I hope Rachelle and Julia don't mind. We just finished the 2018 Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. So many great things happened. Ideas from a variety of perspectives where shared. People renewed old friendships and new friendships were established. There are new plans for research, book ideas, white papers and some new ideas about using this literature in the classroom. More of that will be laid out in the weeks and months to come. We are making plans for some follow-up events here in Las Vegas and in Clark County School District. People are planning on how to reconnect at NCTE in November. All who were in attendance are looking forward to sharing. 

We were lucky that Noah Schaffer was in attendance. He has experience snapping pictures at several ALAN Workshops. Below we have a visual taste of the people and events form the first day of the summit-- all of the photographers belong were taken by Noah. Browse through these a bit. After that, read what Kate and Julia have to say about Hot Button issues and YA. This was certainly a topic of conversation in several sessions. Let's consider what Kate and Julia have to say as a post summit extension.   

Rachelle Savitz is an assistant professor of adolescent literacy and previously a secondary literacy interventionist. Julia Kate Bentley is currently a PhD student studying early literacy with a children’s literature emphasis. Both authors are lifelong readers, passionate about advocating use of children’s and young adult literature in all classrooms as they are not only complex texts but discuss myriad of tough topics, such as culture, race, sexual identity, and immigration. 

Challenging our own thinking as educators and creating student agency and voice for all individuals is a goal of education. We want our students to value individuality and get involved in civil engagement to better their lives and that of others. However, teachers tend to avoid certain topics due to fear or lack of knowledge. Good novels push against barriers and challenge the ‘norm’ by valuing the differences of all individuals.
 
Immigration rights, DACA, Dreamer status, and ICE raids are consistently in the news, and being talked about across the country. Students are experiencing the devastation of families being yanked apart either through watching the news or experiencing it first-hand through friends, family, or personal situations. We have bared witness to children being pulled from loved one’s arms and being sent back to countries that have not been visited in many years, if ever. Protests for and against immigration are happening throughout the country, with both sides not standing down. Fake news continues to purport misleading, and often incorrect information regarding various cultures and people attempting to enter the US.
 
At the same time, we watch as funding is pulled from LGBTQ safe zones and organizations, same-sex couples must fight for their rights of equality, and states propose laws that do not condemn bullying of students that differ from the norm in regard to sexual identity. Students are left to question and wonder about their own feelings alone without a safe forum for open discussion.
 
The devastation happening to our own students and students across the country is evident, yet many teachers are worried to begin open discussions, not knowing how to address certain topics or questions that may come. As a culture, when we do not understand something, misunderstandings flourish, often leading to negative stereotypes and even hateful acts. Our students need guidance from trusted adults to distinguish fact from opinion and access accurate information from all sides. They want to ask questions. They seek understanding. Terry Farish and Sara Farizan provide a way “in” for opening up dialogue relating to the Muslim culture, war, immigration, and sexual identity. 

Viola’s mother, Tereza, accepts the need to escape, without her older, frail mother. The journey is long and tumultuous, as they narrowly escape and must walk miles and miles only to face a long wait in Cairo. For two years in Cairo, Viola finds herself standing in long lines, filling out forms over and over, working, and waiting for the blue card that will provide permission to travel to the United States. During this time, Tereza is incapacitated by grief brought on by the loss of her son, forcing Viola to act as the adult. She teaches herself English as she knows she will need it when arriving in America.
 
Once again, upon arriving in America, Viola and her mother are torn between two worlds, as they attempt to understand American culture and laws while also keeping to their Sudanese roots. Viola is confused by new freedoms, such as wearing clothing that does not cover her arms and legs and the fact that she may attend school. Teresa struggles to understand how to raise Viola, as her punishment of burning Viola’s hand for spending time alone with a boy is not acceptable in America like it was in Sudan. Grief, loss of innocence, death, need for community and belonging, and survival, are tragically, yet elegantly depicted throughout the novel as Viola and Tereza discover their new identities as both, American and Sudanese. 

Sahar questions governmental laws and officials by bringing to light the hypocrisy and irony of various laws. For instance, women are to need protection yet also to fear the police. Or, that it is okay to accept being born the wrong gender and having a government funded gender reassignment surgery. However, it is a death sentence to be attracted to someone of the same sex, such as the hanging of two boys or when Sahar’s cousin was arrested, tortured, and beaten for being gay.  Unable to turn to her father, Baba, emotionally unavailable due to her mother's death, Sahar must struggle alone with her questions and feelings. When she meets a group who have benefitted from gender reassignment and affirm the government’s position that homosexuality is a mental illness, she believes undergoing the surgery could be the answer to "fix" her desires.
 
When Nasrin’s mother arranges her marriage Sahar again questions what to do and who she is. She agonizes over Nasrin’s decision to walk away from their love and questions her own options. At the wedding, Nasrin’s mother makes it clear that Sahar should forget the love formed and move on. After months of little communication, Nasrin’s husband sees how depressed she is and invites Sahar over. However, he makes it clear that Sahar must behave appropriately and respect his home and marriage.
 
Ultimately, Sahar accepts and understands that she is not a man trapped in a woman’s body and is at peace with understanding who she is. Sahar and her father learn how to grieve and let go. Baba returns to work and Sahar returns to school, where she meets another female student Taraneh. The power of friendship, hope for those facing challenges alone, and moving from grief to love are captured throughout this beautiful novel as we learn to understand Sahar as an individual, not Sahar as a lesbian or Muslim.
 
Understanding Sahar’s world provides an inside view into the isolation, alienation, bullying, guilt, shame, tension, acceptance, and perseverance that she faced personally and due to others. There is no universal experience for students that identify as LGBTQ, as is shown by the characters in this novel. Farizan disrupts what is considered “normal” in respect to sexuality and gender. 

​As educators, it is our responsibility to provide the means for our students to push against boundaries, question everything, and enhance their knowledge and acceptance of diversity in this world. We must become okay with being ‘uncomfortable’. These books, and others similar, demonstrate how people of the same age, regardless of where they are from, have commonalities with fears, desires, dreams, and goals while also struggling in their own unique ways. We must show, not just state, that we value individuality. 

Wow! It has been nearly a year of planning for this event. Let's  get one thing clear, it isn't happening because of me. 

Early planning happened at the CEE Conference in Columbus at the Ohio State. A ton of people weighed in on the planning and purpose of the Summit.  The early committee was Michelle Falter, Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil, Crag Hill, Sarah Donovan, and myself.  Everyone contributed a great deal. As life goes, Michelle and Gretchen have had important--not tragic--family and life issues that had them going in different directions during the summit. They will be missed. While Michelle and Gretchen were still working hard we added a local librarian, Susan Slykerman, and we asked Bill Konigsberg to weigh in from an authors perspective from time to time. Both have  added tremendously to what will be happening this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday June 14-16, 2018. 

Susan helped us make the needed connection with Clark County School District they helped us create one of our a valuable partnerships. Bill helped us think about things from the point of view of the author. As we discuss teaching and research, we want authors to understand what we do and we need to better understand their work. What is their role in the classroom, in the conferences, and in the publishing industry?  We often don't think about how difficult it is for them to be a full time writer and to make economic ends meet. I appreciate Donalyn Miller's constant reminder to buy their books.

