Recent research on the effects of time spent pleasure reading in youth demonstrate that it explains cognitive progress over time, educational attainment and social mobility. This makes pleasure reading a civil rights issue. And what better to hook students on reading then the books that were written specifically for them? In this volume, the top researchers and thinkers about YA literature explore where YAL has been, where it is and where it's going, with rich models for how to use YAL to engage our students with the power of reading and all the benefits that then accrue to them. In this book, the top researchers and thinkers in the field of YAL show us how to engage readers with this literature, and how to do so in a project of social action that promotes ethical imagination and the productive struggle for greater understanding, raised consciousness and for civil rights. This book is a must-read for librarians, teachers and anyone at all who cares about adolescents, reading, and promoting social understanding and justice.
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Distinguished Professor of English Education at Boise State University; Author of Reading Unbound: Why Kids Need to Read What They Want, and Why We Should Let Them This is a very useful text for both classroom teachers and teacher educators. Teachers will enjoy its practical aspects; whereas, professors will find relevance in the research data. More research is definitely needed to prove the merits of using adolescent literature in today's schools, and this textbook definitely will help the cause.
Joan F. Kaywell, professor of English education, University of South Florida; senior executive director, Florida Council of Teachers of English, 2010-2011; membership secretary, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English; and author of Dear Author: Letters of Hope (NCSS Notable Book and 2007 VOYA Nonfiction Honor List)