One of the best small conferences I go to is the one at Kennesaw State. This week, Bryan Gillis give us an introduction to the 2018 conference in March. The host of authors coming this year is terrific.  I hope more of you will consider joining me this coming March. Bryan has also contributed in the past. You can find his post here. 

​For the past 26 years, the Kennesaw State University Conference on Literature for Children and Young Adults has created magical two-day experiences for teachers, preservice teachers, public and school librarians, media specialists, and school administrators in which they have had opportunities to listen to and interact with highly acclaimed children's and young adult authors as well as attend presentations from master teachers and experts in the field on all facets of literacy instruction. 

​It has been my honor and privilege to be a part of the Kennesaw State University Literature Conference for the past ten years. I am very proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to make ours one of the best literature conferences in the country. It is with pride and a bit of sadness that I announce that this will be my last year as director of this incredible conference. As such, I want to thank everyone who has helped make the conference so successful. First, thank you to the KSU Bagwell College of Education and our dean, Dr. Arlinda Eaton who has been so incredibly supportive. To our conference executive board, Nancy Gillis, Natasha Thornton, Sanjuana Rodriguez, and Nora Schlesinger, who work to make sure that every aspect of the conference runs smoothly and efficiently. Thanks to all of the amazing teachers, librarians, media specialists, and administrators who continue to attend each year, and of course, a special debt of gratitude goes out to all of the authors who have graced our conference with their presence. 

​Here is a partial list from the past ten years- Gene Luen Yang, Jacqueline Woodson, Andrew Smith, Chris Crutcher, Ashley Hope Perez, Hans Wilhelm, Chris Lynch, Laurie Halse Anderson, Chris Crowe, Deborah Wiles, Jerry Pallotta, Tom Leveen, Alan Sitomer, Phil Bildner, Kate Messner, Marc Tyler Nobelman, Herman Parrish, Carrie Ryan, Eileen Christelow, T.A. Barron, Kevin O'Malley, Joseph Bruchac, Jay Asher, Matt de la Pena, Lisa McMann, Ned Vizzini (Rest in Peace, Ned), and Bill Konigsberg. 

I want to encourage you to attend and submit a proposal to present. all of the information for registration and proposal submissions can be found at the link below. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at bgillis@kennesaw.edu.  We hope to see you there!
 
Registration closes March 1, 2018
 
Call for Proposals closes February 2, 201

I have had the blank page open on the computer for about an hour. I can’t seem to focus. That has been the case for going on three days now.

The first thing I heard Monday morning as the alarm went off was: “50 dead in Las Vegas Shooting.” I asked my wife, “Did you hear that?”  I grabbed my phone and realized I had a host of text messages, missed calls and my Facebook notification number was unusually high. I was touched by how many people reached out. Thank you.
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I am a Las Vegas native. Moving back to work at UNLV has been a joy. I have been able to reconnect with some people and hope to do more of that as time goes on. We are closer to family and that has been rewarding.

​This tragedy has been difficult. It will continue to be difficult for many people here in Las Vegas, but in many other communities as families and friends deal with loss and recovery. I can’t begin to count the number of times I tear up as I hear a story about the event. I am proud of the work of all first responders, event staff, hotel staff, people who stood in line to give people, those who offered clothes food, and the people at the event who immediately became neighbors in the truest sense of the word. People who, without question, began to carry one another’s burdens.  

Mr. Rogers shares with us that his mother taught him to “look for the helpers.” That has been easy to do in Las Vegas. Try to ignore the sensationalized drama of some of the news media and look at the nameless people who have just carried on. I know a retired police officer who spent all day Monday ferrying water and donuts to first responders.  
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I have listened to my students, who as young teachers or preservice teachers, explain how they have help their students, their friends, and their families. I am proud of them and of all teachers who respond to the emotional needs of people around them. Not only with this event, but with the waves of sadness and despair that accompany many of their students at different times and as a result of different events.
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One of the helpers I have found even before today is Kathryn Erskine. In all fairness, I have been planning on talking about her work today for several months. She has a new book coming out next week, but we will get to that in a minute. I was going to rave about how much I like her work. I love Mockingbird. I know our class discussion of this work on Oct. 17, 2017 will now be radically different for a group of preservice teachers reading YA literature just two weeks after this tragic shooting.

I agree with Kathryn, I am sick of it. Yet, I will carry on. I have learned that even when students ignore our assignments, disregard our advice, talk behind our backs, text beneath their desks or just sit with a look disinterest they look to teachers to provide meaning in time of chaos. Students see us as anchors of sanity in a world that is often confusing. They look to us to say something soothing and to carry on with hope. They don’t look for us to be helpers. They already think we already are. It doesn’t matter if we also feel grief; we do. It doesn’t matter if we hurt for the loss that might directly touch our lives or lives of others; we do. ​

I believe that Kathryn Erksine’s novels embrace Faulkner’s six as well. Writing novels that embrace these qualities is work. Sure, as readers we often marvel at the grace and beauty of a book. Sometime a passage, a paragraph, or a sentence forces us to stop and let the words wash over us again. This happened to me as I read Kathryn’s The Incredible Magic of Being. Julian’s direct experience with the world helped me see the world as a place of magic; as a place where people might be able to create the magic they need. I need a little bit more of that right now. ​

We Make It Look Easy…
 
…at least, we try.  As authors, we don’t want you to know how many thousands of hours it took to write and rewrite a book or how many walks we had to take to clear our heads or how much of the research isn’t in the actual story but serves to inform us (about 95%).
 
We simply want you to be sucked into the story, enjoying a smooth ride from start to finish.  There should be no bumps – no thinking to yourself, “there’s no Cracker Barrel off that interstate in Michigan,” “no 14 year old talks like that,” “Empire didn’t premiere until 2015;” in short, we have to get the facts right.  If you find even one error, we’ve lost our credibility.  You’ll be looking for more potential errors, which takes your attention away from the story.  We want you happily lost in our world.

We also have to get the emotion right.  That takes some research, too, as well as soul searching.  How would a boy with albinism be treated in mid-14th century England?  And how would he feel about himself?  What if his father was supportive, protective, even indulgent but his aunt had nothing but disdain for him?  Who is this boy and what is he made of?  Often, there’s a little of us in our characters.  Every character, actually.  We need to go back to that place where we felt those emotions and relive them, even if they’re painful – especially if they’re painful.  We need to figure our characters out and know their world view and what motivates them.  We can observe people, interview them, read about them.  We also need to walk around in their shoes.  If it’s a nine year old boy, there are books like Your Nine Year Old to give us an idea of developmental stages, but also books like Living with Intensity because maybe my nine year old is not quite like others.  If we’re writing about an actual person, we want to know as much about that person as possible.  If he’s an historical figure from 200 years ago and we have limited information, we need to understand the times.