Other partnerships include the UNLV College of Education--we go nowhere without Sheila and Kelsy, the UNLV Department of Teaching and Learning, the UNLV Teacher Development & Resources Library--Yeah Amanda, Katherine and Huston, The Southern Nevada Writing Project--Thanks Denise, Ben, and Amber, and the Gayle A. Zeiter Literacy Development Center. A special shout out to the UNLV Lied Library for providing such a wonderful space for Thursday and Friday and to Valley High School for doing the same on Saturday. 

So, the time has arrived. About 40 people have prepared presentations. There is a link to the program on this page.

We developed a quick questionnaire so that many of you who can't be here, could weigh in with your opinions. It isn't to late to do it now. 

We will hear presentations on Thursday and construct an EduCamp format on Friday. We are going to learn from each other. We will struggle to understand, to define, and plan for a new era of research and teaching of YA literature that is  vibrant. The field has so many quality authors that I can't even begin to start naming names, but you might browse through the blog and see who the contributors and I have highlighted over the last three years. Take a look at the weekend picks. 

What, you aren't able to be here. Don't worry we want to hear from you follow #YASummit2018 and #YACritical and make comments and share ideas. Look at the list of presenters, you are bound to know one of them, and send them an email. If you don't know them, that is okay, they are all nice people. Just email somebody.

Our registration  is over 150 people and thank goodness we are starting to look like the summit might break even after all the costs. If you want to donate to help the cause, just register and tell me you are not coming and we will save the money.

We get to hear from four keynote authors along the way: Laurie Halse Anderson, who understood what we wanted to do from the beginning and has lent her unfailing support. Chris Crutcher, who says he owes me --which could never be true since I owe him a great debt from the first time I read Running Loose. Kekla Magoon, for being willing to trust some academic she did know at all. How it Went Down still chills me to the bone every time I think about it. Bill Konigsberg, whose kindness and unflinching honesty in his books and in his life are an enduring example to stay in there and do good work.

Who wouldn't what to hear them talk about their work and their take on the field of YA literature?

In addition, 8 other authors will be attending, presenting, talking with participants, and weighing in with there ideas and expertise. Please check them out on the summit page and buy there books.

Don't for get to follow along and starting to night get ready to follow #YASummit2018 and #YACritcal.

More updates soon.

Today, we have one of our old friends posting again. About a year and a half ago, Anne Cramer suggested a post about YA and Shakespeare. I thought it was a great idea. She produced it and it remains one of my favorites. Especially, when I talk with teachers who think that YA isn't sophisticated or useful in the curriculum. You can find it here. This time Anne discusses YA and science fiction. 

​When I first began writing this blog post, I wanted to highlight exploring content areas in the English Language Arts classroom through the use of science fiction texts. Trilogies like His Dark Materials and The Hunger Games worked as a springboard in my middle school classroom to engage even the most reluctant researchers in a quest to uncover the scientific reality governing the multiple dimensions of Philip Pullman’s Oxfords as well as the creation of genetic hybrids like Suzanne Collins’  tracker jackers. The right text can create fire where there was barely a spark. 

What was at first a battle slowly became a part of the classroom culture. By viewing the future through a particular lens, my classroom began to discuss important moral and ethical questions such as the aftermath of cloning and genetic engineering. This framework also created a natural interest in learning the proper ways to research and write up results, formulating opinion pieces, preparing for debates, and other ELA content areas. Together, we created a classroom community of inquiry and investigation while also meeting a great deal of content standards.

This exploration created free-thinkers interested in fact checking. My students became connoisseurs of exploring speculative fiction that carried current scientific theory into the future.  They followed Merriam-Webster's’ definition of science fiction as “fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component”. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science%20fiction).   
 
From this pursuit, my classroom generated a list of titles they felt would allow educators and librarians to engage students in scientific endeavors while also creating a myriad of exploration of cross-curricular themes and academic pursuits . 

Science fiction forces the reader to examine his or her role in the future. The author of The Carbon Diaries, Saci Lloyd, said in an interview that science fiction is the “The best lens for examining contemporary society”. While my students generated the list above, many of the books did not reflect the future being created in the here and now, the one reflected in a multitude of news outlets.  Lloyd touches on the role of political and ecological refugees seeking asylum in her novels, a small and poignant piece of her larger narrative. Each of the novels above touches on one aspect of culture and color but none are written directly from the perspective of a person of color. 

Many of today’s science fiction novels paint a monochromatic future, (see The Future Is Pale: Race in Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Novels By Mary J. Couzelis) There tends to be a lack of cultural and racial identity in the characters in the novels. Our students need to see themselves in our future or have the platform to explore how, in the future constructed in many science fiction novels, race has been extinguished and cultures whitewashed in order to achieve a perfect world.  The Marrow Thieves, The Giver, and Parable of the Sower provide three opportunities to explore not only the science behind science fiction but also tap into the diversity of science fiction characters and novelists. The three books create a framework to discuss how the need for a “perfect” world erases different cultures and communities in order to achieve some semblance of salvation. 

​Indigenous writer Cherie Dimaline The Marrow Thieves and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower create dystopian futures where climate change has created chaos due to resource scarcity and poverty. Moreover, the race of the characters plays an important factor in their future: white is good, everything else is bad. The authors address these in different ways. The books highlight many of the themes touched upon in The Critical Merits of Young Adult Literature: Coming of Age and our students can use the lens of science fiction to examine contemporary society by comparing current social, political, and scientific trends to these timeless texts. 

Dimaline and Butler are also not afraid to introduce a wide variety of characters that are usually sidelined in mainstream science fiction (note I use mainstream- there are many other examples in the genre that break the mold). One of the great and tragic love stories in The Marrow Thieves is Miigwans’s loss of his husband Issac to recruiters, a story that echoes the relocation of indigenous people to American Indian Schools for cultural assimilation.  Butler’s creation of a black female science fiction protagonist in Lauren Olamina (especially when looking at the publication date of the novel) is as revolutionary as Lauren Olamina’s actions. Butler also broke through racial and gender boundaries with her presence in the science fiction world. She remains the only science fiction writer to ever become a MacArthur fellow. Dimaline is the first Aboriginal writer in residence for the Toronto Public Library. 

​There is no shying away from the attempts to whitewash the future in these texts. The bittersweet introduction to The Marrow Thieves instantly alerts the reader that the genocidal mistakes of our past are being repeated in the future as the main character, Frenchie, and his new family try to save the oral history tradition and rituals of their respective tribes. They are at the edge of extinction and desperately clinging to their community. Lauren Olamina and her family are barely managing an existence in walled-off community, Robledo, California. They are trapped inside for safety reasons but, at the same time, are slowly dying of poverty and lack of opportunity.  The only way out is to sell themselves to a company, a comparison to slavery that many students will not miss. 

The community and culture of our schools is changing. Through exploring the role of community in these unique texts, we can promote not only the science concepts inside the novels but also to make sure that we address the importance of community as well the silencing of the voices of any racial group, economic faction, or sexual orientation. These three novels are a unique insight into the role of interconnectedness, a force that no matter how old civilization becomes, continues to drive our youth to seek each other out and form community. While the definition of community changes from each novel, the main characters intrinsically find themselves hurtling towards each other with a force as strong as gravity.

These diverse texts show us that the answer to many of our dystopian problems are not solved by one hero or even science but through true leadership that utilizes delegation of authority and makes  space for those who do not fit the conventional molds of the future.  These science fiction novels that paint a diverse landscape for our students to identify with also make sure to create communities of acceptance, something that many of our students long for.
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The true horror of our future in these three novels is not what science creates or the scientists that wield the power. No, the true horror lies in what humanity creates in the name of protection while hiding behind a mask of fear: the breakdown of community. The ritualistic and thought-out plans to dismember the foundation of civilizations by destroying art, music, culture, language, and love. The humanities ground the communities in these science fiction novels. Community as revolution is something that our students see reflected in current social and political movements and even better, like the protagonists in these three novels, these movements are headed by teens who are refusing to accept the answers that society is dealing them. They are hurtling together through tiny hand-held devices to lead us to a brighter and safer future for generations to come. 

Bibliography
 
Butler, O. E. (1995).Parable of the sower. London: The Women's Press.
Dimaline, C. (2017). The Marrow Thieves. Toronto : Cormorant Books
Lowry, L. (1993).The giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Until next week.

It is time for another special Friday Edition of Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday. Leave it to Bryan Ripley Crandall to point me to exciting people and ideas. Bryan has contributed before. I asked in to weigh in about immigration and you can find his post here. It was Bryan who introduced me to Kwame Alexander, before everyone new about Kwame. Thanks Bryan. This time he has introduced me to Jayne Penn and I am already a fan. I hope to run into her at a conference.  

Roxas (2008) writes that an increase of diversity in student populations and a “lack of diversity in teachers and teacher educators is contributing to an ever-increasing divide between what students need in schools and what schools can currently provide” (2). Having experienced what it feels like to be the only Black student or Black teacher in multiple institutions it is clear to me that I am likely a representation of a demographic that many of my students rarely encounter.  My pedagogy and advocacy for literacy has shifted drastically as a result, including how I am currently exploring young adult literature to pair with more traditional texts encouraged and expected by my school’s curriculum.
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My moral identity results from societal influences and, as a result, I incorporate ideas of institutional and cultural socialization in my preparation and teaching processes. These ideas include the vision I carry forth for teaching empathy. Harro (2000) writes, “our socialization sources are rapidly multiplied based on how many institutions with which we have contact” (p. 18). Such socialization has been true for me, too, where the beliefs I hold have been influenced from traditional Baptist Christian practices to liberal compasses that provided throughout my education. Transitioning in the role of a teacher in different states, both educationally and professionally, has helped me to mold my moral compass in different ways, which is something I express with my students. Exploring empathy encourages my students to grow as individuals for themselves. Banks and Banks (2009) also help me to realize that similar to how I was influenced by my environments, so it will be for students. In their words, “schools are also cultural sites and teachers are themselves cultural beings” (p. 37). As a result, I am aware of the effect I have on my students’ cultural assimilations, and I try my best to be a resource for them. This includes the literature I introduce them to and the multicultural perspectives I want them to appreciate, not only in their high school experience but throughout their lives.

​An overarching mission for my school is to help young men to develop holistically. In order to do so, I’ve had to be creative in my methods, especially because my cultural background and gender differs from the vast majority of youth who attend the school. In a high school where 98% of the student body are athletes, however, it was not difficult to find a link to connect literacy education with their personal experiences and my own. I, too, am an athlete. Appleman writes (2009):

​I speculated that sports stories might be the way to expose my students to cultures and backgrounds different from their own and to make the connection between their worlds and the worlds lived by others. I took a tip from Gay, G. (2002) to build, “Pedagogical bridges that connect prior knowledge with new knowledge, the known with the unknown, and abstractions with lived realities,” and began to develop “rich repertoires of multicultural instructional examples” (p. 113) to promote diverse reading experiences. My high school, with a 20% minority student population, encouraged me to develop more inclusivity in my curriculum and to represent multiple perspectives. Sports stories, I have found, unite the stories of my students. Similar to what Brown wrote in  “When Sports and Literacy Collide” (2014) and “Sports Talk, Free Snacks, Good Books: The Paisley Sports Literacy Program” (2018), tapping sports in literacy instruction allows educators to provide intellectual links within knowledge gaps. Many students positively to athletic narratives and stories. An athletic lens, then, especially in relation to teaching empathy, provides a way to diversify the reading experiences of my classroom.

A primary objective at the Jesuit high school where I teach is to motivate young men to appreciate and enjoy the literary experience. A few years ago, I began to employ theme-based objectives for each of my units-of-instruction and Empathy was chosen as one of the themes. Teaching empathy became a tool to help students to relate to things they did not know or were unfamiliar with.  I brought the theme of empathy to my sophomore year curriculum where students also explored the hero in moral conflict. The books chosen for the curriculum during this year also depicted characters dealing with ethical dilemmas.
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 With the goal to mix-up the curriculum so that it was more diverse, I added August Wilson’s play, Fences. Fences encompasses qualities in a story that I desired: sports, race issues, family issues, personal growth challenges, the journey into manhood, ethics, conflict, etc. It also offered a location to discuss empathy. Fences explores the conflicts within a male protagonist, Troy Maxon, and his effect on family and friends. As a former baseball player in the Negro Leagues who was rejected from being integrating into Major League Baseball, Troy blocks his son’s, Cory, opportunity to play college football. The play serves as a vehicle to dig into Troy’s history and to question the choices he makes throughout the book.  Troy’s decisions throughout the script make it hard to like him yet learning his past helps to understand that his flaws make him the individual that he is.  As a way to be most effective in reaching goals with my students, I designed a class project to help them better understand empathy.  

In chapter one of Multicultural Education, in reference to Nieto and Bode (2008) and Sleeter and Grant (2007), Banks (2009) explains there needs to be a “school reform effort designed to increase educational equity for a range of cultural, ethnic, and economic groups” (7). This includes finding texts that explain background information on stereotyped persons (i.e. athletes and people of color). Therefore, not only was I able to help students connect to the play, I was able to expose them to experiences different from their own, and to provide a narrative that minority students could see themselves in.   In order to reach more students, I realized that some of my non-majority students needed to be represented in the texts used in class.
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I named the project The Athlete Narrative, a project that requires students to choose one athlete they respect but know very little about. While reading Fences, they research and write a report on that athlete’s experiences, explain their journey, and look critically at the athletic careers, including the many communities that help make them the individuals they are. Jesuit schools like mine encourage students to be men and women for others, and I wanted my students to see themselves as individuals who are also influenced by larger communities: families, neighborhoods, regions, friends, histories, etc. I wanted them to see that characters in the stories we read are also impacted by the societies that make them who they are. 

