High school journalists Jess and Molly create an upheaval at school and in their community as they strive to write and publish a series of frank articles about AIDS for their school newspaper.

Not long after becoming public health concerns in the 1980s, HIV and AIDS were featured in a number of works of fiction, though such titles were written primarily for adult readers. Mirroring the disease's indiscriminate nature, however, the subject would soon be incorporated into novels aimed at young adults. Despite a need for accessible information on the subject, it is difficult to identify fiction that contains material about HIV/AIDS, as these books are seldom catalogued for this content, nor is this content consistently acknowledged in published reviews. In HIV/AIDS in Young Adult Novels: An Annotated Bibliography, the authors address this gap by identifying and assessing the full range of young adult novels that include HIV/AIDS content. This resource is comprised of two major parts. The first part summarizes findings from a content analysis performed on novels written for readers aged 11-19, published since 1981, and featuring at least one character with HIV/AIDS. The second part is an annotated bibliography of the more than 90 novels identified for use in the study. Each entry in the bibliography contains an annotation that summarizes the plot and how HIV/AIDS is depicted in the story, an indication of the accuracy of the HIV/AIDS content, a note on how central HIV/AIDS is to the story, and an evaluation of the literary quality of the book. This work will assist readers in collecting, choosing, evaluating, and using these works to educate readers about HIV/AIDS.

Society does not make it easy for young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to find accurate, nonjudgmental information about homosexuality. It makes it even more difficult for young homosexuals to find positive role models in fiction either written or published expressly for them or—if published for adults—relevant to them and their lives. The Heart Has Its Reasons examines these issues and critically evaluates the body of literature published for young adults that offers homosexual themes and characters. Cart and Jenkins chart the evolution of the field of YA literature having GLBTQ (gay/lesbian/bisexual, transgendered, and/or queer/questioning) content. They identify titles that are remarkable either for their excellence or failures, noting the stereotypic, wrongheaded, and outdated books as well as the accurate, thoughtful, and tactful titles. Useful criteria for evaluating books with GLBTQ content are provided. Books and resources of all types are reviewed based on a model that uses the category descriptors of Homosexual Visibility, Gay Assimilation, and Queer Consciousness/Community. An annotated bibliography and a number of author-title lists of books discussed in the text arranged by subject round out this valuable reference for teachers, librarians, parents, and young adults.

Today, traditional illnesses and high risk behaviors of adolescents have become interrelated through the multitude of physical, social and emotional changes young people experience. Good literature which gives adolescents the truth has incredible power to heal and to renew. 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. With the advancement in medicine, traditional types of health issues such as birth defects, cancer, and sensory impairment have shifted to more behavior related problems such as depression, alcoholism, and eating disorders. All of these issues and others are examined from both a literary and psychological perspective in thirteen chapters that explore health issues through fiction. Each chapter confronts a different health issue and is written by a literature specialist who has teamed up with a therapist. In each novel, these experts define the central character's struggle in coming to terms with an issue and growing in response to their difficulties. Annotated bibliographies of other works, both fiction and nonfiction, explore these same issues give readers insight into helping teenagers with similar problems, and provide the tools with which to get teenagers reading and addressing these problems.

In this work, over 30 librarians (such as James V. Carmichael, Jr., Sanford Berman, Martha E. Stone, Gerald Perry, Barbara Gomez and Martha Cornog) address gay and lesbian issues facing the profession, and in some cases offer their own stories of understanding their sexuality and its implications on their professional lives. Some of the issues addressed are the need to uphold intellectual freedom, challenging the censorship of gay materials in libraries, AIDS material in the library, the information needs of gay and lesbian patrons, collection development, and confronting homophobia.

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.

WE WON THE WAR, BUT CAN WE SURVIVE THE NIGHT? Nineteen years ago, the Maydays attacked. Five colossal monsters rose from the earth and laid waste to cities around the globe, pushing humanity to the brink of extinction. Now those monsters are our slaves, fighting each other for our amusement in brutal matches broadcast across the world, courtesy of the Volkov Media Corporation. A MONSTER LIES DEAD. Maydays have proven themselves indestructible. So when a Mayday is found dead with no cause and no witnesses, Volkov's staff detective Jay Escobar is tasked with uncovering the truth before it can cripple the company. THE MAYDAYS WILL RISE AGAIN. This is the case that will make Escobar's career. But the investigation soon spirals wildly out of control. As he races to solve the case before it's too late, Escobar discovers that the Mayday's death is only the first step in a plot that will see humanity plunged back into an unwinnable war. And he'll be at ground zero when it begins. MAYDAY is a genre-bending mash-up of hardboiled crime fiction and Japanese kaiju (giant monster) cinema. Sam Spade meets Godzilla in a gripping mystery of monstrous proportions.