Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature

Victor Malo-Juvera and Paula Greathouse

This text offers 6^th - 12^th grade educators guided instructional approaches for including diverse young adult (YA) literature in the classroom as a form of social justice teaching and learning. Through the YA books spotlighted in this text, educators are provided pre-, during-, and after reading activities that guide students to a deeper understanding of topics that are often considered taboo in the classroom - race, racism, mental health, immigration, gender, sexuality, sexual assault - while increasing their literacy practices.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4758-5131-1 • Hardback • April 2020 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

978-1-4758-5132-8 • Paperback • April 2020 • $41.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-4758-5133-5 • eBook • April 2020 • $39.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Arts & Humanities, Education / Student Life & Student Affairs, Education / Learning Styles

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This text offers 6^th - 12^th grade educators guided instructional approaches for including diverse young adult (YA) literature in the classroom as a form of social justice teaching and learning. Through the YA books spotlighted in this text, educators are provided pre-, during-, and after reading activities that guide students to a deeper understanding of topics that are often considered taboo in the classroom - race, racism, mental health, immigration, gender, sexuality, sexual assault - while increasing their literacy practices.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 238 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4758-5131-1 • Hardback • April 2020 • $88.00 • (£68.00)

978-1-4758-5132-8 • Paperback • April 2020 • $41.00 • (£35.00)

978-1-4758-5133-5 • eBook • April 2020 • $39.00 • (£30.00)

Subjects: Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Arts & Humanities, Education / Student Life & Student Affairs, Education / Learning Styles

Author

Victor Malo-Juvera is a former middle school teacher and current associate professor of English Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he teaches courses in young adult literature and multicultural young adult literature.

Paula Greathouse is associate professor of secondary English Education at Tennessee Tech where she teaches English methods and literacy courses. She was a secondary English and Reading teacher for sixteen years.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: Breaking the Taboo

Victor Malo-Juvera and Paula Greathouse

CHAPTER 1: Date Rape in Speak: Teaching for Justice Using the Graphic Novel

Shelly Shaffer
CHAPTER 2: Speak! Shout! Hearing from and Advocating for Victims of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment

Marshall A. George

CHAPTER 3: Exploring Women’s Rights and Sexual Assault through Blood Water Paint: How far have we come anyway?

Alice Hays

CHAPTER 4: Examining Mental Illness in John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down: OCD - More than Just Attention to Detail

Elsie Lindy Olan & Kia Jane Richmond

CHAPTER 5: Putting the Pieces Together: Destigmatizing Self-Harm through Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl in Pieces

Janine J. Darragh and Ashley S. Boyd

CHAPTER 6: When Home is Traumatic: David Small’s Graphic Memoir, Stitches

Emily Wender

CHAPTER 7: Choosing Love over Hate: Raising Students Who Understand Bullying and Its Dangerous Consequences – Hate List

Leilya Pitre

CHAPTER 8: Far from Simple: Addressing the Complexities of Equity and Justice in Robin Benway’s Far from the Tree

Sharon Kane and Christine Walsh

CHAPTER 9: Digging up the Injustices of the Roaring 20s: Dreamland Burning

Crag Hill

CHAPTER 10: Examining Systemic Racism and Police Brutality in Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give

Steffany Comfort Maher

CHAPTER 11: Confronting Cultural Appropriation and Gentrification through YAL: Shadowshaper

Meredith N. Sinclair

CHAPTER 12: Teachers, Allies, & Sacrifice: Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and his Sacrifice for Civil Rights

Steven Bickmore and Tammy Szafranski

CHAPTER 13: Exploring Equity and Justice in the Female Immigrant Experience through Anya’s Ghost

Nina R. Schoonover and Michelle Falter

CHAPTER 14: Equity, Justice, and Love: Contextualizing the Fight for Marriage Equality with Loving vs. Virginia
Terri Suico

CHAPTER 15: Telling the Stories: Teaching LGBTQ+ Memoir

Melanie Hundley

CHAPTER 16: Using Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story to Portray Love’s Power in Assisting Two Outcast Adolescents Achieve Societal Voices and Personal Self-Esteem

Lisa A. Hazlett and Ann Marie Smith

CHAPTER 17: Engaging the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Immigration in American Street

E. Sybil Durand

ABOUT THE EDITORS

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

SUBJECT INDEX

Reviews

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature offers practical suggestions for teachers wanting to bring demanding topics into their classrooms. The strength of the text resides in its presentation of varied instructional approaches that invite students and their teachers to learn and think critically about topics that defy easy understanding. Across the volume, contributors share ideas for incorporating explorations of genre and author’s craft, connections to historical events and moments, analyses of legal precedents and policies, classroom research into local and global communities, theories of intersectionality that invite examination of oppression and privilege, and student-led advocacy and action research projects, each of which creates space for complex learning and engagement.
— Wendy Glenn, Fulbright Scholar; professor, Literacy Studies and Teacher Learning, Research, and Practice; co-director, Teacher Education; chair, Secondary Humanities in the School of Education ,University of Colorado Boulder

Topics considered taboo are often challenged and even banned from shelves where young adults might find them. This collection of essays helps form the foundation for their inclusion and use in the classroom. From Speak and Turtles All the Way Down to American Street and The Hate U Give, chapters provide cogent discussion opportunities and projects that can connect several books at a time. The structure of the book will permit educators to select one activity and use it for any other book in the collection. The support and research from this collection will likewise support teachers who wish to bring difficult texts to their students.
— Teri S. Lesesne, Distinguished Professor, Library Science, Sam Houston State University

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature

Victor Malo-Juvera and Paula Greathouse

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature

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