The Athlete Narrative helps students to understand that athletes are human beings, too, and not just idol figures. Every person has a story and that story shapes who they are. Hoops4Hope, a global non-profit that encourages life-skills for student athletes, calls this Ubuntu – a S. African philosophy of togetherness. That is, a person is a person because of other people. The same is true for athletes, and I wanted my students to see that like characters in the books we read, we are influenced by the communities we belong to. An athlete is an athlete because of the fellowship of athletes. The same is true for readers. The Athlete Narrative is the springboard for reading and analyzing Fences and it builds context for how students view the challenges the main characters present. Further, because Fences is a play written about an African-American family, it provides a location for me to share my own story as a Division I track athlete and the obstacles I faced.
As the young men work through the play, too, I supplement reading materials that expose them to a wider understanding of athleticism, including:
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• Darkness Unto Light: Kris Dunn’s path to stardom at Providence
• Undaunted by grim prognosis, college softball star vows to return to field
• Reborn and revived: Marines vet Hank Goff rediscovers joy through football
• New York Liberty star Tina Charles determined to help her community

 
Reading such news stories brings a richer understanding to Wilson’s play, as well provides additional angles to teach empathy. The work aso enables students to avoid preconceptions of people they do not know and provides a scaffold to students’ prior knowledge with new knowledge.  Using the theme of empathy has enabled my students to understand experiences different from theirs and, in turn, to see the humanity in people and not just occupations or labels.  My intention was not to trivialize ethnic cultures or the struggles they face; rather, I wanted to work through sports stories to challenge “stereotypes and misconceptions” (Banks, 1989) p. 17).

​Using empathy as a tool to help students connect with text makes the literary experience more valuable and effective. Students gain more from reading when they can relate to the text, and for this reason I’ve explored bringing young adult literature into the classroom, as well.  Students find success when the stories they read relate to the world around them. For these reasons, YA novels have tremendous potential to enhance The Athlete Narrative project and how my classes explore moral conflicts throughout the sophomore year.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. In The Hate U Give, the main character, Starr, is a high school basketball player dealing with several tragedies. Starr lives in the “ghetto” part of her city, attends a prep school where she is one of the two Black students in her grade level, and is a key witness to a police-shooting. Thomas’s story tracks Starr’s experiences of coping with the deaths of two of her best friends, one in a drive-by shooting and the other at the hands of a cop.  The book provides a great scope into the mind of a teenager, and shines light on relevant issues of modern society. Perhaps there is not a better book to teach empathy to high school students, particularly in a prep school! 
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The Hate U Give also does a fantastic job portraying Starr’s world as a prep student from the “ghetto” and what it is like to live separate lives: one as Williamson Prep Starr and the other as Garden Heights Starr. As she becomes the central witness of controversial police shooting of an unarmed black teen, she begins to unravel the identities she carries and struggles to keep Garden Heights Starr out of Williamson Prep, especially as the shooting gets nationwide attention. The Hate U Give has tremendous potential for teaching empathy.  Currently, the only novel offered to students with a black protagonist in the sophomore curriculum is The Bluest Eye, and that is a challenging text for my students. The Hate U Give would provide a modern, relevant story that would engage more of readers, whether at the beginning of the school year or at the end.   

​Dear Martin by Nic Stone. Dear Martin by Nic Stone is another text that would be relatable for my students during The Athletic Narrative and would serve as an alternative to Thomas’s The Hate U Give.  The main character, Justyce, would be relatable to many of my Black students, but also a character for opening perspectives for non-Black students, as well.  Although Justyce is not an athlete, his best friend Manny is – a player on the basketball team. Justyce struggles with his identity at a prep school in a way that Manny does not.  Because Justyce, like Starr, comes from a culture of poverty, he wrestles between the ‘hood’ and the Prep school life.  The story relates to athletic experiences, too, and the fact that Justyce is a great student about to attend an Ivy League university – and on the debate team –  brings a unique angle for breaking down barriers of identity, stereotypes, and cultural misconceptions.  Stone, with the way she wrote Dear Martin, offers a vehicle for discussing diversity that would allow me to bringing forth a theme of empathy even further.
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Cop-profiling and the killing of young Black men are relevant to the lives of young people today and on message with the current state of this country (e.g, Milwaukee’s Sterling Brown and experience as a Black male athlete). The book explores a sensitive and complicated topic and can be used to initiate class discussions within a theme of heroes and conflicts. At the same time it would my male readers to look at all sides of a complicated issue through an empathetical lens.

Iron Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher. Chris Crutcher’s book, Chinese Handcuffs, is another text that explores the lives and struggles of teen athletes that could pair well with The Athlete Narrative. Crutcher’s writing, along with his article, “Speaking My Mind: Sports Lit” (2014), introduces enlightening concepts for using sport’s literature to engage reading in students.  Chinese Handcuffs is paced as if characters are in a race. Crutcher writes with such intensity that it forces the reader to stay aware and engaged Aside from his storytelling skills, Crutcher includes compelling background stories of his main character and the late brother. He vividly details the actions of the characters while working out and competing, making the athletic story relatable and realistic.  Crutcher writes in a way that is designed to maintain the attention of a hyper-active student – it is fast paced, engaging, and believable. Additionally, the point Crutcher makes about treating writing as teamwork or corroboration between readers and writers – where both parties bring their best imaginations to the experience – parallels the life skills I also encourage.     

Similarly, in “Teaming Up: Teaching Analysis and Research through Sports Controversies,” Beckelhimer (2014) makes the argument that sports create controversy that, in turn, can initiate arguments, analysis, research, and context. Teachers can and should use sports to help their students learn rhetoric and analyze controversy. Beckelhimer also encourages the idea of expanding resource options for research, similar to how the Athlete Narrative requires my students to research background stories of professional athletes as a way to understand the reasoning behind the human behavior and to see athletes as humans, and not merely entertainers.  

​A Final Thought. Promoting sports narratives and stories, especially when they expose cultural differences with relatable characters, helps students to better interact with and appreciate the texts we teach. One of the struggles when working with adolescent boys is sparking their interests in reading. Using empathy as a tool has helped me to gain student interest in the texts chosen and pairing this theme with athletic narratives has kept the attention of the young men I teach.  Implementing sport’s related texts improves reading engagement, and the use of YA literature with athletic characters has tremendous promise. 

I admit it. It is easier being a grandparent than a parent. Even so, every once and awhile I am not just cool and permissive, but I hit one out of the park. About a month ago, our oldest grandson had a birthday –he was going to be 11. It is amazing how fast it all happens. I am a book guy. A new book for Christmas or a birthday was a score. Book nerd that I am, I still realize that not everyone feels the same. I consulted with my daughter. Deacon is into skateboarding, building with Legos and reading up a storm. Well, I like the fact that he is outdoors, but I wasn’t sending a skateboard and we have sent our share of Legos.

Didn’t I just get permission to send a book? Well, yes I did. He is getting to the borderline adolescent/young adult stage. Shouldn’t Grandpa use his expertise to provide some landmarks? I picked a book about skateboarding and two books that I felt every young boy should at least try. In fact, I have anecdotal information that Paulsen’s Hatchet and Wilson’s Where the Red Fern Grows are nearly universally loved. In fact, I had a pre-service English Teacher tell me Hatchet was his favorite book in middle school and maybe the only book he voluntarily read during those formative years. I placed the order and waited for the feedback. 

