Giving students opportunities to read like historians has the potential to move their thinking and understanding of history in monumental ways. In Exploring History through Young Adult Literature: Middle School, Volume 1 each chapter presented in this volume provides middle school readers with approaches and activities for pairing a young adult novel with specific historical events, eras, or movements. Chapters include suggested instructional activities for before, during, and after reading as well as extension activities that move beyond the text. Each chapter concludes with a final discussion on how the spotlighted YA text can inspire students to be moved to take informed action within their communities or beyond. Through the reading and study of the young adult novels students are guided to a deeper understanding of history while increasing their literacy practices.

This book offers readers opportunities to explore the most common universal themes taught in secondary English Language Arts classrooms using contemporary young adult literature. Authors discuss adolescence and adolescent readers, young adult literature and its possibilities in the classroom, and ways to teach thematic analysis. The book provides context, traditional approaches to teaching and examples of thematic explorations of each of the chosen themes. Chapters include developed teaching instructional units to study three universal themes: a journey of self-discovery; good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, and making difficult choices, and developing positive self-perception. Each instructional unit includes rationale, essential questions and objectives, calendar plans for up to six weeks, examples of introductory, reading and discussing, and enrichment activities and assessments. The activities target academic skills for ELA curricula and create safe spaces for exploring topics of identity struggles and personal growth complicated by social issues, all of which adolescents face today. Each instructional chapter suggests a wide range of additional texts and resources for theme explorations.

Connect with adolescent students-and help them connect with good literature- with this engaging, balanced look at the world of young adult literature. By combining a foundation of knowledge with the pathways leading to the literature itself, this book opens the door to exploring young adult literature. Brief enough to give readers the opportunity to read the books themselves, yet comprehensive enough to ensure that teachers truly understand adolescents, their literature, and how to connect the two, this book provides what's needed to ensure a rich educational experience for adolescents, while nourishing their love of reading. What will engage today's adolescents? What will help them connect with high quality and valued titles in every genre, including the literature of graphic novels and comic books, as well as the horror and humor titles that especially captivate today's young readers? These are the issues this text explores as it provides teachers with a number of practical suggestions and strategies, looks at diversity and multicultural literature, approaches the sensitivities of censorship, explores the Internet and film adaptations of young literature, demonstrates how to collaborate with other professionals, and much more.

Exploring Relationships and Connections to Others: Teaching Universal Themes through Young Adult Novels offers readers opportunities to explore the most common universal themes taught in secondary English Language Arts classrooms using contemporary young adult literature. Authors discuss adolescence and adolescent readers, young adult literature and its possibilities in the classroom, and ways to teach thematic analysis. The book provides context, traditional approaches to teaching, and examples of thematic explorations of each of the chosen themes. Chapters include developed teaching instructional units to study four universal themes: love and loss; friendship and betrayal; hate, its destructive consequences, and healing; and dreams and hope for tomorrow. Each instructional unit includes rationale, essential questions and objectives, calendar plans for up to five weeks, examples of introductory, reading and discussing, and enrichment activities and assessments. The activities target academic skills for ELA curricula and create safe spaces for exploring topics of relationships and connections to others, both of which are vital to adolescent growth and development. Each instructional chapter suggests a wide range of additional texts and resources for theme explorations.

Whisked away to Haxahaven Academy for Witches in 1911, seventeen-year-old Frances Hallowell soon finds herself torn between aligning herself with Haxahaven's foes, the Sons of St. Druon, to solve her brother's murder or saving Manhattan and her fellow witches.

Contributions by Megan Brown, Jill Coste, Sara K. Day, Rachel Dean-Ruzicka, Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Amber Gray, Roxanne Harde, Tom Jesse, Heidi Jones, Kaylee Jangula Mootz, Leah Phillips, Rachel L. Rickard Rebellino, S. R. Toliver, Jason Vanfosson, Sarah E. Whitney, and Casey Alane Wilson While critical and popular attention afforded to twenty-first-century young adult literature has exponentially increased in recent years, classroom materials and scholarship have remained static in focus and slight in scope. Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hate U Give overwhelm conversations among scholars and critics—but these are far from the only texts in need of analysis. Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction offers a necessary remedy to this limiting perspective, bringing together essays about the many subgenres, themes, and character types that have until now been overlooked. The collection tackles a diverse range of topics—modern updates to the marriage plot; fairy tale retellings in dystopian settings; stories of extrajudicial police killings and racial justice. The approaches are united, though, by a commitment to exploring the large-scale generic and theoretical structures at work in each set of texts. As a collection, Beyond the Blockbusters is an exciting entryway into a field that continues to grow and change even as its works captivate massive audiences. It will prove a crucial addition to the library of any scholar or instructor of young adult literature.

Giving students opportunities to read like historians has the potential to move their thinking and understanding of history in monumental ways. In Exploring History through Young Adult Literature: High School, Volume 2 each chapter presented in this volume provides high school readers with approaches and activities for pairing a young adult novel with specific historical events, eras, or movements. Chapters include suggested instructional activities for before, during, and after reading as well as extension activities that move beyond the text. Each chapter concludes with a final discussion on how the spotlighted YA text can inspire students to be moved to take informed action within their communities or beyond. Through the reading and study of the young adult novels students are guided to a deeper understanding of history while increasing their literacy practices.