Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Blog
  • Contributors
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • YA Course Fall 2019
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • English Education, CIL 642 Resources
  • Contact
  • Music and YA
  • Zeiter LDC
  • YA Research
  • About
  • National Book Award for Young People's Literature
  • Books I Just Happen to Like
  • Writers as a Positive Influence
  • 2018 Summit
    • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
    • YA Course Fall 17
  • Untitled

Discussing the Young Adult Literature of Simon Elkeles

6/23/2017

0 Comments

 
Several years ago, I heard Simone Elkeles speak at an ALAN conference. I was impressed with her enthusiasm and the direct way she talked about how adolescents deal with intimate relationships, between parents, siblings, friends, or those individuals they are romantically attracted to, whether they understand how to articulate their feelings or not. I began to follow her career more closely. I asked teachers and librarians about how Simone’s books faired in their classrooms and libraries. Well, the news is great. Her books are always being read. Her books automatically reach the readers who are interested in realistic, contemporary romance. In addition, many of the main characters of her books are kids that adults consider are only existing in the margins of school or society. Kids who are being pulled in to gang activity or trying to leave it. Kids who might function on the playing field, but not seem to succeed academically. Kids, who might appear popular in school, but are dealing with difficult family situations.

Those of us who have worked with adolescents realize that most kids are actually pretty good kids. If anything, they manage remarkably well in the face of challenges that they silently endure. Despite what some parents might think, these adolescents are less naïve than they appear. They know who uses foul language, who is in or on the edge of the drug culture, or who is sexually activity. What Elkeles seems to understand is that most adolescents are dying for someone to engage them in conversations that acknowledge their struggles, questions, and awareness of the reality they are rapidly trying to navigate. Her novels, while they deal with romance, are often about adolescents navigating the liminal space between childhood and adulthood (Bickmore and Youngblood 2014). In many ways, it seems that Elkeles has looked at these students through a Youth lens (Sarigianides, S. T., Lewis, M. A., & Petrone, R. 2015) as she writes about them with respect and understanding.
​
I am not saying that some kids and parents won’t find problems with some of the situations or language that occurs in the book, but these concerns should be contextualized. Not every student or family shares the same values nor ideological outlook on how literature does or does not help students. I am one that believes kids should read what they want. Of course, I also believe that parents should be talking openly with their children from the get go. If that were the case, realistic fiction that is open and frank, just as Elkeles writes, wouldn’t be as problematic. Instead, Elkeles work would be more celebrated. When you get done browsing the information below, check out the interview at the bottom of this blog entry.

Wild Cards

I just finished Wild Crush, the second book in the Wild Card series. I like the way the book was centered around members of a football team and their significant others. You should explore Elkeles' blog to find out about other cool things associated with the series.

Perfect Chemistry 

The Perfect Chemistry series falls within the star-crossed lover genre. As I stated before, Elkeles work is widely read and reviewed by many on Amazon, Goodreads, and several blogs. For this series, I included a link to review from the Mother, Gamer, Writer blog. 

Leaving Paradise

For the Leaving Paradise series. There were several review options. I chose to link to the blog Kimberly’s Novel Notes. Here is the link for these reviews.

How to Ruin

I found another readers blog that reviewed Elkeles’s Ruined series. The Reading after Midnight Blog written by Paula Stokes. The review of the ruined series is here.
Please find the interview with Simone below:
References:
Bickmore, S. T., & Youngblood, K. (2014). ‘It's The Catcher in the Rye… He said it was the kind of book you made your own': Finding Holden in Contemporary YA Literature. English in Education, 48(3), 250-263. doi:10.1111/eie.12049

Sarigianides, S. T., Lewis, M. A., & Petrone, R. (2015). How Re-thinking Adolescence Helps Re-imagine the Teaching of English. English Journal, 104(3), 13.  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Bickmore is an associate professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and the current president elect of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

    Co-Edited Books

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Chris-lynch

    Blogs to Follow

    nerdybookclub
    http://blogs.ncte.org/  
    yalsa.ala.org/blog/

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly