Literature for Today's Young Adults

130 Pages·2008·1.78 MB·English

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Literature for
Today’s Young Adults
E I G H T H E D I T I O N
Alleen Pace Nilsen
Arizona State University
Kenneth L. Donelson
Arizona State University
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nilsen, Alleen Pace.
Literature for today’s young adults / Alleen Pace Nilsen, Kenneth L. Donelson. — 8th ed.
p. cm.
Authors’ names appear in reverse order in 7th ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-59323-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-205-59323-2
1. Teenagers—Books and reading—United States. 2. Young adult literature—History
and criticism. 3. Young adult fiction—History and criticism. 4. Young adult
literature—Bibliography. 5. Young adult fiction—Bibliography. I. Donelson, Kenneth L.
II. Title.
Z1037.A1D578 2008
028.5'5—dc22 2008002625
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 RRD_MO 12 11 10 09 08
Photo credits and acknowledgments appear on pages 453–454, which constitute an
extension of the copyright page.
Allyn & Bacon
is an imprint of
www.pearsonhighered.com
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To the memory of
Our dear friend and teacher,
G. Robert Carlson,
1917–2003
And to our grandchildren
and great-grandchildren,
Who are happily finding many of these books:
From Alleen
to
Taryn, Britton, Kami, Erich, David, Lauren,
Michael, Jenna, Avery,
Jim, and Luke
From Ken
to
Kayden, Haylee, Emiley, and Dylann
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About the Authors
Ken Donelson and Alleen Nilsen, profes-
sors of English at Arizona State University,
became friends and colleagues before they
met each other. They both earned their Ph.D.
degrees at the University of Iowa from G.
Robert Carlsen, a pioneer in the field of
young adult literature. Ken was Carlsen’s first
Ph.D. student, with Alleen coming along a
decade later. When Alleen and her husband
moved to Arizona State in 1973, one of the
first people she visited was Ken because Pro-
fessor Carlsen had talked about him in class
and had recruited Alleen as a writer for the
Arizona English Bulletin, which Ken was
editing.
Nevertheless, Professor Carlsen was
surprised when his two former students, who
happened to find themselves in the same part
of the country, started working together because he thought they were so dif-
ferent. Ken writes like a historian, focusing on what’s old, while Alleen writes
like a journalist, focusing on what’s new. And while Ken was a leader in fight-
ing censorship, Alleen was a leader in fighting sexist language, which some
people interpret as a form of censorship. She is the one who suggested they
take turns with whose name goes first on each edition.
In spite of their differences, what they learned from Professor Carlsen
brought them together in support of the academic study of young adult litera-
ture. In 1973, they helped found ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adoles-
cents of NCTE); both have received ALAN’s Award for “Outstanding
Contributions to the Field of Young Adult Literature,” and both served as
presidents of ALAN. In 1974, they were the founding editors of The ALAN
Newsletter, the forerunner of what is now The ALAN Review.
After proving that they respected each other and could work together, they
applied to be coeditors of the English Journal, a job they held from 1980 to
1987 when they wrote the first edition of Literature for Today’s Young Adults.
Thanks to Ken’s knowledge of history and his interest in censorship, the book
was more complete than other textbooks of the time which mostly focused on
realistic problem novels—books sometimes identified as bildungsroman or
apprenticeship novels—which are still the books most obviously identified as
YA. But what Ken and Alleen demonstrated was that every genre, from adven-
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ture and biography to mysteries, fantasy, poetry, and the supernatural, were
being written for teenagers and deserved a place in schools and libraries. And
because Alleen’s first job at Arizona State University was teaching in the
Department of Library Science in the College of Education, it seemed natural
for them to bring in the work of librarians and reading teachers as well as of
English teachers.
What has kept Literature for Today’s Young Adultsthe leading textbook
in the field is the authors’ continuing love and enthusiasm for their chosen field
of study. For each edition they have highlighted new and interesting trends and
illustrated them with lively discussions of well-written books. It has helped that
they are well-rounded scholars and have remained active in education as a
whole.
