Don’t say teenagers aren’t ready for dark fiction. With the right teacher, it can change lives. When Little Saigon Market in Footscray burned down in December, thousands of high school textbooks burned as well.
The books were donated to Les Twentyman’s Back to School Program for disadvantaged students, and kept in an upstairs storeroom that sometimes sheltered homeless women. Before that, they were housed in the same place as a methadone dispensary for recovering heroin addicts: a single room with couches and a little shrine my friend Richard, a social worker, had lovingly set up, adorned with photos of young people who’d died either from drug overdoses or gang violence, all of whom he knew by name. Teenagers who needed school books would walk up the flight of concrete steps, and find their Kafka or SE Hinton on the shelves.
This was my neighbourhood, and my dad’s electrical appliance shop was right next door. My parents never “policed” the books I read – my mother couldn’t read or write, and my father was just pleased to see us reading books. 25 Aussie YA Books That Influenced Every '00s Teen. Theconversation. The inevitable and universal nature of death has made it a popular topic of children’s literature.
While death has appeared in these stories for centuries, death in young adult novels has become much darker and more complex. School district pulls ’13 Reasons Why’ book from libraries. DENVER — As a Colorado community mourns the loss of seven students who recently killed themselves, a school district official ordered librarians to temporarily stop circulating a book that’s the basis for Netflix’s popular new series “13 Reasons Why,” which some critics say romanticizes suicide.
The order rankled some librarians who called it censorship, and it appears to be a rare instance in which the book has been removed from circulation — albeit briefly. It also has highlighted the debate about balancing freedom of speech with concerns about students. “It would be hard for anybody who has dealt with suicide to not have a heightened awareness of things, to perhaps be a little more cautious about things,” said Leigh Grasso, the curriculum director for the 22,000-student Mesa County Valley School District who decided to pull the book.
Grasso cited media attention and recent events in an April 28 email to district librarians letting them know about her decision. 9 of the Best Australian Contemporary Young Adult novels – Better Reading. YA author Steph Bowe chooses the cream of the crop in recent Australian YA releases that can be read by teenagers and adults alike!
Steph Bowe was born in Melbourne in 1994 and now lives in Queensland. She has written two earlier YA novels: Girl Saves Boy and All This Could End, and her newest, Night Swimming, is due to be released on April 3. The 10 Best Young Adult Books of 2016. 4.
"The Raven King," by Maggie Stievfater The finale of the Raven Cycle quartet, The Raven King is one of the most magical and heartfelt YA books I've ever read. The Raven Cycle follows four teen boys who attend an expensive private school, and a girl whose family is made up entirely of psychics. 17 of the Most Exciting YA Books to Read in 2017. Introducing a piece on some of the best young adult books coming out in 2017 is a delightful challenge: There’s no overarching trend, no genre eclipsing all other genres, no theme so prevalent as to even call it a theme — and that’s a good thing.
There is truly something for everyone this year, whether that reader enjoys things quirky and magical, extra-real real, wild, or world-building. Guardian children's fiction prize 2016, the longlist – in pictures. 2016 Margaret A. Edwards winner David Levithan talks about his work and craft. Photography by Marty Umans National Book Award longlister and Lambda Literary Award winner David Levithan is willing to go to great lengths for his craft.
Even if it means taking an un-air-conditioned bus ride all the way to Queens. Back in the early 2000s, the publisher and editorial director at Scholastic and a New School faculty member volunteered to visit my Young Adult Literature class at Queens College in the middle of a hot New York summer. Book an appointment: doctors to prescribe novels in new scheme. Doctors will be able to prescribe novels such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time to teenagers with mental-health issues thanks to a new scheme, which launches today.
Delivered by charity The Reading Agency and the Society of Chief Librarians, the Reading Well for Young People campaign is aimed at 13- to 18-year-olds, and provides them with a recommended reading list covering mental health issues from depression to eating disorders, and from anxiety to self-harm, bullying and exam pressure. Great reads for tweens becoming teens. Bridging the gap between middle fiction books and young adult books can be tricky for readers.
Here are some books that speak to those late childhood and early teen years. 8 Modern YA Novels to Pair With Classroom Classics. The school year is winding down, which means that teens (young people of any age, really) can finally give the classics a rest and dive instead into the young adult novels that really reflect what it’s like to grow up today.
Not so fast, though: Lots of YA books, for all their fantastical plot elements and contemporary detail (in at least one of these novels, witches and iPods are never far apart), address some of the same themes the classics do, including race, female sexuality, mental illness, and obviously enough, love. In honor of the classics, YA, and the joy of reading of both together, we’ve rounded up eight of the most-taught books in America and paired them with contemporary reads that tread the same, timeless territory.
Classic: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Young-adult fiction: What's in store for the year ahead. Will Kostakis' The Sidekicks deals with complicated male friendships. Photo: Nic Walker Readers of Australian Young Adult fiction can look forward to what is shaping up to be a bumper year, with new titles from debut authors and seasoned writers. 5 YA Couples that Left Me Breathless This Year. There’s something I love about a romance between teenagers.
In my experience, teenage characters are more openly flawed; they are more desperate. They believe more fiercely, they feel their mistakes more deeply. The Hunger Games' inevitable end, explained. Spoiler warning: Spoilers follow for both the final Hunger Games novel and the final Hunger Games films, Mockingjay and Mockingjay — Part 2.
Mockingjay — Part 2, the fourth and final movie in the series, is now in theaters. It's the grand conclusion to one of the most prosperous and influential franchises in entertainment history, one that ranks right alongside Twilight and Harry Potter, as well as Star Wars and Marvel's Cinematic Universe. In terms of US box office success, Catching Fire is 12th most successful movie of all time in domestic gross, outpacing movies like Iron Man 3, The Lion King, Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Frozen, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The franchise is one of the most ambitious, informative pieces of art about war and violence aimed at young adults.
The Banned Books We Love. Every year during Banned Books Week, libraries around the country take the opportunity to acknowledge that censorship is still a problem in the United States. From the American Library Association: By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.... While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available.
This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read. What better way to celebrate that hard-won freedom than to read a few banned and challenged books? Children & Young Adults And Tango Makes Three—the sweet story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who raise a chick together—has been banned in libraries and schools across the country. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman as a graphic novel – in pictures. If you like books like these: crime fiction for teens. 6 YA Novels to Read if You Loved PAPER TOWNS. Write of Passage: Growing Up with Morris Gleitzman. When it comes to writing stories for children and young adults, is anything off limits? Teen Books Online. 20 Classic YA Literature Heroines, Ranked. 100 Greatest Children’s Books According To New York City Library.
NEW YORK (AP) – Beloved authors Judy Blume and Eric Carle helped the New York Public Library celebrate children’s literature Monday as the library released a list of 100 great books from the last 100 years. The list includes picture books for preschoolers as well as books for older readers like “The Hobbit” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” 74 Books to Read if You Love the Hunger Games. If you haven't read the Hunger Games you really should! They're pretty awesome.
Quickfire interview: Eoin Colfer. What is your favourite book? My favourite book this week is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. It's a kind of literary Western - very gruesome and very funny.