What's New In Young Adolescent Literature - UCF College of ...

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Oct 8, 2010 ... Kristin Cashore's Fire. • Synopsis. – It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In. King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel ...
What’s New In Young Adolescent Literature HAPPY Hour Workshop Friday, October 8, 2010 2:00-4:00 p.m. UCF Orlando Campus: Teaching Academy Room 130

What is YA Literature? • Attempts to answer the question, “What books should students read - in school and for pleasure – and why?”

• This is a tough question. Everyone has an opinion, and this class seeks to elicit such beliefs. Basically, what do you, as a citizen, parent and a future teacher, believe should be the public school’s role in guiding students’ reading

Definition of Young Adult (YA) Literature • The Young Adult Service Division of the American Library Association defines the age range of an adolescent or young adult as ages 10-19. – Early adolescence (Elementary or Middle School or grades 5, 6, 7) – Middle adolescence (Junior High or grades 8, 9, 10) – Later adolescence (High school or grades 11, 12)

Definition of Young Adult (YA) Literature • Literature written for and marketed to young adults. Young adult literature is usually given the birth date of 1968 with the advent of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders. Other forms of literature prior to this date may have had young adult protagonists (such as Huck Finn), but it was usually intended for an adult audience.

• Characteristics of a young adult novel usually include several of the following: (1) a teenage (or young adult) protagonist (2) first-person perspective (3) adult characters in the background (4) a limited number of characters (5) a compressed time span and familiar setting (6) current slang

(7) detailed descriptions of appearance and dress

BOOKS WORTH READING

Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction Established in 2008 to honor the wishes of Amelia Elizabeth Walden, the award allows for the sum of $5,000 to be presented annually to the author of a book selected by the ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents) Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (AEWA) Committee as “the title of the year most relevant to adolescents and having enjoyed a wide and appreciative teenage audience.”

Kristin Cashore’s Fire •

Synopsis – It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her. Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

From: http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-books.html http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fire/KristinCashore/e/9781101155806/?itm=1&USRI=fire+and+cashore

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear--part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify--and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file -- a picture of a girl with half a face -- that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Marcelo-in-the-RealWorld/Francisco-XStork/e/9780545231848/?itm=1&USRI=marcelo+in+the+real+ world

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me. So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was eating her, Will's world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagus--a headless monster that feeds through a mouth in its chest--and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatening to overtake and consume our world before it is too late.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/TheMonstrumologist/RickYancey/e/9781439152614/?itm=1&USRI=rick+yancey

As he continued to stare, I wanted to point to my cheek and remind him, But you were the one who wanted this, remember? You're the one who asked-and I repeat-Why not fix your face?

It's hard not to notice Terra Cooper. She's tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably "flawed" face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob's path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/North-ofBeautiful/Justina-ChenHeadley/e/9780316040785/?itm=1&USRI=north+of+beautiful

Austin Gray is sick of being an overlooked ninthgrader in her small Texas town (“I was just tired of feeling less-than, tired of waving back and being passed by”). Six years after losing her father, Austin endures endless taunting by the school bully, Dean, and unintentional alienation by her overprotective mother (still unwilling to broach the subject of her husband’s death) and her best friend, Maribel (“We were parallel friends going through life together but in two different worlds”). Overdue for a moment in the spotlight, Austin decides to raise a spirited Black Rosecomb Bantam rooster (which she names Charles Dickens), with the intention of winning a prize in the Future Farmers of America contest and being the star of the annual Christmas parade.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Sweetheart-ofProsper-County/Jill-SAlexander/e/9781429927123/?itm=1&USRI=the+sweetheart+ of+prosper+county

The Printz Award The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.