For an upcoming novel, I had actual documentation of the young boy at Monticello who played with and was tutored by Jefferson’s grandchildren.  What I didn’t have was how he felt when Jefferson died … and he realized not only that he was enslaved but also that he would be sold away from his home and family.  We have his own words, mostly conciliatory and complimentary of Jefferson, but we need to put that in context because he would’ve been keenly aware that white society would be more than a little annoyed if he railed against a founding father.  His one statement, “I resolved to get free or die,” shows us the grit and determination he had which enabled him to survive his horrifying experience.
 
I thought a lot about this boy, walking the rooms and grounds of Monticello, imagining being in his shoes.  When I think about him, when I think about his mother … what would it have been like if my own son had been ripped away from me when he was eleven and I had to watch him from afar, not be able to hear his ideas, see him grow, feel his hug?  I can only imagine – and that’s the point, I can only imagine.  We don’t know what it was like to be an 11 year old boy who felt he had a rather normal, ordinary life like the rest of us and suddenly experiences the true horror of being enslaved, or what it was like for his mother and father, other family members, or anyone else involved.  Fortunately, most of us have never experienced slavery.  My job as an author is to try to experience the emotion myself and then put it into words so others can feel it, and in turn feel connected to the characters and, ideally, transfer that understanding to the historical and present day human experience and wonder how we could’ve gotten that way and how we can change.

Literature helps us feel and transcend an event to understand it more fully than reading facts or hearing a lecture.  A story asks us to go on a journey, sometimes an uncomfortable one, and bear witness to things we can’t ignore because if we do they will continue, in different forms perhaps, but they will continue unless we question them, grab them, shake them, speak out, take action, and refuse to accept a human condition that, ironically, kills humans.  We are all a part of it whether we caused it or not.  We are all responsible for it.  To ignore that is to ignore the human condition and our fellow humans.

​Obviously, then, we need to give you more than facts and emotion.  We need to write a story that engages you, keeps you reading, and maybe guessing, maybe even angsting. And if it’s going to teach you something, you shouldn’t even realize you’re learning about Quakers (Quaking) or autism (Mockingbird) or international adoption (The Absolute Value of Mike) or Civil Rights (Seeing Red) or Medieval England (The Badger Knight) or anxiety, not to mention a fair amount of science (The Incredible Magic of Being).  Ideally, a story will make you think, but that should be painless, too; in fact, we want you spurred to anger or commitment, seeing the similarities to real life, freely researching more on the topic and sharing it with others.  That’s when we know our hard work is done, that we’ve made the difficult look easy.

But we are truth-tellers, too, not just in the guise of a story but in person.  At school visits I tell students, “I started this novel in 1999 – before you were born – and it was published in 2013.  That’s how long it took to get it right.”  I talk about revision and how it’s now my friend.  Sure, I resisted it, rationalized my mistakes, but then I realized that “re-vision” means seeing it again, as if for the first time, giving me a chance to turn it into something I’m proud to put my name on.  As a former trademark attorney, I know that a brand name is important.  I want people to see mine and think “quality” and “worth reading.”

How long does it take to write a book?
Someone invariably asks. I answer honestly, sometimes to gasps.

Where do you get your ideas?
Anywhere, everywhere—in the shower, on a walk, driving past someone who walks hunched over – what’s his story? Is he hurt? Is it physical or emotion? Is it temporary or permanent? Where’s he going? How is he feeling? What makes this day different for him than any other?

Why do people die in your books? 
Because people die in real life.  Because we have to learn how to keep living even after death, or after any kind of loss.

Did this really happen to you? 
Not this, exactly.  Probably something like it, though, even if it was the death of a relationship, or feeling trapped, or feeling ignored, or feeling scared, or any of the myriad emotions that the people – characters – in my books experience.

How much money do you make?
About a dollar on hardbacks, maybe ten cents (or less) on paperbacks.

That’s all?  Then why do you write?
While some may write for the thrill of it or the challenge or to quell demons, I think many of us who write for young people want to give hope, encouragement, and a refuge.  I certainly took solace and looked for answers in books, still do, and I want to share that companionship with others.
 
We don’t always get it right.  I certainly don’t.  I cringe at every passage that I should’ve written better.  In fact, except for short sections I’ll read aloud if asked, I can’t read my books once they’re published – my muscles would lock up from excessive cringing.  But we do try.  We try to make story look easy.  We have to write because we really don’t have a choice.  It’s more a question of who we are, not what we do.  It’s how we reach out to other human beings, hoping to entertain, yes, but also join forces, spread passion, and connect with those around us, and those who are still to come because really, we’re all connected.  Story is what connects us all in this crazy, wonderful, frightening, funny, miraculous human drama.

I am touched by how many people have reached out to check on me, my family, and my city. I am sad. I think it is safe to say that I am a bit confused and disoriented by the shooting in Las Vegas. 

I am thinking of families that will be dealing with tragedy. I feel for teachers all over who will meet children who will feel a less safe in their city. I ache for those who will be teaching students all over who have lost loved ones due to this event.

By extension, I can't help but think of Syria and other places that are fraught with violence. Bless them.

Many are still recovering from the effects of the Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. As we know, the effects of Maria will be effecting Puerto Rico for weeks to come. The earthquakes in Mexico also have left people mourning.

Schools are too frequently subjected to the violence; yet they are also places of healing. Places where administrators, teachers, and staff greet and comfort children and families.

I just want to direct people to two place on the blog that have helped me reflect on loss and tragedy.

The first is my response to the shooting in Orlando. Never did I image they I would be so close to such a tragedy.
Say His Name!
The second is a post by Dr. Shelly Schaffer about school shooting.
Humanizing and Understanding School Shootings: How YA “School Shooting” Literature Provides Multiple InsightsThank you for caring.

This week's guest contributor is Lesley Roessing. Lesley is not a stranger to the blog or the internet. She posts frequently on Facebook about various aspects of young adult literature. She posted on Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday last June and her topic was The New Nancy Drew: Strong Girls in YA Literature.  As the title of this post suggests, this time, she is discussing various representations of diversity. Thanks Lesley.

In a speech at the 2005 National Book Festival, Walter Dean Myers spoke about the characters in books that adolescents read and want to read. He said, “It is important to include their lives in books…because they are human.” In that 2005 speech he was referring to the children living in poverty in New Orleans, but other years when I attended NBF he referred to growing up in Harlem and never seeing himself in a book. In “Where Are the People of Color in Children’s Books,” Sunday Review, The NY Times, Walters wrote, “Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity…. They [young people who have said they love my books] have been struck by the recognition of themselves in the story, a validation of their existence as human beings, an acknowledgment of their value by someone who understands who they are. It is the shock of recognition at its highest level.”

It is vital that teachers create diverse classroom libraries or make available to their readers books by diverse authors featuring diverse main characters. While only 12% of the 3200 books received by the Cooperative Children's Book Center from U.S. Publishers as of February 2017 were written by authors of color and First/Native Nations, only 21% of the books were about people of color and First/Native Nations. (Earlier in the month, on Sept. 13, 2017, Dr. Bickmore references this topic in a post and an article.) I continually advocate for making our school and classroom libraries and our book recommendations more diverse, but many times we only view diversity as racial and ethnic diversity as in the statistics above. However, many times we also include books which represent cultural diversity of all types: race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, age, geography, sexual orientation.

