.99 Self-discovery/Romance ISBN: 0-525-47369-6 After Jack fails to get a date for the prom, his best friends place a personal ad in the online school newspaper. Jack has seven days to date twenty-four girls and […]