Deacon loved them. He yelled, when he opened the package, that Hatchet was the best book ever. He had read it, but didn’t own it. (Shouldn't we own our favorite books?) If Grandpa knew enough to send this one then Where the Red Fern Grows might be great. His mother had fond memories of the book and offered to read it will him. Yip, score one for grandpa. 

Below, I place the books in three groups: 1.) Books written before 1900. 2.) Books written before 1967—the commonly accepted date that marks the birth of young adult literature. 3.) Books since 1967, 

The first group includes only three books. Technically, all three might be considered classics of children's literature. We have to remember that the concept of the adolescent post dates all of these titles. While they are still read by young people, I would like someone to provide some data about at which ages kids start reading these titles: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Little Women, and Tom Sawyer.  What's your opinion? Do these books belong in a top 100 lists? Are they favorites because people discovered them when they were young? If we were to classify them now, would they be YA? Were they even written with an adolescent audience in mind?

The second group is comprised of 9 books written between 1908 and 1961. I might argue that one, The Little Prince, is really written for adults, but I can sure name students who first found the book as adolescents. Two others strike me as children's literature without question. Both Charlotte's Web and The Chronicles of Narnia are read in elementary school. While older readers still embrace them and revel in their magic, I still think they pull in young readers. Three more seem like books found by readers in late elementary or during middle school-- Anne of Green Gables, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Where the Red Fern Grows.  

The final three books in this group deserve separate consideration. All three continue to be taught in American high schools. They are frequently included in discussions about the "real" birth of Young Adult Literature. Many of us have written about them and discussed their merits as literature, books for adolescents, and their place in the classification of YA literature. I don't believe any of their authors envisioned them as standard texts for adolescent reader, but they are omnipresent in that environment.

I am quite sure that J. D. Salinger did not see The Catcher in the Rye as a novel for teens. Nevertheless, its themes of loss of innocence and a distrust of adults was one of the hallmarks of the early realistic YA novel and both remain prominent, if not dominant, themes of the classification. Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird remains one of the primary ways that young people are introduced to the themes of racism and social justice. Is it a perfect text or the perfect model of behavior? I think not. But it has its strengths.  A Separate Peace by John Knowles was in my curriculum every year that I taught tenth grade. Students liked it. The themes of friendship, death, and war resonated with my students. I liked teaching it and just finished writing a chapter about it for a forth coming book. in addition, the latest edition of the book has an afterward by David Levithan. For my money, David has a pretty good eye for quality literature.

The last group begins with a book published in 1967 and is considered a fixture in the beginnings of Young Adult literature and ends with a 2016 publication by one of the most exciting voice in the field today. Hinton's The Outsiders has certainly stood the test of time. It remains important thematically and still resonants with readers who might think about Chris Pine instead of Paul Newman as they exit a movie theater. Jason Reynolds has my vote as a powerhouse, but I am not sure that I pick Ghost as my favorite among his solo works. You can decide for yourself. Nevertheless, Ghost is a fine middle grades book that introduces his fast past and invigorating Track series (Patina, Sunny, and Lu). 

The final nine books in this group all strike me as Young Adult literature. I would love to be in the room during the marketing discussion. For example, I don't think either The Book Thief or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time were initial considered Young Adult. At the same time, the eventual marketing, readership, inclusion in school curricula, and adolescent characters have certainly made them easy to identify as Young Adult.

Others will take issue with the Harry Potter series and claim it as Children's literature. I think that is probably true with the beginning books in the series. As the characters age and the books begin to take on the issues of adolescents directly confronting adulthood, I believe the books become squarely Young Adult.

It is impossible to argue with the success of either the Twilight and The Hunger Games series. Both series are terrific reads. The plots move and those of us who where teaching when these books arrived can attest to the fact that kids--and perhaps their parents--were devouring them. One might argue with the stylistic quality of some the writing, but plot and character development are strong and compelling. Publishers relished the rise of books with fantastical creatures--vampires, werewolves, and zombies and a renewed interest in distopian conflicts. Both books have been aided by the movies that accompany them and have become legitimate, bankable franchises.

The last four books all seem unquestionably young adult and represent different genres. The oldest is Hatchet, and as I mentioned earlier, it remains a popular book. It fits a classic set of definitions about Young Adult literature--the adults are gone, the kid must do the work, and the themes of independence, loss of innocence, and self-discovery play an important role. In many ways, The Giver is the epitome of the YA novel and introduces young readers to the danger of group think that was formerly given to adolescent in high school through Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. Well, the barn doors are open and a host of YA novels have distopian settings. 

Looking for Alaska in often considered John Greene's tour de force. I love the book, but I also think he had a lot to say in An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. His books are clearly placed in the context of the YA realistic problem novel. I am one of those critics who still thinks we should pay attention to everything he writes. I think there is more to come. 

The final book in the group is in the spirit of Feed and The Last Book in the Universe. Cline's Ready Player One takes on the role technology, gaming, and corporate control play in the modern world. I read it and start to wonder just how far in the future it might be. 

Whether you agree are not with my short assessments about these 23 titles, I think you would agree that American readers haven't done a bad job of giving us a set of novels that good easily be the core of class on Young Adult literature. The list, however, seems a bit short and restricted. I would love to add a couple of titles to hit some gaps. For my money, both Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming and Draper's Copper Sun would be welcome additions to the list. I also think that American Born Chinese, We Were Here, and Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass should be there as well. 

There are two final points too make about an already pretty good list. First, Young Adult literature, as a classification, is full of quality novels. Second, the list needs to be more inclusive in a number of ways. Both points suggest the beginnings for future blog posts. 

Start reading and start voting.

Until next week.

Welcome to a special Friday Edition of Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday! Are you sick and tired of school shootings? of gun violence? Do you want to feel empowered with tools that might help you talk with your students? Shortly after the Parkland, Florida shooting, Tom Leveen released a new book. Mind you, it was well on its way to publication before this event. The fact that the book is, unfortunately, timely lets you know that YA authors and ELA educators are thinking about the safety and trauma that these events bring to schools and communities.

For this special edition by Dr. Joellen Maples (who has contributed before and you can find her previous post here.) talks about how quickly she encountered the book and how she used it to engage her students and local teachers. The topic is timely and important.

The same time that Joellen was working in her environment, I had occasion to be in conversation with Dr. Shelly Schaffer and Dr. Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil. Infact, I asked them to preread my blog post reaction to the previously mentioned tradegy at Stoneman Douglas High School (Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora Colorado, Orlando, Las Vegas, and now Parkland). I consider both of them friends and valued colleagues. More importantly, I know they care deeply about adolescents and the preservice and inservice teachers in their spheres of influence. Thankfully, I work in a profession where that is true of so many people. I picked on Shelly, because she has written about the issue. I turned to Gretchen because she has written for the blog several times (look for her on the contributor's page) and she and I have been writing together on several projects. She does her best to make sure I say what is on my mind with clarity. After they offered their advice we disussed the possibility of a book on gun violence in schools. We formed an idea, invited other English Educators and YA authors to write chapters on the various aspects of the subject. We started. We crafted a proposal. The chapter authors began writing. We acted with faith, hoping that someone would want to publish this important book.

