Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Trauma, Recovery, And Adolescent Relationships In Stephen Chbosky’S The Perks Of Being A Wallflower: An In-Depth Analysis, Rachel Rosen

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

The development of adolescent identity after traumatic experiences is a fragile process. In this essay, I use Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) to explore how adolescent relationships influence the path to recovery after traumatic experiences. After losing both his friend and aunt, Charlie, the novel’s protagonist, begins to write letters, which form the basis of the book. Recounting his journey to recovery, these letters ultimately reveal that Charlie’s aunt molested him when he was a child—a memory that he represses for years. Despite the importance of writing as a way for Charlie to cope with this …

Word Reimagined: Analyzing Fanfiction's Transformative Force And Relationship With The Young Adult Literary Landscape, Megan Louise Reaves

MSU Graduate Theses

In exploring the reciprocal relationship between fanfiction and Young Adult (YA) literature, this thesis investigates how these two forms of storytelling, influenced by authors such as Marissa Meyer and Rainbow Rowell, have profoundly impacted the literary landscape. Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles series and Rainbow Rowell's novels Fangirl and Carry On serve as prime examples of this dynamic interaction. Drawing from the rich traditions of oral storytelling and folklore, fanfiction and YA literature have undergone significant development and popularity, particularly in the twenty-first century, thanks to technological advancements and the rise of online communities. This thesis contends that despite their …

Teaching Empathy For Others Through Young Adult Literature, Madison Boeckman

Honors Projects

Literature can let a reader grow in empathy by learning about a character’s experiences and cultures. Teaching literature with diverse characters to young people can help combat bias and hatred towards people who are perceived as different.

This project uses Rudine Sims Bishop’s metaphor of mirrors, windows, and doors, Gloria Ladson Billings’ Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and Gholdy Muhammad’s Culturally Responsive Pedagogy as foundation for creating activities for diverse literature. These activities are for the texts Ms. Marvel: No Normal, The Poet X, and The Marrow Thieves, all texts that are academically enriching with diverse characters that would …

Mountains In The Deep, Andy Strauss

Honors Theses

When Evan, prince of the Fourth Quadrant, sees a vision of a ghost-like crown hovering over his father's head, he is sent on a dangerous mission to face the mystical shadow beast ravaging his kingdom--the same beast that has marked him as its prey and that will stop at nothing to hunt him down.

Nothing About Us: Three Models Of Disability In Three Works Of Literary Fiction, Mary Lipiec

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores how the three umbrella models of disability (medical, functional, and social) are shown in several disabled characters from three novels published after the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Good Kings, Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum. Through the utilization of literary analysis from a cultural studies perspective, this project shows that the models of disability, despite the various flaws in their respective designs, prove to be useful lenses to see disability through, both in these novels and in real life, …

Young Adult And Canonical Literature Instruction In The High School Classroom: Assessing Students’ Reading Interest, Alexis Yang

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

In the high school English classroom, classic novels are taught as cornerstones of the curriculum. Although these canonical works such as To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) are revered for their literary merit, students often find them boring and skim through the readings or decline to read altogether. Young adult literature (YAL), a genre written for teens, may be an effective genre to teach in high school to boost students’ reading interest. This study aims to determine how teaching young adult literature in the high school classroom, as opposed to canonical works, might affect …

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Examining The Power And Privilege Of Escapism In Young Adult Literature And Its Culture, Stacey Watson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore the systematic biases embedded within this genre, highlighting the ongoing battle between tokenism and inclusive storytelling. Thesis will also emphasize the importance of this genre, its tight grasp on popular culture, and showcase positive representations introduced by new creators over the years.