​I designed a chart for my readers to track the diversity of the authors and characters of the books they are reading and characters they are reading about so they would be more aware of the books they read. (see chart below) ​However, diversity is not only cultural. Children and adolescents today face a host of diverse challenges, challenges of which we, as their teachers, may be unaware. These students sit in our classrooms, hidden in plain sight. 

The statistics are overwhelming. Today it is likely that teachers will have students who are children of an incarcerated parent, who are homeless or living in poverty, who suffer from a mental illness, or who cope with physical or mental illnesses, in addition to other hardships and challenges. We may host children who are refugees, having survived conflicts and death in their native countries, or are living with parents who are undocumented; the list seems endless.
 
And today, thanks to perceptive, empathetic authors—many of whom experienced these same challenges, these children are able to see themselves and their obstacles, losses, adversities, and traumas reflected in books and know that their lives are valued and their resilience acknowledged. Readers can use these books as maps, noting how characters handled and mishandled problems. And those who are lucky enough to have not experienced these challenges firsthand, through the stories of others, learn compassion for those who have and can applaud their resilience and fortitude.

1. More than 2.7 million children in the U.S. have an incarcerated parent. Approximately 10 million children have experienced parental incarceration at some point in their lives. Between 1991 and 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the number of mothers in federal and state prisons had increased a staggering 122 percent. During the same period, the number of children with mothers in prison had more than doubled, rising to almost 150,000 children nationwide. Nationally, there are more than 120,000 incarcerated mothers and 1.1 million incarcerated fathers who are parents of minor children.
 
In the poignant novel Ruby on the Outside by Nora Raleigh Baskin, 11-year old Ruby is on the outside, and her mother is on the inside. Ruby lives with her aunt and has never had best friend because since she was five, her mother has been in prison and to survive, she thinks she has to keep it a secret. During the summer before she starts sixth grade, Ruby years for a best friend to help her navigate middle school, but can she trust anyone with her secret? In flashbacks, the reader sees the effect of parental incarceration on Ruby through the emotional, highly regulated visits to her mother and Ruby’s observations of the effect of incarceration on other child and adolescent visitors.

In the first book of a new series by Jason Reynolds, Ghost, readers meet Castle Cranshaw a/k/a Ghost whose father is in prison for holding a gun on Ghost and his mother. Ghost is trying to outrun his anger and joins a track team, learning that everyone, even his new friends on the elite team, has challenges.
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Take Me There relates the story of Dylan Dawson, a teen with a criminal record; a teen who is almost illiterate and feels like he has no worth or future but struggles to write poetry for his girl; a teen whose father has been in prison since he was six. Dylan’s hopes for a better life with Jess seem out of reach. His father speaks to Dylan through a book he wrote in prison about the perils of illiteracy, which preordains people to a life in prison.  

2. Education Department statistics say 1.3 million homeless children were enrolled in U.S. schools in the 2012-2013 school year. (CBS News) and approximately 16.0 million, or 22 percent, of all children under the age of 18 are members of families living in poverty; this population includes the 11.1 million 5- to 17-year-olds
 
Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson takes the reader through many of the scenarios that a homeless child experiences. Ari and Gage’s mother died four years before. When he turns nineteen, Gage decides that he wants to take care of his 11-year-old sister Ari. They leave their guardian’s house and become homeless. Over the 6 week period, they sleep in a car, a storage unit, a friend’s 1-room apartment, a shelter, and Ari’s grades fall, she smells, and she is too embarrassed to tell her friends why she is not returning their calls. After she returns home, Ari gathers materials for students for a school craft activity, learning from her experiences that everyone might not have what they need to participate.

In The Exact Location of Home by Kate Messner, Kirby Zigonski and his mother lose their apartment when she can no longer pay the rent. Zig’s father is gone (incarcerated, as the reader later learns) and his mother is going to school to become a nurse and better their lives. They move into a shelter and Zig finds it trying to complete homework and his grades fall and he wears the same clothes over and over. He also finds out that many of the children from the trailers, such a class bully Kevin Richards, live temporarily in the shelter and he now sees why Kevin is not prepared for classes, as his teacher points out in front of the class. This novel, as Paper Things, makes the reader aware of the full practical and emotional realities caused by homelessness.

Even though primarily a book about 9/11 and teaching the events of September 11 to students who were not alive in 2001, Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes also tells the story of Deja who lives in a homeless shelter with her family. Her father doesn’t work and the reason why is tied to his September 11, 2001 experience.

Sketches by Eric Walters is the story of adolescents who are homeless. Dana is a runaway and with her new friends Brent and Ashley, she learns to navigate street life. She becomes involved with Sketches, an agency that provides access to art supplies and maybe away off the streets.

​Sonya Sones’ latest verse novel, Saving Red, introduces us to Red, a homeless adolescent. Molly, the narrator, meets Red when she is counting the homeless for a school project. As she becomes more involved with Red, Molly, who has struggles of her own, decides that she will help Red get home to her family even though Red shows no inclination to leave the streets. Molly eventually realizes that Red is mentally ill (schizoaffective disorder) and worries about her safety on the streets. Saving Red presents two issues in contemporary adolescent life, mental illness and homelessness and the connection between the two.

3. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, about 20% of American children suffer from a diagnosable mental illness during a given year. Further, nearly 5 million American children and adolescents suffer from a serious mental illness (one that significantly interferes with their day-to-day life). Besides Seeing Red, there are many novels that feature main characters with mental health challenges.

Depression:
The Memory of Light by Francisco Stork is the story of Vicky, a teen experiencing depression whose failed suicide allows her to get the help she needs. The novel focuses on her rehabilitation process and that of her recovery group,  four teens who experience diverse mental health issues.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:
Fourteen-year-old Adam is a member of a support group for teens who cope with obsessive-compulsive disorder through a variety of rituals in Teresa Toten’s The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B. In this group Adam meets Robyn who is struggling with her mother’s death and tries to help her while dealing with his own family relationship challenges, including a mother who has mental health issues of her own and a younger step-brother who is displaying signs of anxiety.

In Finding Perfect by Elly Swartz, twelve-year-old Molly has rituals to help her find perfect. But when her mother moves away for a new job, the rituals increase and take over her life as she tries to keep this a secret and put everything in order so her life can be as perfect as possible.

In Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone junior Samantha McAllister hides a problem, her battle with Purely-Obsessional OCD. To maintain her popular lifestyle, she constantly worries and second-guesses herself and her choices—and keeps her secret from her friends at all costs. She meets a new group of students who befriend her, show her what is important, and make her feel more “normal.” This Poetry Corner allows her to express herself through writing.