We got the news yesterday morning, Thursday, May 24, 2018, that Routledge is offering us a contract. The tentative title: Contending With Gun Violence in the English Language Classroom: Teaching Beyond Fear. Now the work begins in earnest so that we can submit by August 1, 2018 and have the book in hand by NCTE. Do you hear that chapter authors? The pressure is on.

Thanks Joellen for leading the charge with this Friday post.

As I was working on my blog submission, the horrific news came across my television. There had been another school shooting. This time it was in Santa Fe, Texas. 10 killed. 13 injured. I might have thought it coincidental that I was writing about Tom Leveen’s latest book, Mercy Rule, which on the surface is about a school shooting. Yet, coincidental would be lucky because school shootings have averaged out to be one a week since this year started. No coincidence. I could have been writing this blog any week this year, sadly. 

And yet, Mercy Rule was released 6 days after the Parkland shooting. I stumbled upon it when I read an article about Dr. James Blasingame’s work using young adult literature to work through school violence. Mercy Rule tells the story through multiple points of view of different high schoolers all struggling in their own way with various stressors. Danny is struggling to fit into a public school since he got taken out of his private school, and he deals with unrequited feelings from Candice, a freshman, who is positive all the time. Brady appears to have it all together as a talented football player, but he often is homeless and doesn’t have food to eat. Other characters deal with their identities, unhealthy ways of expressing their stressors (cutting), and also having to take on the role of caretakers. You begin to care about the characters as you read and realize that any one of these characters could be the school shooter and more importantly, that this book is about so more than just a school shooting. The stressors mount throughout the novel until that day when one of the characters simply has had enough. Leveen adds twists to the plot that the reader doesn’t expect, and he plays with format through font changes and blank spaces on pages. Definitely a worthwhile read to share with adolescents to finally talk about what precipitates these horrific events that has become a reality for teens. 

I immediately got the book on its release date and was reading it when a lot of teachers (my former graduate students in literacy) were telling me about the “protests” in their schools that were also happening nationwide as a result of the Florida shooting. I say “protests” because these protests were mostly allowed by the schools and planned by the adults. Principals told students when they could exit the building and for how long. Parents signed permission slips for their kids to participate. With not a lot of discussion in classrooms about protesting and the issue at hand, some students merely went out for 10 minutes to get out of class. To make matters worse, when students returned, many teachers felt upset that they were told to move on. Business as usual. There were no discussions about the shooting, the protest, nothing. Then the barrage of questions from my former students, “What can we do?” “Are there any books out there that we could use with our students?” And there was one. Just released. In my hand. Mercy Rules.
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In response to such questions, I felt the need to start a “What is Dr. Maples Reading?” book club with my colleague, Kathy Broikou. Former students have always contacted me about new books to use with their students, and I felt teachers needed a place to talk in hopes that they might use this literature with their students as an avenue toward discussion. I decided to open up the book club to 50 teachers all across the Rochester area, and with the help of Dr. Blasingame, I was put into contact with the author, Tom Leveen. I asked if he would be willing to Skype with a group of teachers who would read his book, participate in the book club in small groups, and then ask him questions when he skyped in. He graciously agreed. It was a profound experience for all the attendees.

​Weeks after the book club, I spoke with a couple of my former students, Nicole Lombardi and Courtney Alexyn, who liked the book and wanted to use it in their classes in the future.  I asked them about what resonated with them about the discussion on Mercy Rule. 
 
Nicole focused on the use of multiple perspectives in the book while also bringing up issues of race and class. She replied, “What resonated with me during my group's discussion was the fact that there were many characters in the novel who could've been the shooter. The multi-perspectives showed that adolescents deal with issues such as bullying, feeling like an outsider by family and peers, abandonment, homelessness, pressure to be someone they're not, self-harm, mental health concerns, etc. Kids don't really get to be kids anymore because society is making them grow up so quickly. What also resonated with me was that school shootings are predominantly occurring in predominately white middle to upper class suburban schools, yet it’s city schools with predominantly lower socio-economic, students of color  that have metal detectors. More attention to taking preventative measures should be put on making all schools safe, regardless of location and socioeconomic status.” Even while listing all the stressors adolescents can face, she still saw hope when she said, “With this book being released in the wake of the Parkland shooting and the influence characters had in the novel, it became even more apparent to me that the students who essentially are putting their lives on the line to come to school have the potential to be incredibly powerful in their speaking out against gun violence. We should not take for granted the maturity of these young people and what a difference they can make with their words and actions.”

​Courtney now teaches in a rural setting, and what struck me as she was talking was she said school shootings have become the norm which were the exact words a Santa Fe student remarked when a reporter asked her if she was surprised this happened. Courtney continued with, “I recall when I was in high school and we did a few lock down drills, but my teachers always taught through them because they were just drills.  It's crazy to me that in just 10 years this has changed so much.  As the teacher, I find myself rearranging my room so we have more hiding spots in case a drill is no longer a drill.  When the principal comes over the loud speaker with the code word, my students just know to get up, hide, and sit quietly.  As their teacher, I find that heartbreaking.  I want my students to feel safe in school like I did, not worrying that this drill might be real.  Working out in the country, a lot of my students are experienced with guns because they are hunters, and after the latest school shooting, that concerned many.  I had students profiling each other.  Because of this, I feel that topics that are brought up in this novel NEED to be discussed in the classroom.  Not only is bullying something that is a cause of these tragic events, but mental health is something that needs to be addressed as well.  I think that students should know where they can get help if they are having these feelings.  Luckily I work at a school where we have a great mental health staff, and they work well with both teachers and students.  Although the topic of school shootings can be uncomfortable it is something that students should be discussing in their classes.”
 
I asked Courtney how reading the book affected her own teaching and view of teens and she replied, “Teens are very complex.  I've learned from teaching in two different schools, one urban and one rural, that although each teen is different they all want the same thing: someone to care about them.  I understand as a teacher I am not going to be every student's "favorite" or the person they go to for advice; however, I make it known to all my students that I am there for them.  I am grateful for where I work and the team of teachers I work with.  We set aside a period every day to discuss our 9th graders.  We talk about changes we see in them or any concerns we are having with a specific student.  I think that this is beneficial because we are able to discuss ways we can help this student.  Do they need to go talk to a trusted adult? Is something going on at home? Can we reach out to their parents? Can we bring the student in and talk to them?  These are all options we discuss as a team. 
 
I think that is very important to have in a school.  The teachers need to work as a team to help the students succeed.  I also learned that if you are the trusted adult students come to it is part of your job to get them the help they need.  I have had kids come to me and talk about how I might not see them on Monday.  It was hard to break their trust, but I followed the necessary steps to get them the help and support so I could see them on Monday.  School shootings are something that can be uncomfortable to teach because it is about more than just a school shooting.  It is looking into bullying, mental illness, the lack of home support, and teachers not doing their jobs.  However, these are all issues students need to discuss and talk about because this is what is impacting them. It really only takes ONE person to listen to a student and help.  It was heartbreaking to read in Mercy Rule about someone who is begging for that help and isn't getting it.  It personally made me more aware in my own classroom.” 