Can Cameron find what he is looking for? All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school and life in general with a minimum of effort. It is not a lot to ask. But that is before he is given some bad news: he is sick and he is going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure if he is willing to go in search of it. With the help of a deathobsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most. From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Going-Bovine/LibbaBray/e/9780375893766/?itm=1&USRI=going+bovine

Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. Challenges about teaching the theory of evolution in schools occur annually all over the country. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Charles-andEmma/DeborahHeiligman/e/9781429934954/?itm=1&USRI=charles+and+em ma%3a+the+darwins%E2%80%99+leap+of+faith

Fourteen-year-old Jamie, aka “Punkzilla,” is on a mission: to see his older brother, Peter (“P”), before P dies of cancer. Jamie embarks on a days-long bus trip from Portland, Oregon, to Memphis, Tennessee. Along the way, he sees a sketchier side of America the Beautiful: seedy motels, dicey bus stations, and a colorful, sometimes dangerous cast of characters. In letters he writes to P, Jamie catalogs them all - the freaky but kind transsexual, the old woman with the oozing eye, the girl with the long, wavy blond hair. But with each interstate exit he passes, Jamie grows more anxious. Will he make it to Tennessee in time?

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Punkzilla/AdamRapp/e/9780763652586/?itm=1&USRI=punkzilla

High school senior Karl Shoemaker just wants to be normal. Since fourth grade, Karl has been unable to escape the stigma of the Madman Underground, a school therapy group for screwed-up kids (he earned the nickname "Psycho" after cutting up a classmate's rabbit in seventh grade). But with a drunken, hippie mom who believes that Nixon is in cahoots with aliens and who steals Karl's hard-earned money, a horde of pet cats that leave droppings everywhere and a claustrophobic hometown that still worships his deceased father (the former mayor), Karl's quest for normalcy seems doomed. In his YA debut, Barnes masterfully turns what should be a depressing tale about teenage misfits who are regularly abused, molested or neglected into a strangely heartwarming story about a kid who refuses to suck the lemons life keeps handing him, the bonds of friendship and the lengths a son will go to protect his mother.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Tales-of-theMadman-Underground/JohnBarnes/e/9780670060818/?itm=1&USRI=tales+of+the+madm an+underground%3a+an+historical+romance%2c+1973

Some of my favorites

Sometime in the near future, Jenna Fox, 17, awakens from an 18-month-long coma following a devastating accident, her memory nearly blank. She attempts reorientation by watching videos of her childhood, "recorded beyond reason" by worshipful parents, but mysteries proliferate. Jenna can recite passages from Thoreau yet can't remember having any friends. As memories return, however, Jenna starts picking at the explanation her parents have spun until it unravels. Pearson (A Room on Lorelei Street ) uses each revelation to steadily build tension until the true horror comes into focus. Even then Pearson does not stop; she raises the ante in unexpected ways until the very last page. Clues are supplied by the supporting cast: Jenna's father, who made his fortune in biotechnology; a classmate whose loss of limbs has turned her into a crusader for medical ethics; Jenna's Catholic grandmother, who is hostile to her.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Adoration-ofJenna-Fox/Mary-EPearson/e/9780312594411/?itm=1&USRI=jenna+fox

It is just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fistfighter, and quite a lot of thievery. Set during World War II in Germany, this groundbreaking novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist books. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-BookThief/MarkusZusak/e/9780375842207/?itm=1&USRI=book+theif

Presented as the diary of hydrocephalic 14-year-old cartoonist and Spokane Indian Arnold Spirit Jr., the novel revolves around Junior's desperate hope of escaping the reservation. As he says of his drawings, "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats." He transfers to a public school 22 miles away in a rich farm town where the only other Indian is the team mascot. Although his parents support his decision, everyone else on the rez sees him as a traitor, an apple ("red on the outside and white on the inside"), while at school most teachers and students project stereotypes onto him: "I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other." Readers begin to understand Junior's determination as, over the course of the school year, alcoholism and selfdestructive behaviors lead to the deaths of close relatives. Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-AbsolutelyTrue-Diary-of-a-Part-Time-Indian/ShermanAlexie/e/9780316013697/?itm=1&USRI=true+diary+part+time +indian

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Paper-Towns/JohnGreen/e/9781616816766/?itm=1&USRI=paper+towns

Melinda Sordino busted an endof-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Speak/Laurie-HalseAnderson/e/9781616817473/?itm=1&USRI=speak