Agoraphobia:
Morgan, the main character of Underwater by Marisa Reichardt, is suffering from a type of agoraphobia. The teen feels that she was partly to blame for a deadly tragedy at her school, although her part was unintentional, initiated by a good deed. Since that day she cannot move past the front door of her apartment. She can’t see friends, and she cannot go anywhere. She is afraid of living, feeling like she is underwater. Luckily a new friend moves into the apartment complex and tries to connect her back to the outside world.

4. On any given day, there are nearly 428,000 children in foster care in the United States. In 2015, over 670,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care.(childrensrights.org). During 2015, 269,509 children entered foster care (childwelfare.gov).
 
Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s One for the Murphys (This novel is represented in an early post) introduces Carley Connors, a most unwilling foster child. She is placed with a happy, loving family but doesn’t think she deserves this and refuses to accept her good fortune. She is also conflicted because she wants to be with her mother. Many times when we see or hear of unhappy foster children, we blame the foster system. But it is a difficult dilemma for children who sometimes feel guilty for being happy or keep their guard up in case they are not retained or in case they do go back to their biological family.

One of my favorite literary characters is Lonnie Collins Motion, the Locomotion of Jacqueline Woodson’s verse novel Locomotion.  I wanted to adopt him but was turned down because (1) fictional character and (2) Lonnie already has a wonderful, caring foster mother, Miss Edna.  Lonnie lost his mother at age 7, and 4 years later his teacher is showing him how to capture and work through his emotions through writing poetry.

Fourteen-year-old Matilda “Matt,” the main character of Kathy Erskine’s Quaking, is not technically a foster child. After her parents’ deaths, she has gone through every relative she has. Her last chance for a family is distant relatives Sam and Jessica Fox, and Matt is convinced she soon will be leaving them also. But the Foxes are Quakers and, in protesting the war, their meeting house and lives are threatened. Sam and Jessica help Matt to value herself and find her voice to stand up for the family she is growing to love. 

​Lesley Roessing taught middle school language arts for twenty years. She now serves as Founding Director of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project and Senior Lecturer in College of Education of Armstrong State University where she teaches a course on Bibliotherapy. Lesley is the author of four professional books for teachers: The Write to Read: Response Journals that Increase Comprehension; Comma Quest: The Rules They Followed—The Sentences They Saved; No More “Us” and “Them”: Classroom Lessons & Activities to Promote Peer Respect; and Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically and Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core, as well as articles for a variety of publications. She is editor of Connections, the GCTE peer-reviewed journal, and a writes the Writing to Learn column for AMLE Magazine. She is an avid reader of Young Adult literature and loves sharing novels with other educators and readers. Reach her at lesleyroessing@gmail.com

If you follow my blog you know that I have a great deal of respect for Rich and Sandra. I think they are terrific writers who demonstrate the ability to do massive amounts of research to get the story right. They not only want the facts, they want the feel of the settings to mingle with the hopes and fears of the characters. Listening to them at conferences is always a joy. Last year at NCTE their passionate discussion of their research on Jonathan Daniels moved me tremendously. Rich described how Sandra kept working until they were able to stand in very place where Jonathan and African American civil rights workers were imprisoned. As I explored Bound by Ice, I wondered how many times Sandra ran out to sit in the snow to gain a level of empathy. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out that she did just that.

I have followed Rich for quite awhile. He has had an important career writing a variety of sports based books for adolescents. I say sports based, because they are much more that sports stories. Like the best writers in the genre the sport is a vehicle that allows the author and reader to have a dialogue about challenges and choice and the personal fortitude that one must develop in order to come out on top. If you don't know Rich as a sports writer, when you finish Bound by Ice, you should check them out.

The first book I read by Sandra was Muckers. This book is about a small town football team, but to say it is a novel about a sport is to ignore the power of this historical novel. Sandra's research into the real events and context of this football team from Hatley, Arizona proves her expertise as a journalist. From the beginning of her career as a novelist, she demonstrates that she can encase her research in a narrative that will engage adolescent and adult readers. In fact, Muckers, was the first book that I handed over to my social studies colleague, Paul Binford. Since then we have been collaborating on how young adult literature can help construct cross curricular activities between the Social Studies and the English classroom.  I guess we have to thank Sandra for acting as a scholarship matchmaker. So, once again, when you finish Bound by Ice, you should check out the rest of Sandra's books.

In short, both Rich and Sandra are authors you should be reading. Since winter is coming, why not start with Bound by Ice. 

Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace are the authors of the new barrier-breaking adventure book Bound by Ice: A True North Pole Survival Story (Calkins Creek), which has received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus. The investigative nonfiction authors’ most recent biography, Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights, is an ALA Notable book and a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best. It earned a YALSA award nomination for Excellence in Nonfiction, was a Booklist Editors’ Choice, and was named one of Bank Street College’s Best Children’s Books of the Year. Blood Brother won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, ILA’s Social Justice Literature Award, and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. Visit the authors on Twitter: @SandraNWallace and @RWallaceBooks and online at www.sandraneilwallace.com and richwallacebooks.com
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Today's YA Wednesday post is from a new contributor, Terri Suico. Terri is an assistant professor at St. Mary's College. Terri and I have been hanging around at the same conferences for several years. The questions she asks in the title are concepts I think about all of the time.  She frames the situation quite nicely in this post. She is also conducting a study around the topic and is soliciting participants to take a survey and perhaps do an interview. Perhaps you or, if you are teaching preservice teachers, some of your students would like to participate. Terri, thanks for the thoughtful post.

These are just a few of the very real comments I’ve heard when discussing the use of young adult literature in the English classroom. They might sound like something you would hear from a stereotypical and uncompromisingly traditional English teacher whose experience with YAL was during the era of formulaic series books. However, these remarks are from some of the teacher candidates I have worked with in different education programs. These individuals have been, to a person, thoughtful, well-read, and motivated. They’ve also shown great eagerness to teach and share their interest in literature. Their stated goals for teaching have included wanting to cultivate a love of reading in their students. Furthermore, they grew up and live during an era that YAL expert Michael Cart has called the second “golden age of young adult fiction” (CNN), with books like the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series gaining legions of readers and becoming entrenched in popular culture. These characteristics seem at odds with their vehement rejection of young adult literature and its place in the secondary English classroom. Rather than seeing YAL as being worthy of study in its own right or even viewing it as a way of getting students to enjoy reading, they see it as undeserving of serious consideration. On the other hand, I also have worked and currently work with future teachers who embrace YAL and see it as a vital and valuable part of the curriculum. 

These conflicting opinions are nothing new. Indeed, they mirror the battle over young adult literature that has raged since the genre first emerged in 1942. Concerns with YAL have often addressed its quality. In a December 1956 article for NCTE’s English Journal entitled “Literature for Adolescents – Pap or Protein?”, reading specialist and education professor Frank G. Jennings obviously decided it was the former, stating that “the stuff of adolescent literature, for the most part, is mealy-mouthed, gutless, and pointless” (p.526). This sentiment (or variations of it) has echoed through the years, with detractors of YAL decrying its lack nuance or complexity. 