One Size Does Not Fit All: An Autoethnographic Account Of Fat Representation In Yal As A Catalyst For Fat Acceptance, Laura Beal

Doctoral Dissertations

With campaigns like We Need Diverse Books (Mabbott, 2017), readers and authors of young adult literature (YAL) are calling for more diverse representations of adolescents and adolescence, such as in race, gender, sexuality, and ability, to name a few. However, size inclusivity is often left off this list. As a young adult, I was fat, and I never had characters who were productive representations to turn to. I did not see ‘me’ in the pages of the books I read. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to explore my own relationship with YAL novels that center the fat …

Integrating Social And Emotional Learning Into Language Arts Classrooms Through Diverse Young Adult Literature, Rachael Schmidt

Honors Projects

This paper discusses the growing integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) in high schools. The project provides an explanation of why SEL should be integrated into classroom instruction, specifically focusing on the language arts classroom. The included teaching guide provides six lessons for integrating SEL in the language arts classroom using diverse young adult literature.

The Merits Of Young Adult Literature: Examining The Mental States Of The Protagonists In The Catcher In The Rye, The Outsiders, The Book Thief, And The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, Timothy P. Kelly Jr.

HON499 projects

Young adult literature, a genre of literature made to appeal to adolescents, has been a success within its target demographic for decades. Because of its intended audience and resulting subject matter, there are many who are either dismissive or ignorant of the genre, seeing it as inherently below other genres in terms of complexity or simply never bothering to give it the time of day. However, this paper argues that it is this effort to relate to this intended audience and their lives, most notably from a mental perspective, that grants the genre depth that is equal to more traditional …

Muffintops, Fat Rolls, And Self Love: Using Fat Young Adult Texts To Promote Body Positivity, Laura M. Davis

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

With the findings of Wood-Barcalow, Tylka, and Augustus-Horwath (2009) as a framework, this essay offers an analysis of two texts portraying fat protagonists: The Summer of Jordi Perez and the Best Burger in L.A. by Amy Spalding and To Be Honest by Maggie Ann Martin. I examine the authors’ depictions of fat characters to determine if the characters align with Wood-Barcalow, Tylka, and Augustus-Horwath’s (2009) definition of body positivity. Using critical content analysis (Short, 2017), I consider how relationships, environment, and self-concept support and work against body positive attitudes. This essay also includes suggestions for how educators can use these …

To Read Or Not To Read: Navigating Young Adult Literature In The Classroom In The Age Of Trigger Warnings And Banned Books, Ashley Sell

Honors Projects

Most public school libraries or English classrooms celebrate Banned Books Week during the school year, featuring dozens of Young Adult novels that have been challenged or banned in public schools across the country. However, books aimed towards young readers are typically not optimized for educational use in the classroom. In this project, I will explore the benefits of using Young Adult literature in the classroom, while also investigating the obstacles that one might face in order to do so, i.e. censorship, sensitive subject matter. I also want to summarize and respond to an argument for the retainment of classic literature …

Representation Matters: African American Female Readers’ Perceptions Of Young Adult Literature, Asia Harden

Honors Theses

In 2019, only 6% of U.S. children’s books published were written by black authors. This portion of the publishing industry, and particularly the category of young adult literature (YA) has room for improvement when it comes to African American representation. To identify how this lack of representation affects readers, this study was broken into two parts which resulted in obtaining the African American female YA author perspective, as well as African American female readers. J. Elle and Kristina Forest were interviewed in the first portion of the study, and three focus groups were conducted in the second study with 13 …

"What Camelot Means": Women And Lgbtq+ Authors Paving The Way For A More Inclusive Arthuriana Through Young Adult Literature, Jeddie Mae Bristow

MSU Graduate Theses

Arthurian literature has long been regarded as the domain of “dead white men,” dominated by Thomas Malory and Lord Alfred Tennyson. However, since medieval times, women have also been producing Arthurian literature that not only treats the women characters of the story more equitably, but makes social commentary on how the marginalized of their societies are treated. More recently, women and LGBTQ+ authors (basically, authors who are not cisgender white men) have answered the call for more diverse Young Adult literature with an Arthuriana that has a place for all, both creating a more diverse and equitable Camelot and giving …

Into The Woods: Queer Natures In Malinda Lo’S Ash, Leah Van Dyk

Research on Diversity in Youth Literature

No abstract provided.