Courtney and Nicole understand that this issue is so much more complex than just guns, and Courtney points out the tenuous nature of discussing guns with students whose families hunt and grew up around guns. As teachers, it’s important for us to consider all the multiple viewpoints in our classroom. Whenever I use young adult literature that my students are uncomfortable with or afraid of discussing the topics with their students, I always respond with three precepts (they could probably quote me by now!): 
 
1) You do right by kids all the time.
2) Books do not harm children.
3) If not you, then who?
 
I realize that last one puts a lot of pressure on them, and in the context of gun reform, it sadly seems it might just be teachers since our lawmakers certainly are not taking up the cause. I taught Courtney as an undergraduate and then was fortunate to have her as a graduate student---she’s heard my 3 points above many times. As an undergraduate she was afraid of teaching such topics. She’s progressed since then and I was happy when I asked her about teachers teaching Mercy Rule and talking about school shootings she said, “As uncomfortable as this topic might make teachers,  they need to discuss and teach it.  Whenever I am teaching a topic that is deep and raw and might make me uncomfortable, I always tell my students that I do not have all the answers and I might not know what to say. But I want to talk about this because it is important that they are aware of what is going on in the world because they can make a difference.  It's okay to be uncomfortable; I found my students appreciate it when I am honest and tell them that.  It makes for a greater discussion.  Mercy Rule is the book I recommend to all students when they come to me for a book recommendation.  I tell them it is a book they can all connect to.   I highly recommend reading the book and trying to find ways to implement it into the classroom.  I know I will be working on that over the summer. “
 
Listening to Courtney, I might just add another precept:

4) It’s okay to be uncomfortable.

Read the book. Spread it widely. And listen to kids and let them talk. 

​Technically, MERCY RULE is a prequel to another novel I was working several years ago about a group of students who meet every Friday night at a place they simply call “The Corner.” As I was working on it, I realized I needed an impetus for them to be there, and thought perhaps there had been some tragic event that originated the weekly meetings. That led to the idea of a school shooting.
 
Every novel I’ve ever written comes from a question that can’t be answered by any conventional means. My novel just prior to this one, HELLWORLD, is a horror story that asks “What do you do when your world goes to hell? When you know tomorrow is going to be worse than today?” Thematically, it’s a book that is entirely about dealing with a loved one who has Alzheimer’s, even though that has nothing to do with the plot. In MERCY RULE, given our preponderance of school shootings since Columbine, I wanted to find an answer or seek to understand more what would drive a person to such a horrific act. Readers will notice very quickly that there is more than one person in the novel who might have a “reason” for doing it, and that is intentional—I wanted to draw attention to the fact that there are a lot of hurting students (and adults) in this nation who are being dismissed; unseen, unheard. Rejection at least implies acknowledgement, while dismissal is the utter denial that you even exist, or deserve to. What I learned through writing the book is that it’s easy for any one of us, myself included, to dismiss someone, and that those cumulative dismissals—from parents, family, teachers, peers, whomever—can be devastating.
 
To me, it’s not a “school shooting book.” That is the climax, but it’s not the point. Looking closely, I think readers will find multiple types of violence and dismissal throughout the story.

​In high school athletics there is often an official or unofficial decision referees can use called the “mercy rule.” It essentially means that if one team is being terribly, terribly beaten—a complete shut-out—the referees will no longer stop the clock so the game will end more quickly and the teams can get off the field instead of being made to stay on and stretch out the embarrassment.
 
One character describes what the mercy rule is and that “in real life, there is no mercy rule,” meaning that too often, it feels as if there is no one to help us, no one who will at the very least allow us some dignity. I think far too many people—students and adults alike—feel this way today. We have to find a way, culturally, to stop treating one another this way.

​The first is that I hear you. That if you have ever felt any of the things these characters feel, you are not alone. There are lots of others who have been where you are, and that there is reason to hope and to hang on.
 
Secondly, I hope it reminds readers that we have got to talk and to listen to one another. We’ve all gotten so good at smiling and saying, “Good, good!” when someone asks us how we are, yet we could be full of torment inside. That’s not helping us. We have to speak up about what we are really feeling; we have to speak up when we suspect someone is not well; and we have to listen when someone tells us (through words or actions) that they need help. It feels as though “slipping through the cracks” has become the norm for us, and I hope this book and others like it get readers to stop and think and choose to listen to others.

Summer is coming! Will your students be reading? Are you reading yourself? Perhaps most importantly, how are you planning the reading opportunities for all of the students you will meet next year? These are important questions. I believe that we need to think intentionally about our reading and the reading of our students. I read intentional in at least three ways. First, I read a great deal of young adult fiction. It is my profession. As a result, I think about it, I critique it, I write about it, I wonder about the impact it has in the life of adolescents. Given all of that, I still read quite selectively. Primarily, I read older, realistic young adult fiction. To stay current, I rely on the reviews of others so that I don't miss the best of YA sci-fi, fantasy, or middle grades book. Thankfully, every so often these individuals write for this blog. 

Second, I read American detective fiction. Now, that summer is here, I will soon make a pilgrimage to the public library to catch up one the most recent books by Robert Crais, Walter Mosely, Lee Child, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Linda Barnes, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Mueller, Janet Evanovich, and yes, even though Sue Grafton has passed on, I still have to read Y is for Yesterday. I will lament with many others that her alphabet will end with Y.

Third, I still read the classics and the books of Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning authors. I don't see an end to my "to be read" list. In fact, as I finish this introduction, I am listening to the PBS show, The Great American Read. I am thrilled with all of the children's and young adult books on the list. I love that I have read so many. Yet, there are some that I need to   to my list. The list is exciting, but, in my opinion, it has gaps. It doesn't have a book by William Faulkner, Saul Bellow, or Cormac McCarthy.

Well, enough about my reading habits. Martha Guarisco, a teacher from Baton Rouge, introduces us to a reading activity that might be implemented in your classroom or school.

Don't forget. There is still time to come to the 2018 Summit on the research and teaching of young adult literature. I am sure we will be discussing great project like this one. Don't forget to come be #VegasStrong and #YACritical

Until next week!

As an editorial team, Jennifer, Shelbie, and I couldn't be prouder of the work that has gone into producing these two timely volumes. The Digital world is here. How we consider its space and place in the English Language Arts Classroom is an important topic of discussion. We were very lucky to find a group of scholars and teachers who are imagining this world in combination with Young Adult Literature.  Below we introduce you to the each book along with a brief abstract of each chapter. To further peak your interest, in some instances we show the cover of a YA title featured in the chapter.  In addition, we introduce you to the authors of these fine chapters. We hope you share this space over and over again.

​Chapter 1.
​Emojis 👀, #Hashtags, and Texting 📱, Oh My!: Remixing Shakespeare in the ELA Classroom

Abstract: this chapter address the environment transmedia storytelling by discussing what transmedia stories are, why teachers should use them in the classroom, when teachers should use such stories, and ways to specifically implement these texts into a curriculum. Woven into this discussion will be practical applications, specific examples of transmedia texts, and theoretical frameworks to support educators’ use of transmedia stories in the classroom. The goal of these discussions is to increase educators’ knowledge of what transmedia is and facilitate a discussion about its use in education in the hopes of increasing teacher confidence to use such texts. 