Ken has published over five hundred articles, mostly on censorship, YA
books, and problems in teaching secondary English reflecting his thirteen years
of teaching high school English in Iowa. His articles, as well as others related
to college teaching, have appeared in such journals as Clearing House, English
Journal, High School Journal, and School Library Journal. Ken collected YA
books published from 1850 through 1950 and when he retired from ASU he
donated some eight hundred historical YA books and a nearly complete run of
The Dime Novel Round-Up to ASU’s Hayden Library. The collection is strong
in books by Kirk Munroe, Ralph Henry Barbour, and John Tunis, and in two
Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate heroes, Tom Swift and Nancy Drew.
Alleen has worked with her husband, linguistics Professor Don L. F.
Nilsen, to promote a new approach to the teaching of vocabulary, as explained
in Vocabulary Plus: High School and Up: A Source-Based Approach and
Vocabulary Plus K–8: A Source-Based Approach (Pearson, 2004). Their
Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor (Oryx/Greenwood) was cho-
sen by the American Library Association as one of the twenty best reference
books published in 2000. In 2007, they published Names and Naming in
Young Adult Literature as part of the Scarecrow Series in Young Adult Litera-
ture, edited by Patty Campbell. Alleen is also the author of Joan Bauer, the
first book in Greenwood Press’s series Teen Reads: Student Companions to
Young Adult Literature (2007), edited by James Blasingame.
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B r i e f C o n t e n t s
part one
Understanding Young Adults and Books 1
c h a p t e r 1 Young Adults and Their Reading 1
c h a p t e r 2 A Brief History of Young Adult Literature 39
c h a p t e r 3 New Technology, New Attitudes, and New Literacies 77
part two
Modern Young Adult Reading 111
c h a p t e r 4 Contemporary Realistic Fiction: From Tragedies
to Romances 111
c h a p t e r 5 Poetry, Drama, Humor, and New Media 147
c h a p t e r 6 Adventure, Sports, Mysteries, and the Supernatural 183
c h a p t e r 7 Fantasy, Science Fiction, Utopias, and Dystopias 215
c h a p t e r 8 History and History Makers: Of People and Places 243
c h a p t e r 9 Nonfiction: Information, Literary Nonfiction, Biographies,
and Self-Help Books 277
part three
Adults and the Literature of Young Adults 311
c h a p t e r 1 0 Evaluating, Promoting, and Using Young Adult Books 311
c h a p t e r 1 1 Young Adult Literature in the English Class 355
c h a p t e r 1 2 Censorship: Of Worrying and Wondering 387
vii
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C o n t e n t s
Special Features xiv
Preface xvii
part one
Understanding Young Adults and Books 1
c h a p t e r 1 Young Adults and Their Reading 1
What Is Young Adult Literature? 1
A Word about Spoilers 9
Stages of Literary Appreciation 10
A University of Exeter Study on the Qualities of Good YA Books 17
The Honor List: The Best of the Best, 1980–2007 21
Notes 38
c h a p t e r 2 A Brief History of Young Adult Literature 39
1800–1900: A Century of Purity with a Few Passions 41
1900–1940: From the Safety of Romance to the Beginning of Realism 50
1940–1960: From Certainty to Uncertainty 59
1960–1980: Uncertainty Becomes Turbulence 65
Notes 75
c h a p t e r 3 New Technology, New Attitudes, and New
Literacies 77
A New Kind of Democracy with an Emphasis on Youth 84
Critical Literacy 92
Visual Literacy for the Eye Generation 95
Religious and Ethnic Literacy 95
ix
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Global Literacy 97
Deciding on the Literary Canon 103
Teaching Ethnic Literature 106
Notes 109
part two
Modern Young Adult Reading 111
c h a p t e r 4 Contemporary Realistic Fiction: From Tragedies to
Romances 111
What Do We Mean by Realism? 113
The Modern Problem Novel 114
What Are the Problems? 122
More Optimistic Novels 132
Concluding Comments 145
Notes 146
c h a p t e r 5 Poetry, Drama, Humor, and New Media 147
A New Day for Poetry 147
The Teaching of Poetry 154
Making Drama a Class Act 155
Humor Matters 163
Comic Books and Graphic Novels 174
Video Games as Interactive Literature 177
Concluding Comments 182
Notes 182
c h a p t e r 6 Adventure, Sports, Mysteries, and the
Supernatural 183
Adventure Stories 183
Sports and the Game of Life 193
Mysteries 198
x Contents