Despite Controversy, #Ownvoices Is Here To Make A Difference, Shannon Steffens

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

When author Corinne Duyvis created the #OwnVoices hashtag on Twitter in 2015 as a way to recommend diverse books written by diverse authors, she could not have imagined it would spark a movement. Six years later, #OwnVoices is still being discussed in the world of fiction publishing and continues to push for increased diversity in books, authors, and the industry itself.

This paper explores the impacts the movement has had on the industry, both positive and negative. While critics argue the push for #OwnVoices books can limit and potentially harm authors, I have come to the conclusion through my research …

Silver Girls: A Modern Retelling Of Little Women, Jessica A. Rinker

Honors Program Theses and Projects

When one thinks of a “reader” they might picture a person with large wire-rimmed glasses, their nose buried deep into the binding of a thick book, perhaps with a cat curled up next to them and maybe a mug of tea. If one had to guess what such a literary person was reading, one would assume something very old and wise like Tolstoy or Wordsworth or Austin. What about the twelve-year-old hanging upside down on his bean bag chair devouring James Dashner’s Maze Runner or the fifteen-year-old laying across her bed, lost in the plot of Elizabeth Acevedo’s Poet X? …

Billion-Dollar Bride: Book 1—Godric's Academy For Young Ladies, Kaylin N. Stickley

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis contains the first five chapters of a young adult romance novel featuring a young woman named Theadosia Lee. The plot is heavily influenced by Cinderella, and the biblical braiding technique is heavily influenced by that of Kiera Cass and C. S. Lewis. The piece was inspired by my desire to create more young adult romance novels that contain the biblical values that are sorely lacking in most modern young adult literature. I seek to write a love story that is based on mutual respect, a strong foundation of friendship, and an intentional decision to avoid sexual activities …

De-Stigmatizing Mental Health Through First Person Narration In Young Adult Literature, Tatum E. Francis

University Honors Theses

This thesis project includes a written short story titled "Quiet Dissonance" that explicitly depicts anxiety and depression within the genre of Young Adult literature. The purpose of this story is to consciously de-stigmatize the mental health issues by depicting these mental disorders as authentically as possible with both research and my own real-life experience of being diagnosed with both anxiety and depression, rather than relying upon stereotypes and the influence of the media. This story is consciously written through the point of view of first person narration, allowing for further exploration into the interiority of the thoughts of the protagonist …

Experimenting With Adulthood: Liminal Play In Young Adult Literature., Kylee Auten

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Play is an unavoidable element of literature intended for younger audiences. Many scholars have taken up the task of describing, analyzing, and criticizing displays of play in young adult (YA) literature. Involved in discussions of play are the concepts of performance and innocence. Another way of examining play is through the characters’ state of liminality. Their in-between status provides them with the possibility to push against social expectations, escape the realities of their daily lives, and subvert authority figures. Because characters occupy both childhood and adulthood in terms of societal expectations, they possess some positive and some negative qualities of …

Book Review: The Book Of Joshua: A Novel By Jennifer Anne Moses, University Of Wisconsin Press, 2018, Kia Jane Richmond

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Jennifer Anne Moses’s (2018) young adult novel, The Book of Joshua: A Novel, begins with a letter from eighteen-year-old protagonist Joshua Cushing; he is writing in response to a college admissions essay prompt about overcoming a challenge or experience that shaped his life. For Josh, that experience began with his awakening in a New Jersey psychiatric hospital; he was missing his left eye and his girlfriend, Sophie, and could not remember losing either one. Moses’s book unravels the mystery for the reader, explaining how Josh lost his left eye, what happened to Sophie, and how mental illness fits into …

A Young Adult Scrutinizes The Michael L. Printz Award, Claire Elaine Seale

Honors Theses

In a century peppered in controversy, adolescents between the ages and twelve to eighteen are turning to young adult literature to find hope in their lives. These books with headlining titles like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter are no longer just in print, but their narratives centered around teenage protagonists are being brought to life on screen. In fact, the source of much of our twenty first century culture derives from the ingenuity of young adult authors. Although the young adult empire continues to grow in modern times, many advocates for young adult literature, including the American Library Association …