In 2014, Slate contributor Ruth Graham caused an uproar in internet book circles when she wrote an article unambiguously entitled “Against YA: Adults Should Be Embarrassed to Read Children’s Books”. Besides perceptions of YAL’s sentimentality and simplicity, others have voiced concerns over its subversive content, such as sexuality and drug use. These concerns have led young adult books to be frequently banned and challenged according to the American Library Association.

​Young adult literature also has ardent advocates. Reaction online to Graham’s article was swift, with defenders of YAL ranging from Julie Beck of The Atlantic to Mark Medley of National Post to Elisabeth Donnelly of Flavorwire decrying Graham’s contentions. Book sales also attest to YAL’s popularity; a study released in 2015 by the Association of American Publishers found that “the area of largest growth for the trade [book] category was children and young adult,” with young adult books selling over 700 million units in 2014. Beyond journalists, bloggers, and buyers, YAL has also received support from the professional and academic realms. Besides promoting for scholarship in YAL, the NCTE and the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE (ALAN) champion YAL’s use in the English classroom and offer resources to help and encourage teachers to include it in the curriculum. The NCTE has reinforced this by embedding knowledge of adolescent literature into its teacher preparation standards. Books by educators and researchers, such as Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher (reviewed here), edited by Judith A. Hayn, Jeffrey S. Kaplan and Karina R. Clemmons, provide additional insight into adolescent literature’s worth when working with adolescents and further substantiate its place in the curriculum. 

Considering the sometimes-heated back-and-forth between YAL’s detractors and its devoted champions brings us back to thinking about aspiring English teachers and their impressions on the books’ value as literature and place in the English curriculum. Do they, like the students quoted at the start of this post, align with Jennings and Graham? Or do they find YAL meaningful when it comes to reading and teaching? Furthermore, how did they come to form these views? What do these things mean for the future of YAL and its role in the English classroom? The research I’m doing seeks to answer these questions. Besides adding to the study and conversation on YAL, this information might also allow us to get a better sense of what the future holds for YAL, particularly in terms of its place in schools.
 
For those interested in participating, please visit the online survey (linked here) or contact me for more information. The survey takes around 5-10 minutes, and participants who complete it and include their contact information will be entered in a drawing for one of two $25 gift cards. In the survey, participants have the option to take part in a one-on-one interview to discuss their ideas in more depth. Those who complete the interview will receive a $15 gift card and will still be eligible for the survey drawing.

I love this time of the year. New classes are exciting. Meeting new faculty members and new students is invigorating. I also welcome the shift from summer heat to the moderate fall weather. On top of all of that, it is book award season. On Tuesday, September 12, 2017, the longlist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature (NBA) was announced. It was almost perfect timing. I was planning a post about the representation of race in the history of the first twenty years of this important and prestigious award.  So, I found myself scrabbling a bit to include the new information.

About a month ago, an article that I worked on with two graduate, Yunying Xu and Myra Infante Sheridan, was published. We were asking a simple question: How is racial/cultural diversity evident or not in the awards representing Young Adult Literature. As we explored the question, we focused in on the first twenty years of the NBA. That provided us with 20 winners and 5 books that made the short list each year for a total of 100 books. Many of us who teach and research Young Adult literature advocate for diverse books. We know that the representation is improving since the early research in 1965 by Larrick's “The All-White World of Children’s Books." Are the statistics significantly better? There is a sense that the publishing world is doing better, but what are the numbers? Each year the Cooperative Children's Book Center posts information about this issue.  However, there is very little actual documentation of the statistics as this issue directly relates to Young Adult literature. More has been done to document the disparity among children's literature.

After some trial and error, writing and rewriting the article was published in Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education in Volume 16 issue 1, you can find the whole issue here.  For direct link to our article,  Where Are the People of Color? Representation of Cultural Diversity in the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and Advocating for Diverse Books in a Non-Post Racial Society click here. Yes, it is a long title, but Taboo loves them.

Most of the post will be visual. Each cover image is link to Amazon where you can read reviews from readers and, in most cases, read excepts from reviews from professional review sources. 

In the article we advocate for diverse books and state the data about how diversity is represented among the 100 books and the 20 winners. In this blog post, I focus on the 20 winning books. In this first section, I show the covers of the nine books that have diverse characters.

All nine of the books are fantastic examples of quality literature. Don't misunderstand, I think the other 11 books are also great. Some of my favorite books are in that group. For example, most people get tried of me talking about True Believer and When Zachery Beaver Came to Town. And, on Thursday afternoon, my students will be discussing Holes.

The point of the paper, however, is to focus on representations of diversity. All of the books above feature a diverse main character, but not all of them are written by diverse authors. There is a whole debate about how and if writers should represent characters beyond their own experience and ethnic background. Again, the point of the paper is not to argue that issue, but to simply report the facts. Below, are the five diverse authors who wrote one of the winning books. Each image below is linked to the authors webpage with one exception. Victor Martinez is no longer with us and his image is linked to a Wikipedia page.

Neither the paper or this blog post should be interpreted as a critique of the work of any of the committees. We respect the hard work that it takes to sort through all of the books and to collectively arrive at a winner. Hopefully, the data can serve as a place for the conversation to begin as we discuss the need for diverse books. 

The blog post points briefly to the diversity among the 20 winners. The article deals with all 100 books and provides some context for the discussion around diversity in Young Adult literature and the a brief discussion about how diversity is being address in our current cultural milieu. In addition, to the discussion in the paper we have also provided a spreadsheet of all of the data that will be archive on the blog here for anyone who is interested.
In the final section of today's post you can find the current longlist for the NBA. 

The current longlist for 2017 has a great deal of diversity. As someone who teaches YA literature and research representations of diversity in this area, it is a very exciting list. I have read some, but not all of these books. My reading list for the next few weeks become a bit longer. The links below take you to a review on the Publishers Weekly website. (I good website to have bookmarked, by the way.) The cover images are linked to a place where you can by the book and see reviews by readers. I know that Sharon Kane and other teachers will be talking about these books in their YA courses over the next few weeks.

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold (Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab)
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway (HarperTeen)
All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry (Algonquin)
You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum/Dlouhy)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez (Knopf)
Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder (HarperCollins/Walden Pond)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia (HarperCollins/Amistad)
American Street by Ibi Zoboi (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)

I think the committee has done a wonderful job and I look forward to the short list in a few weeks. May some of the blog's readers would like to send in their comments about this list and the short list when it is released.
​Until next week.

My daughter was born on Christmas Eve. She was my first baby, and her older brother and sister were excited to meet her.
 
Did you catch that? I know it doesn’t make sense, but it is my family’s story. My first baby was my third child.
 
