Teenagers and Literature

Being literate increases a person's chances of enjoying good mental health, but many of today's teenagers come from backgrounds or circumstances that interfere with their literacy development. This unique resource for teachers, librarians, counselors and parents combines the expertise of two professionals: literacy experts and therapists. Together they provide guidance, through the examination and analysis of characters in young adult literature, to those working with troubled teens. Helping professionals and parents can gain insight into the inner workings of teenagers and encourage them to deal with their family issues and emotional problems while improving their reading and writing skills.

The traditional illnesses and high risk behaviors of today's adolescents have become interwoven due to the multitude of physical, social and emotional changes young people experience. Through appropriate literature, adolescents can find the power to heal and renew their lives. This reference resource provides a link for teachers, media specialists, parents, and other adults to those novels that can help adolescents struggling with health issues. Educators and therapists explore novels where common health issues are addressed in ways to captivate teens. Using fictional characters, these experts provide guidance on encouraging adolescents to cope while improving their reading and writing skills.

The search for one's identity is an ancient quest reflected throughout history in stories where human glory and conquest are often layered with great pain and self doubt, meant to help people discover themselves and who they are. Today, this quest is found prevalently in young adult novels, where characters wrestle with modern dilemmas in order to find themselves. This reference resource provides a link for teachers, media specialists, parents, and other adults to those novels and how to use them effectively. Educators and therapists explore the literature where common identity issues are addressed in ways intriguing to teens. Using fictional characters, these experts provide guidance on how to encourage adolescents to cope while improving their reading and writing skills.

Teachers, media specialists, parents, and other adults who work with adolescents must recognize that our society influences who teenagers are and how they develop as language users. This unique resource provides guidance to these professionals by pairing literacy specialists with counselors who introduce information about societal issues important to today's adolescents. These experts then explore literature in which issues such as: body image, sexuality, and leaving home are addressed in ways likely to interest teens. By examining fictional characters, these experts provide guidance to those working with teenagers, so they can encourage adolescents to deal with the conflicts and issues imposed upon them by our society while improving their reading and writing skills.

The literary classics that are traditionally required in grades 7-12 are often too complex and removed from adolescent experience. This highly readable guide, from a classroom teacher and one of the nation's leading authorities on young adult literature, shows teachers and school librarians how to use young adult literature as a bridge to the classics to help students become more critical and enthusiastic readers. Innovative thematic connectors link quality young adult novels, many of them multicultural, to the 12 most frequently taught works of literature. Extensive annotated lists of additional works of young adult literature complement each of these 12 classics. Herz and Gallo also show how young adult books can be incorporated into other subject classes.

Literature often is central to individual maturation. It typically reflects, in one way or another, the experiences of the reader and the larger strains of society. This book examines representative works of science fiction, children's literature, and popular culture as mirrors of what it means to grow up in the contemporary world. That world is permeated by technology, and technology thus figures prominently in the process of growing up and in these literary works. Included are chapters on Superman, the Hardy Boys, Star Trek, music videos, and other topics.