Teaching Issues Of Identity Through Multicultural Young Adult Literature, Emily M. Withers

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Despite changing demographics of high school classrooms, teaching practices and literature remain similar to decades-old practices focusing more on literary devices and symbolism than on topics relevant to the students. Many teachers don’t have the time to find new novels. And when they do find the texts, they are often at a loss for how to properly teach the novels. This thesis is a three-part paper advocating for teaching identity to high school students using a blend of classic literature and contemporary multicultural young adult literature. The first section focuses on personal experiences and research illustrating the need for more …

“Rewriting The Rules:” Postcolonial Perspectives On Contemporary Young Adult Literature, Ryan Moore

Augsburg Honors Review

Literature has long been the foundation of the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. It is through the reading and exploration of literature that ELA teachers and their students achieve learning objectives and course standards; additionally, it should be a goal of every ELA teacher to present students with literature that they will find engaging, challenging, and enjoyable. When the importance of literature to the ELA classroom is fully considered, it is logical to assume great care should go into the selection of the texts used. There seems, however, to be a tendency for schools to lean back on the same …

See And Be Seen: Young Adult Refugee Literature In The High School Curriculum, Patrice Splan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are more than 25 million refugees in the world today, over half of whom are under the age of 18. As these young people adapt to new schools and communities, it is essential that all students have opportunities to see themselves represented in literature and to develop understandings of the experiences of others. This project provides an analysis of young adult refugee literature with a unit plan for application of texts in a ninth-grade Virginia English classroom, stressing the importance of education as a tool for awareness, reflection, and empathy.

The Use Of Diverse Young Adult Literature In High School Classrooms, Lauren Mohler

Student Scholarship – English

This departmental honors project outlined research that has been completed on the benefits of incorporating young adult literature in the secondary English Language Arts classroom and discussed the benefits of using young adult literature as a means of introducing students to various aspects of diversity. While young adult literature continues to grow in popularity among teen readers, there are many negative connotations associated with texts falling under this label and their merit within the classroom. Similarly, classroom dynamics are becoming more diverse each year through the number of students representing different races, ethnicities, ability levels, interests, socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, and …

From Beyond The Grave: Dead Narrators In Young Adult Literature, Jessica L. Branton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While scholars and critics have explored various aspects of young adult literature, few have focused on the popular, but odd, use of dead narrators. When examining the dead narrators of Veronica Roth’s Allegiant, Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why, Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall, and Jess Rothenberg’s The Catastrophic History of You and Me, it becomes clear that the dead narrators are used as a foil for adolescent growth and maturation, and they also allow young readers to empathize with and accept death through the protagonists. These protagonists experience a proto-adulthood as they die too soon to …

Representations Of Immigrants In Young Adult Literature, Frances Augusta Ramos Verbruggen

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to determine how immigrants and the immigration experience are represented in current young adult (YA) literature. In the study, I asked the following questions: Who are the immigrant characters in recent YA books? Why do they come? How do they experience immigration? How are they perceived or treated by others? A content analysis methodology was used to examine, from a critical literacy viewpoint, recent young adult novels with immigration themes. Data were analyzed by identifying and interpreting patterns in themes across 22 YA novels with immigrant protagonists or other important characters, published between 2013 and 2017. …

A Critical Inquiry Approach To Teaching Young Adult Literature, Steffany Comfort Maher

Dissertations

This dissertation presents a critical inquiry approach to teaching young adult literature in English language arts classrooms. Critical inquiry is derived from critical theory and critical pedagogy approaches, as well as pragmatic philosophies of inquiry. The author shows from convincing examples that a critical inquiry approach to teaching empowers students to ask meaningful questions about both what they are reading and the world they live in.

Chapter One: Methods of Teaching Young Adult Literature: Past, Present, and Future is an introduction to critical inquiry and the teaching of young adult literature. Chapter Two: Critical Inquiry in Teaching Young Adult Literature: …

Language And Representations Of Mental Illness: Teaching Wintergirls And The Impossible Knife Of Memory, Kia Jane Richmond

Conference Presentations

No abstract provided.