A year and a half before her birth, two precious toddlers became a part of my family through the foster care system. When my biological daughter was born, she was 100% their sister, never knowing anything else, yet legally she was merely another kid who lived in the same home they were placed in.
 
One day a judge signed a piece of paper. That paper made them “our children” and made the baby “their sister.” That paper had an extraordinary amount of power to clean up the mess and uncomplicate their web of family members.
 
Except that it didn’t.
 
Despite the language, despite the legality, they still have two moms and two dads and lots of grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings. The paper made everything official and legal, but in reality, it changed absolutely nothing. Three years have passed, my eldest is now nearing middle-school (be still my mama heart), and life has failed to uncomplicated itself.
 
My experience is far from unique. In 2015 there were 427,910 children in foster care in the U.S (Full 2015 Report) . That number continues to rise. In my own home state of Montana, as of December 2016 there were 3,396 children in foster care (Adopt US Kids). In a state where the current population of youth under 18 is 113,353 (MT Population), that means almost 3% of our children are in the foster care system. There is no denying that these kids are in our classrooms and in the social networks of our students. Yet their experience is relatively unseen in the literature we teach. If students are expected to see themselves in some way in YA lit., what literary mirrors are available for foster-youth? How are they being represented to other readers? 

Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

​There are many things I love about this text. Although problematic if read the way I do in terms of youth agency and autonomy, it can also be read as the story of a young girl who overcomes unimaginable obstacles, never gives up despite the hardships she faces, and ultimately finds somewhere she belongs. I believe it would be particularly interesting in class discussion because of the difference in genre (it is written as a series of journal entries) and the importance of the English teacher for Holly’s growth (because, honestly, I am a bit biased). 

The Guardian by Joyce Sweeney

​Of the four texts, The Guardian is the most action-packed, complete with supernatural elements, motorcycles, an ex-con, and a kidnapping. But more than that, it demonstrates how much the complicated web of family can impact the foster-youth, albeit in extreme and unlikely ways. This text would work well in a classroom for many reasons, but the ambiguity of the title is something I would refer back to in order to keep students curious and engaged. Who exactly is the “guardian” that the title references? The answer remains unclear, even to the end. 

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt           

​Although in many ways the most predictable text, this novel succeeds in one primary way: of the four texts, this one is the most self-aware of its presentation of “foster-kid” as a stereotype. Throughout the text the foster-youth is continuously comparing herself to the stereotype and trying to decide how, or if, she fits within it. For this reason, though the others have more depth in a literary sense, One for the Murphys may be the best starting point for addressing the way foster-kids are viewed in our culture and the inaccuracy of viewing people through a stereotype. (For interesting comparison, see also articles discussing the power of “stereotype threat”, such as this one by Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson.) 

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord

​From a strictly literary standpoint, of the four listed I most recommend Touch Blue. This novel is filled with deeper threads that are begging for discussion and analysis: the significance of the island location, the metaphor of the Monopoly game, the “depiction of rurality” (as discussed in this previous YA Wednesday post by Dr. Rob Petrone and Alli Behrens), the power of superstitions, the reversal of the child-to-adult narrative, and many others.  

Though each of the above texts could provide a valid starting point for the discussion around foster-youth, the simple and didactic nature typical of YA creates some potential problems that must also be addressed.
 
Despite the seeming variety, the storylines are very similar:

1. Something traumatic happens to put the youth in foster care.
2. The youth character doesn’t feel like they belong.
3. The youth character somehow rebels against the authorities.
4. The youth character realizes that life is better if they accept their place.
5. The end assumes everything is tied up neatly and they all live “happily ever after.”

 
In every one of these texts, the foster-youth is made to submit (willingly) to the systemic authorities before their lives can improve. It is only through giving up their agency that they are able to exercise any true agency, for it is at this exact moment in each of the texts that the foster-youth are able to claim any lasting change in their own lives.

Of course, for the most part, we want our youth to submit to their various authorities (particularly to educational authorities since that makes classroom management much simpler). However, I like to believe that as educators we want to teach our students how to think rather than what to think. This includes acknowledging that not every situation is black and white, but the grey line is one they must often consider. Sometimes submission will not, in fact, make everything better. Sometimes subversion is necessary. Sometimes...well, almost always, things are just not that simple.
 
Second, the assumption of “happily ever after” can be problematic, particularly for young readers who almost see themselves in the text. It can provide hope, but if their situation is not neatly worked out like those in the texts (it won’t be) I fear it can actually fuel a sense of hopelessness and self-loathing. “What’s wrong with me? Why don’t I get the happy ending?” Despite finding and reading books about foster-youth, few foster-youth will find their experiences in the texts. Based on my own experience with foster and adoption, it just doesn’t work the way it does in the books.
 
I believe the most successful approach to these texts would be acknowledging and addressing these concerns head on. Make each a topic of class discussion, and have students critically consider the benefits and drawbacks of the after-school special conclusions in not only these texts but much of YA literature, both in their tendency to teach a lesson that reinforces common power structures and the way everything wraps up so nicely in the end. ​

My kids are no longer in foster care. As of May 2014 they are part of our forever family. They may no longer be “foster kids,” but for the rest of their lives they will always be kids who were adopted from foster care. I want them to see their stories in the literature they read, but I want them to read them critically and avoid believing any narrative that is either too directive or too simplistic. As an educator I want students to see the texts not only as mirrors and windows, but also to understand that the view they get from each is a singular window to a singular situation, and not necessarily an accurate representation of the experiences of any individual or group. However, if we can get them to read critically, these books are great for beginning the conversation about the foster system and those who are most directly affected by it.
 
A final plea: If you are an author, please consider examining the foster-care system and creating a strong story around it. We need more options, particularly for an older YA audience.

Shauna is an adjunct professor at Montana State teaching writing and literature. She taught high school English for five years and this is her second year at MSU. She can be contacted at: ​mrs.s.stephens@gmail.com 

Angela Insegna is back as a guest contributor after only six weeks. What can I say? She had another good idea and I had to fit it in. You can read her earlier posts here and here. Angela is one of the people I go to for inspiration. The first time I reviewed a syllabus for one of her courses, it changed how I thought about the relationship between young adult literature and popular culture. Maybe one day we will have her write about she constructs a syllabus that deals with both. in this post, she talks about how art is valued in in the narrative of young adult literature. It reminded me of an article for The ALAN Review written by Connie Zitlow and Lois Stover entitled Portrait of the Artist as a Young Adult: Who is the Real Me. The project lead to a book, here is the link. Of course, Angela takes a new look at the topic. Hey Angela, any plans for a book down the line? Take it away, Angela.