Abstract: Virtual education is expanding. With this ever-growing form of education comes challenge and opportunity. Teachers must find ways of meeting the academic, as well as social and emotional needs of students. It is important to encourage virtual adolescent learners in their critical reading and engagement with the world of YAL through today’s virtual channels in an effort to help them see the importance of reading in their lives and allow  students to grow and develop as avid readers and connoisseurs of YAL. This chapter provides readers strategies for integrating contemporary YAL into the virtual classroom, along with suggested YAL titles focused on the role of technology within the lives of today's adolescent learner. 

One of the best perks of running this blog is the opportunity to learn from all of the guest contributors. I love it when Robert Prickett is on the list. I learn new information from him every time. He is an expert on the YA graphic novel. This time he has teamed up with his colleague from Winthrop University, Casey Cothran. I would be the first one to acknowledge, that in most cases, my students in a YA course know more about graphic novels than I do. I am always learning (I don't what to look stupid; which, as I age and get further removed from some aspects of popular culture, happens all of the time.). So, thanks Robert and Casey. This is a great post and I have a longer too read list. This a post that you should share with others. Take a minute and share the URL.

Before you get too far into graphic mysteries, take some time to check Robert's previous posts. He has one on YAL that is connected to Politics and Activism and a second on Female Coming of Age in the Graphic Novel. 

You may be thinking … Graphic mysteries?! For young adults?! Just how graphic is graphic?! However, today we’re discussing comic books and graphic novels. (Which, to be honest, may very well include a graphic murder or two.) But why is it important to think about the graphic mystery text in relation to YA readers? Mystery can be a controversial genre, as it often deals with issues of violence, human cruelty, injustice, and suffering. Nevertheless, many argue that, despite its dark moments, the mystery story allows the reader opportunities both to solve complex puzzles and also to regain faith in the idea that answers to difficult questions do exist.
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Furthermore, when combined with the graphic novel format, the mystery might be said to inspire “double-detective* work” on the part of the reader. (And aren’t we always trying to encourage YA readers to think deeply?) In a typical mystery, the reader is constantly on the alert. She is paying attention to physical clues, to mysterious past events, and to character behavior, as well as to the tone and language of the story she is reading. Ultimately, she is working to solve the riddle of the crisis before the detective does! Additionally, one might note that the reader of the comic book also does special work in an effort to follow the plot of the graphic text. He is paying attention to both the written words on the page and to the graphic imagery. It is the pictures in the comic book that communicate major events of the plot, the feelings of characters, and the tone of the story. Ultimately, when one combines the mystery narrative with the medium of the comic book, the critical thinking requirements are amplified. In their efforts to solve mystery puzzles, readers of these texts are inspired to investigate the interaction between text and image, the coloring of a panel, or the discrepancies that may exist between character dialogue and blocks of narration. They have to become reader-detectives.

​And how much fun is that? It’s a lot of fun. So, here are a variety of graphic (and great) mysteries for you to investigate on your own. FYI: Book title links are to Amazon; author/illustrator links are to personal webpages or social media accounts. (Please note: we purposefully have focused on YA-friendly graphic novel mysteries in the list below. There are some classic graphic novel mysteries like Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Blacksad, and The Fade Out which are appropriate for older adolescents and adults.) 

​Angel City: Town without Pity written by Janet Harvey and illustrated by Megan Levens and Nick Filardi
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A “classic” Hollywood noir, presented with style, this story follows Dolores Dare, a former starry-eyed ingénue turned enforcer, whose past and present collide when an old friend is found murdered. 

​Bad Machinery series written and illustrated by John Allison
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Two groups of sleuths: three girls, three boys compete (and sometimes collaborate) to solve mysteries around Keane End, Tackleford and Griswalds Grammar School. Very humorous. Very British.  

Batman: The Long Halloween written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale
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This collected graphic novel (of the original 13 issue series) follows Batman as he tries to catch a serial killer. Can Batman catch the murderer, who is killing only on holidays, before the killer strikes again?

Black Dahlia (Treasury of XXth Century Murder) written and illustrated by Rick Geary
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Named a 2017 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens, Nonfiction, this graphic novel recounts the life and death of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short , who would become known in 1947 as “Black Dahlia”.

Bungo Stray Dogs written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa
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This manga centers around gifted detectives with supernatural powers who form the “Armed Detective Agency” solving mysteries and carrying out missions for the mafia.

Chew written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob Guillory
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Tony Chu is a detective. Tony Chu is Cibopathic – meaning he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. Tony Chu is a good detective as long as he doesn’t mind chewing a corpse or two. 

The Mystery Society written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Fiona Staples
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Anastasia Collins and Nick Hammond are the Mystery Society. They are rich, resourceful, refined, determined to uncover the paranormal secrets of the world’s underbelly . . .  and in need of new recruits: a ghoul named Secret Skull, two twin girls from Area 51, and a robot with the brain of Jules Verne round out the gang. 

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie written by Anthony Del Col and illustrated by Werther Dell’edera
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Teenage brothers, Frank and Joe Hardy, are accused of murdering their father. They must prove their innocence by teaming up with Nancy Drew to solve the mystery. This is a re-imagining of the classic teen detectives. 

Scooby Apocalypse written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, and illustrated by Howard Porter, Dale Eaglesham, Wellington Alves, and Scott Hanna
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The classic gang is back (or rather in the post-apocalyptic future): Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby Doo still fight crime – but “the apocalypse has happened” and “the old rules about logic do not apply.” Like Nancy  Drew and the Hardy Boys, check out this re-imagining of classic mystery sleuths.

I am Princess X written by Cherie Priest and illustrated by Kali Ciesemier
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This is a particularly unique text; it combines a traditional mystery novel with graphic segments, so it is not quite a “graphic novel” or a “traditional novel,” but it is excellent nonetheless. Two best friends create a comic book princess together. A few years later, one of the girls, Libby, dies in a car crash. The surviving friend, May, now sixteen discovers a sticker with a remarkable likeness to Princess X, the princess created many years ago. Soon, May sees the Princess everywhere. 

​Stephen King wrote in Under the Dome, “Murder is like potato chips: you can’t stop with just one.” We’d agree and argue that “Graphic mysteries are like potato chips: you can’t stop with just one.” Enjoy!

​*For a deeper scholarly analysis of the idea of the double-detective, see our forthcoming article, “The Double Detective: Compounding Complexity in The Fade Out, a Noir Graphic Novel” in Clues: A Journal of Detection, 36.2 (Winter 2018).

​Until next time.

Remember, Sarah? See was highlighted a little over a week ago, because she is giving away books and Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday is helping. In you are in the Chicago area, you might consider trekking over to Glen Ellyn. 

To get to know Sarah a little bit better, she has answered some interview questions.

If you want a chance to talk with Sarah, come helps us be #VegasStrong and #YACritcal at the 2018 Summit. She will be discussing her work and doing some breakout sessions.

Until next time.