Award-winning author M. E. Kerr challenges stereotypes in this story about a fifteen-year-old grappling with his older sister’s sexuality Parr Burrman lives with his parents and his older brother and sister on a farm in Missouri. They’re a typical Midwestern family—except for one thing. Parr’s father thinks Evie’s going to marry Cord Whittle, who’s had a crush on her forever, and settle down in their hometown to help out with the farm. Instead, she falls in love with Patsy Duff, the gorgeous, privileged daughter of the banker who holds the mortgage on the Burrmans’ property. When rumors start flying about Evie and Patsy, Parr has to contend with the derision of his classmates . . . and when he falls for a girl from a fundamentalist family who fears homosexuality like God’s wrath, he must face his own conflicted emotions. Soon, Parr’s parents—and the whole town—will know the truth about Evie. But it’s Parr who has to deal with the burden of shame when his own behavior leads to a shattering betrayal . . . and a secret he’ll carry to the grave. Written with grace, humor, and love, and featuring sympathetic characters you won’t soon forget, Deliver Us from Evie is a compassionate, vividly evocative novel by a master storyteller. This ebook features an illustrated personal history of M. E. Kerr including rare images from the author’s collection.

The Young Adult novel is ordinarily characterized as a coming-of-age story, in which the narrative revolves around the individual growth and maturation of a character, but Roberta Trites expands this notion by chronicling the dynamics of power and repression that weave their way through YA books. Characters in these novels must learn to negotiate the levels of power that exist in the myriad social institutions within which they function, including family, church, government, and school. Trites argues that the development of the genre over the past thirty years is an outgrowth of postmodernism, since YA novels are, by definition, texts that interrogate the social construction of individuals. Drawing on such nineteenth-century precursors as Little Women and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Disturbing the Universe demonstrates how important it is to employ poststructuralist methodologies in analyzing adolescent literature, both in critical studies and in the classroom. Among the twentieth-century authors discussed are Blume, Hamilton, Hinton, Le Guin, L'Engle, and Zindel. Trites' work has applications for a broad range of readers, including scholars of children's literature and theorists of post-modernity as well as librarians and secondary-school teachers. Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature by Roberta Seelinger Trites is the winner of the 2002 Children's Literature Association's Book Award. The award is given annually in order to promote and recognize outstanding contributions to children's literature, history, scholarship, and criticisim; it is one of the highest academic honors that can accrue to an author of children's literary criticism.

Young adult literature featuring teenage lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning characters is fast growing in popularity. Unlike the "problem novels" of the past, which focused on the guilt, bullying and isolation of LGBTQ characters, today's narratives present more sympathetic and celebratory portrayals. The author explores a selection of recent novels--many of which may be new to readers--and places them in the wider contexts of LGBTQ literature and history. Chapters discuss a range of topics, including the relationship of Queer Theory to literature, LGBTQ families, and recent trends in utopian and dystopian science fiction.

When sincere believers succumb to temptation it is seldom a sudden thing," writes Richard Exley. "Rather it is the culmination of a series of seemingly innocent compromises that ultimately result in a tragic fall." Exley refers to seven stages of temptation that are common in almost every sinful failure. Maybe you will recognize them, or maybe you are struggling at one of them right now. No matter what stage you are in, don't be discouraged, Deliver Me is ultimately a book of encouragement. It is a guide to enhance your Christian walk by allowing scriptural principles to become part of your spiritual disciplines.

Discussions of gender and sexuality have become part of mainstream conversations and are being reflected in the work of more and more writers of fiction, particularly in literature aimed at young adult audiences. But young readers, regardless of their sexual orientation, don’t always know what books offer well-rounded portrayals of queer characters and situations. Fortunately, finding positive role models in fiction that features LGBTQ+ themes has become less problematic, though not without its challenges. In Representing the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature: LGBTQ+ Content since 1969, Christine Jenkins and Michael Cart provide an overview of the literary landscape. An expanded version of The Heart Has Its Reasons, this volume charts the evolution of YA literature that features characters and themes which resonate not only with LGBTQ+ readers but with their allies as well. In this resource, Jenkins and Cart identify titles that are notable either for their excellence—accurate, thoughtful, and tactful depictions—or deficiencies—books that are wrongheaded, stereotypical, or outdated. Each chapter has been significantly updated, and this edition also includes new chapters on bisexual, transgender, and intersex issues and characters, as well as chapters on comics, graphic novels, and works of nonfiction. This book also features an annotated bibliography and a number of author-title lists of books discussed in the text that will aid teachers, librarians, parents, and teen readers. Encompassing a wider array of sexual identities, Representing the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature is an invaluable resource for young people eager to read about books relevant to them and their lives.

Banned Books Week is celebrated the last full week in September and strives to make the public aware of books that have been banned or challenged in schools and public libraries, as well as in bookstores and other venues. Founded in 1982, the event is sponsored by the American Library Association, American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Association of American Publishers. The activities that champion the freedom to read during Banned Books Week include displays of banned or challenged books and read-outs in communities across the nation. In 2012, the American Library Association marked the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week by asking libraries in every state to participate in a virtual read-out. Recordings of these read-outs and of writers talking about challenges to their books are posted on a Banned Books Week Channel on YouTube. Students should understand that they do have the freedom to read, and they should use this week to become aware of attempts to abridge their rights.

An ever-expanding and panicked Wonder Woman lurches through a city skyline begging Steve to stop her. A twisted queen of sorority row crashes her convertible trying to escape her queer shame. A suave butch emcee introduces the sequined and feathered stars of the era’s most celebrated drag revue. For an unsettled and retrenching postwar America, these startling figures betrayed the failure of promised consensus and appeasing conformity. They could also be cruel, painful, and disciplinary jokes. It turns out that an obsession with managing gender and female sexuality after the war would hardly contain them. On the contrary, it spread their campy manifestations throughout mainstream culture. Offering the first major consideration of lesbian camp in American popular culture, Suffering Sappho! traces a larger-than-life lesbian menace across midcentury media forms to propose five prototypical queer icons—the sicko, the monster, the spinster, the Amazon, and the rebel. On the pages of comics and sensational pulp fiction and the dramas of television and drive-in movies, Barbara Jane Brickman discovers evidence not just of campy sexual deviants but of troubling female performers, whose failures could be epic but whose subversive potential could inspire. Supplemental images of interest related to this title: George and Lomas; Connie Minerva; Cat On Hot Tin; and Beulah and Oriole.