My students organically noted the parallels between both artistic boys, which led to in-depth discussions about the inherent value of art and the portrayal of young male artists in these texts.  Art was not the province of boys, who were to be more utilitarian, full of common sense, they noted.  They spent a whole class period discussing ways that Jesse’s father might complete his sentence about what “old ladies” were doing to his only son. Art then became a gendered vocation, even though most of the touchstone figures in painting, writing, and music are men and both high school and middle-grades curricula situated under Common Core standards do not offer gender-balanced readings.  More specifically, art and artistic endeavor in Myers and Paterson’s texts were gendered and determined by class.  Jamal and Jesse live in socioeconomically challenged households.  Jesse’s material concerns—his family cannot afford paper or “real paints”—indicate that artistry may be reserved for those who have leisure time and wealth.  Jamal likewise thinks about acquiring art supplies for a special occasion like Christmas: “he would ask Mama to buy him some real paints, not like the watercolors that you got at McCrory’s.  And a real paintbrush, too. . . . Maybe even two, a big one that was flat on the end and a little one with a point.” Both boys also, my students noted, have friends who encouraged them and responded positively to their talents:  Leslie for Jesse, Tito for Jamal.  These peers counteract the adult viewpoints, spurring both adolescents on towards refining their skills.  

Following the Ariadnic golden thread of art’s representation in YA evolved into a project for me, especially with the advent of STEM programs which, at first, excluded art as a valuable province.  Some discounted it because they assume artists cannot thrive in the marketplace.  But for some adolescents in #YArt-centered texts, drawing affords much-needed escape from untenable emotional—not economic—situations.  In Barry Lyga’s The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (2007), Donny Marchetti designs his own graphic novel with the goal of attending a Comic Convention and presenting it to his favorite artist.  His artistic outlet allows him to better handle school bullying, his parents’ divorce, his new “step-fascist,” and the widening gulf between him and his pregnant mother.  Lyga’s text does not provide actual images alongside the conventional narrative, though the themes of using artistic endeavor as an escape and as a vehicle towards self-identity exist on every page of Donny’s tragicomic narration.  Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) also illustrates the importance of artistic endeavor for adolescents via the character of Arnold Spirit.  In the first few pages we learn how Arnold views drawing, as he ruptures the novel’s ubiquitous humorous tone to state, “the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little life boats.”  Like Donny, Arnold is bullied.  Born with encephalitis, he is picked on because of his large head and small body.  Cartooning provides him with an opportunity to share—and process—his experiences. Readers of this novel are the benefactors of 97 of Arnold’s images, drawn by Ellen Forney.  

In two more #YArt novels, artistic production allows for survival in the face of traumatic events.  In Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray, set during Stalin’s Reign of Terror, 15-year-old Lina Vilkas’s family is detained by Soviet police and sent to Siberian labor camps.  Lina, who had been preparing to go to art school, must now survive harsh winters and inhumane treatment. Because the family is separated from her influential Provost father, Lina resolves to use her artistic ability to get word to him of their condition.  She draws on a handkerchief which she then passes to another in hopes that, eventually, her father will receive the message she has drawn on it.  Later, for extra rations, Lina draws for one of the Soviet commanders.  Her mother encourages Lina’s drawing, though it is dangerous to do so in the camps, because “the world has no ideas what the Soviets are doing to us” and the drawings she produces act as a living record of the events.  Finally, her memories of the art of Edvard Munch sustain her during the crucible.  For Lina, artistic endeavor is linked to sustenance, physical and mental.  

In Brendan Kiely’s and Jason Reynolds’s novel All American Boys, Rashad’s artistic ability enables him to survive after he endures an unjust beating from a police officer.  Rashad contrasts his life to that of Bil Keane’s Family Circus, since uses the familiar circle as his frame to provide a point of view.  He explains, “the circle changes how you see it. Like what are we looking through? A telescope?  A peephole?  The sight of a gun?”  Like Lina, Rashad also admires an artist:  Aaron Douglas, of the Harlem Renaissance.  To move through the trauma he has experienced, Rashad uses art.  To provide others with a view into his life—a peephole, if you will—he draws.  Thus, also like Lina, art provides Rashad with a way into and out of hardship.    

​Despite the central role they play in intellectual and personal development, the arts are under assault in the United States.  President Trump proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in March of this year.  While the House rejected the proposed eradication of these agencies, they did approve in July a $5 million dollar cut to the already-beleaguered budgets of both the NEA and NEH during fiscal year 2018.  STEAM programs honor the arts, seeing them as integral to a well-rounded education and, more importantly, for harnessing the creative impulse.  However, we must make certain not to see the arts as a stepping stone to the sciences as some STEAM programs may be tempted to do.  Instead, art stands alone, inspiring and encouraging reflection or reaction.
 
Studying YA’s complicated representation of art, artists, and artistic production over time creates a panoramic snapshot of cultural attitudes towards artistic endeavor.  Adolescents and teachers alike can ruminate on these depictions as they determine art’s position in their own historical moment. 
​
What other YA texts represent art?  Follow this golden thread with me by commenting here or using the hashtag #YArt on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.  

Dr. Kia Richmond is this week's guest contributor. Kia and I have know each other for a long time. She was one of the very first people I meet as a graduate student. When I started following YA scholars at conferences, Kia was there. When I showed up at CEE gatherings at NCTE and at the CEE conferences, Kia was there. Kia has always been a source of support and you can count on her to welcome people into the academic communities of NCTE, CEE, and ALAN. Thanks Kia. She has been on sabbatical and writing a book. Today she shares some of the insights about YA literature and how it portrays Mental Illness.  

Research from the National Institute of Mental Health (2015) reports that one in five youth aged 13-18 experience a “seriously debilitating mental disorder.” Based on conversations with teachers in public schools across the U.S. and on my service on the board of directors of a regional nonprofit focused on helping troubled youth, I would say that number seems a tad low. 
​
Since I started my career as a professor over sixteen years ago, I have included young adult literature featuring characters with mental illness in my humanities and English Education courses (see “Using Literature to Confront the Stigma of Mental Illness”). I bring in YA lit because books written specifically for teenagers offer our future educators insights that are not always accessible through reflections on their own schooling, textbooks by experts on pedagogy, or field experiences at local schools.
 
This year while on sabbatical, I am completing research for a book forthcoming from ABC-Clio/Greenwood Press (Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature: Exploring Real Struggles through Fictional Characters). While reading selected YA novels purchased with a research grant from Northern Michigan University, I have reflected on many of the benefits of including books about mental illness in high school and college classrooms. Here, I will highlight two issues:  
 

• YA lit can demonstrate how our language signifies our beliefs
• YA lit can showcase authentic symptoms of mental illness

​In many books that feature characters with mental disorders such as schizophrenia or depression, readers will notice a variety of terms for someone who has a mental illness (used by an individual with the disorder to refer to the self as well as by those who are talking about others). Here is a sampling of some of the terms used by the characters in Your Voice is All I Hear and Freaks like Us (both about young adults with schizophrenia) as well as Get Well Soon and It’s Kind of a Funny Story (both focused on teenagers with depression):
 
insane, apeshit, crazy, nuts, weird, lunatic, depressed, psychotic, anxious, delusional, sick, freaks, impaired, alphabets, fucked up, mental patients, screwed up.
 