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Unwind/NealShusterman/e/9781416912057/?itm=1&USRI=unwind

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Shiver/MaggieStiefvater/e/9780545123273/?itm=3&USRI=shiver

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

From: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/teens_books_97803160 77033_Description.htm

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. From: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-HungerGames/SuzanneCollins/e/9780439023528/?itm=1&USRI=hunger+games

Just a few strategies for Using New Young Adult Books in the classroom

ReQuest (Manzo, 1969) •

Helps students move beyond low-level literal questions



The Request Procedure consists of the following steps: 1. Both the student and the teacher silently read a common selection from the text. The selection can be read one sentence at a time or a paragraph at a time. 2. After they have both read the passage, the student asks as many questions as he or she can. The teacher answers the questions clearly and completely. 3. Then it is the teacher’s turn to ask the questions about the same sentence or paragraph, and the student answers as fully as possible. By forming questions that call upon the student’s grasp of text structures, the teacher models good questioning strategies. 4. When the student has finished answering, the teacher and student read the next sentence or paragraph and proceed as before. 5. When the student has processed enough information to make predictions about the rest of the selection, the exchange of questions stops. The teacher then asks directed questions: “What do you think the rest of the assignment is about?” “Why do you think so?” The student reads the rest of the assignment. 6. The teacher facilitates follow-up discussion of the material.

SAY SOMETHING (Watson, 1977) • Talking about ideas is important in comprehending text. Verbalizing thought to someone else assists individuals in making connections with an author’s purpose for sharing information and feelings. 1. Each student receives a copy of the text for reading and responding. 2. The partners or group members decide cooperatively how far to read before stopping to talk about the author’s ideas or descriptions, and they decide who will speak first. 3. After reading the identified portion of the text, they stop and the designated speaker will say something related to the text. 4. Each person listens and responds with comments, reactions, or questions. The partners or members of the group may decide to reread the text to clarify ideas or to answer questions before reading the next portion for further discussion. They decide how far to read for the next section and the readers take turns and continue the cycle until the text has been completed. 5. Each person may keep notes of the main ideas discussed so that a group or partner report may be shared.

DIRECTED READING THINKING ACTIVITY (Stauffer, 1969)

• Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a useful strategy to get students to make inferences while reading. The role of the teacher is to guide students through a selection in order for them to formulate questions for themselves, make predictions, and validate or reject the predictions. The strategy should be done over a period of time during which the teacher models and gradually reduces guidance until students begin to use the strategy independently. The final instructional objective is that the students be able to independently apply the DRTA strategy to all their reading selections.

DIRECTED READING THINKING ACTIVITY

• STEPS

– Activate background knowledge. “Look at the picture and the title on the first page of the selection. Think about what you already know about the topic of the selection. Let’s share our ideas.” – Predict. “What do you think the selection will be about? What do you think will happen next?”

– Support the prediction. “Why do you think so?” – Read silently. The students read a section of the text such as an episode or episodes in a story. – Confirm or reject the predictions. “What predictions can you prove? Why or Why not?” – Repeat the cycle. Use with the next section of the selection.

Literature Circles • In literature circles, small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students' response to what they have read. You may hear talk about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story. Literature circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. Students reshape and add onto their understanding as they construct meaning with other readers. Finally, literature circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response. From: http://www.litcircles.org/Overview/overview.html

Literature Circles

From: Getting Started with Literature Circles by Katherine L. Schlick Noe & Nancy J. Johnson © 1999 Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.

Giving Book Talks

1. Choose a book you like, and that you feel is special enough to share 2. Read the book! 3. Once you finish, ask yourself what made the book meaningful to you 4. Don't give away the ending or any other secrets. 5. Do Not do a retelling. 6. Make it interesting from the start by beginning with a question, sharing a problem, discussing the setting, or a character, or telling a little bit of the plot. 7. Don't ruin the book by telling too much. Grab the readers interest, but leave them wanting more. 8. If you read aloud, it should be short. 9. Prepare and practice, know what you are going to say. 10. Concentrate on the book and your message. Don't worry about the audience.

What is your favorite YA book?