A few of these (such as anxious or depressed) are authentic terms for mental illness as identified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed., APA, 2013). However, the majority of the terms are slang – mostly negative labels or insults, and whether used by the character with the mental illness or someone else, the results are typically the same: isolation, disapproval, or (self-) doubt. 

How we talk about individuals can affect how we treat them (public stigma), and how we talk about ourselves can influence how we treat ourselves (self-stigma). Research in psychology reports that there are many stereotypes about individuals with mental illness; often, they are considered incompetent, dangerous, and responsible for their own illnesses. If someone with a mental illness applies such beliefs to the self, that person can develop lower self-esteem, which can in turn affect how the individual behaves and feels.

In Labeling people as ‘The mentally ill’ increases stigma, Darcy Haag Granello, a professor of counselor education at The Ohio State University, describes a study on the use of terms such as “mentally ill” and “persons with mental illness” and confirms that words influence our attitudes, which guide behaviors. Likewise, researchers in London (Diana Rose, Graham Thornicroft, Vanessa Pinfold, and Aliya Kassam) have identified 250 different labels used to stigmatize individuals with mental illness. Their study highlights that young people have a lack of factual information about mental illness and points to media, family, and peers as sources for the derogatory terms learned.  

​Educators and others who work with adolescents should talk about the vocabulary used in YA novels and discuss how negative terms can influence beliefs and behaviors and perpetuate stigma. Doing so could help to counteract the abundance of the pejorative terms used in the media and elsewhere, and perhaps could change how individuals with mental illnesses are treated by themselves and others in their lives. ​

One of the reasons I am reading YA books about mental illness is to evaluate whether various disorders are authentically represented in the stories according to descriptions of the illnesses in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, 2013). Though I am still in the beginning stages of my research, I have found in the books I’ve read thus far that the majority of the symptoms characters have are represented accurately.

For example, in a series of email exchanges with her friend Connor, eighteen-year-old Isabel (narrator of Amy Reed’s novel Crazy) vividly describes her symptoms of bipolar disorder. Over a seven-month period, Izzy takes readers through alternating moods of mania and depression. Reed’s portrayals reflect many of the symptoms common with bipolar disorder such as:  

• depressed mood
• feelings of worthlessness
• feelings of grandiosity
• sleeplessness
• bursts of talkative energy
• impulsivity
• increased irritability
• intense goal-directed activities
• extreme involvement activities with potential for negative results.

 
In one of her manic states, we can see Isabel’s increased energy. She says she is on a “different frequency” and rambles that “space and time have spikes and gravity shifts around one moment you’re flying and the next you’re a pancake on the highway and the cars are running over you one after another after another and it doesn’t hurt.” When she is in a depressed state, Izzy feels worthless: “I am a parasite on this world. I suck the life out of the things I love…Somebody shoot me. Somebody put me out of my misery.” Thanks to these kinds of descriptions, and Connor’s responses to them, readers get a better understanding of bipolar disorder.

In Neal Shusterman’s award-winning novel Challenger Deep, fifteen-year-old Caden Bosch exhibits symptoms of schizophrenia that align well with the DSM-5’s list for that disorder, which can include:

• racing or jumbled thoughts

• a pressing need to pace or walk around
• auditory and visual hallucinations
• paranoia.

 
Caden thinks another student at school is trying to kill him, and believes that “hissing sprinklers” are actually snakes in disguise. He believes he is on board a large ship headed for the Marianas Trench, sailing with a captain (with an eye patch) whose parrot has “an eye patch and a security badge.” Because he has difficulty differentiating between reality and fantasy, Caden’s descriptions of his symptoms –and his journey - take on multiple meanings. Shusterman tells readers that the story is not a work of fiction because the “places that Caden goes are all too real.” The author’s own son experienced mental illness, and Shusterman tried in the novel to “capture the descent” into “the deep.” His goal for the book is to help individuals with mental illness feel less alone and to help others to develop empathy for those who “sail the dark, unpredictable waters of mental illness.”
​
Jessie Hatcher, the fifteen-year-old narrator of Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book, authored by Nancy Rue, consistently displays realistic symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity, both of which are associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She has difficulty concentrating and describes her mind as running nonstop like a hamster on a wheel. Additionally Jessie has trouble:

• being forgetful and disorganized
• appearing not to listen when spoken to directly
• being easily distracted
• blurting out answers before questions are completed.

These kind of behaviors are in part the reason for Jessie’s struggles in school and with relationships, and perhaps why she self-identifies herself as a “ditz-queen-airhead-moron.” Jessie’s story is focused on managing the symptoms of her illness while changing her self-labels to more positive ones, thanks in part to her father and a mysterious book filled with Biblical messages.
 
All three young adult characters described above – Izzy, Caden, and Jessie, receive treatments such as medication, therapy, and/or hospitalization for their mental illnesses after being diagnosed by medical professionals. Readers, especially young adults, should be cautioned not to try to diagnose themselves, their friends, or relatives by using lists of symptoms in novels or elsewhere. Likewise, teachers and other adults should not assume that the symptoms shared by teens in YA novels are consistent across all youth; like all illnesses, symptoms vary from individual to individual. All readers, however, can turn to YA literature texts such as these to learn more about those who have mental illnesses. 

In her YA Wednesday blog about Thirteen Reasons Why, North Carolina State University English Education professor Michelle Falter calls for us to be brave: “Braver than we ever have been. Brave because our students are braver than us, and are ready to talk” about issues such as “drug use, alcohol, rumors, social media, bullying, depression, rape, and yes…suicide.”

Bringing in books about mental illness to high school classrooms means that issues such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and ADHD will be discussed. Teachers might feel unqualified to handle such discussions. However, in an Education Week article in 2014, Thomas J. Cottle and Jennifer Greif Green say that teachers don’t have to become “experts in diagnosis or treatment” nor do they need to “assume the role of therapist or counselor.”

Talking about characters with mental illnesses is not a new concept - think of the suicides in Romeo and Juliet, depression in Hamlet, and PTSD in The Things They Carried. We are already doing some of this kind of work. Great articles on young adult literature – including articles related to psychological issues and mental illness – can be found in The ALAN Review, Study and Scrutiny, and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, as well as in NCTE journals such as English Journal, Voices from the Middle, and English Leadership Quarterly. Additionally, a 2016 book by Dean A. Haycock, Characters on the Couch: Exploring Psychology through Literature and Film, offers insight into 100 well-known fictional characters from books and films.

By doing a bit of research and being willing to have the conversations (being brave, as Falter recommends), educators and others invested in helping youth can challenge the stigma associated with mental illness.
For additional resources, visit these web sites:
​
http://stopthestigma.org/
http://www.bringchange2mind.org/
https://www.nami.org/Find-Support/Teens-and-Young-Adults
https://www.jedfoundation.org/
http://youth.gov/youth-topics/youth-mental-health