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At Learning for Justice, we recognize the importance of both rigor and relevance-and we also recognize that content standards are an important tool for many educators. That's why we've referenced two widely used frameworks in our classroom resources: the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Social Studies State Standards.

You'll find the CCSS embedded in select LFJ lessons as well as in all the teaching strategies and Write to the Source student tasks. Moreover, the texts in the student texts library were selected to meet the complexity requirements of the CCSS. Student texts are also tagged and searchable by C3 discipline: civics, economics, geography and history.

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Standards Alignment Made Easy At Learning for Justice, we recognize the importance of both rigor and relevance-and we also recognize that content standards are an important tool for many educators. That's why we've referenced two widely used frameworks in our classroom resources: the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Social Studies State Standards.

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Position Statement and Research Brief: Engagement and adolescent literacy

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Position Statement and Research Brief: Engagement and adolescent literacy

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Diving Into The World Of Young Adult Fiction : Pop Culture Happy Hour

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The young adult genre features protagonists who are often still figuring things out about the world and themselves. Today, we’re teaming up with Life Kit to bring you recommendations and criteria to look for as you wade into the inviting, but turbulent waters of young adult fiction.

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How the #DisruptTexts Movement Can Help English Teachers Be More Inclusive | KQED

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The dominance of white-authored texts in school curriculum makes it hard for students of color and those in underrepresented groups to connect with the stories. The #DisruptTexts movement seeks to guide educators to develop a more inclusive and relevant canon.

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Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas that Matter

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Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas that Matter

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NCTE - National Council of Teachers of English

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This statement, formerly known as Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Adolescent Literature, was updated in July 2018 with the new title, Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Young Adult Literature. Originally created by NCTE Children's Literature Assembly (CLA), 2004, revised July 2018 OVERVIEW
Purpose: Given increased calls for diversity in the English language arts curriculum and growing awareness of the need for young people to see themselves in the books they read, NCTE has commissioned an updated statement on preparing teachers with knowledge of children's and young adult literature.

Key Message: Research shows that when students are given the chance to read books that respect the questions, challenges, and emotions of childhood and adolescence, they read with greater interest and investment (Buehler, 2016; Mueller, 2001). Research also shows that teachers who are readers themselves do a better job of engaging their students in reading (Morrison, Jacobs, & Swinyard, 1999). Thus, teacher educators must support preservice teachers as they build rich and deep knowledge of children's and young adult literature over the course of their certification programs. Then teachers must invest in their own continued growth, learning, and development as children's and young adult literature advocates throughout their professional lives.

Context: A committee of English educators has updated NCTE's 2004 statement Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Adolescent Literature by calling teachers at all stages of their careers to cultivate knowledge of books for young people, be readers of these books themselves, affirm diversity in book selection, and teach children's and young adult literature in ways that honor the books' literary quality as well as their potential to spark personal and social transformation.
STATEMENT
Evidence indicates that teachers' knowledge of children's and young adult literature is inconsistent and uneven from community to community, school to school, and classroom to classroom. Preservice teachers do not read any more than the general population (McKool & Gespass, 2009). Many of today's teachers have never taken a class in children's and young adult literature, and some states have eliminated the requirement for a dedicated course in children's and/or young adult literature for teaching certification. A growing number of schools no longer employ a librarian, who may be the only professional in the building who has formal training in children's and young adult literature, collection development, and matching young readers with books. Without librarians, the burden for reading advisory and material selection falls to classroom teachers, who often lack the training needed to perform these tasks.

Therefore, teacher education programs have the opportunity-and the responsibility-to

introduce preservice teachers to books for children and teens;

develop preservice teachers' understanding of the inherent value of these books for both general reading and classroom use;

raise preservice teachers' awareness of the power of these books to affirm lived experience, create empathy, catalyze conversations, and respect the questions, challenges, and emotions of childhood and adolescence;

call preservice teachers to embrace the roles of reading advocate and book matchmaker alongside their work as implementers of curriculum;

inspire preservice teachers to commit to reading these books throughout their professional lives;

cultivate in preservice teachers a commitment to teaching these books in ways that honor their literary quality as well as their potential to spark personal and social transformation;

build preservice teachers' capacity for continued growth, learning, and development as advocates of children's and young adult literature.

As an organization, NCTE compels teachers at all stages of their careers to invest in books for young people-as readers of those books and as advocates for their worth in the classroom.
Recommendations
NCTE recommends that teacher educators and teachers commit to the following four principles in the service of increasing their ability to teach and advocate for children's and young adult literature.
1. Know the literature.
Preservice teachers should cultivate book knowledge throughout various methods courses and across their entire teacher preparation program, regardless of state certification requirements. They should develop broad and sustained knowledge of quality books in the fields of children's and young adult literature, including fiction, nonfiction, and multimodal texts.

At the same time, they should build knowledge of resources-including review journals, websites and blogs, social media discussions, book awards, and author appearances at local libraries and bookstores-that can provide them with information about quality new books and their potential for classroom use and reading advisory.

They should also invest in relationships with librarians and organizations such as NCTE and ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE) that can help them build capacity to discuss and recommend books, evaluate literature, remain current, and discover new ways to teach children's and young adult literature effectively.
2. Be readers.
Teachers who are engaged readers do a better job of engaging students as readers. According to Morrison, Jacobs, and Swinyard (1999), "perhaps the most influential teacher behavior to influence students' literacy development is personal reading, both in and out of school" (p. 81). Teachers should commit to leading literate lives and becoming connected to reading communities-whether in person or through social media-that support them as readers and literacy professionals. Teachers should understand the value of different modes and platforms for reading (Garcia & O'Donnell-Allen, 2015) and build their capacity to read with a critical, discerning eye (Newkirk, 2011).
3. Affirm diversity and exercise critical literacy.
In alignment with NCTE's Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books (2015), NCTE challenges teachers and teacher educators to assume a transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2016) that supports a future of equality for all youth by engaging students with diverse books, which offer readers what scholar Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) calls windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. It is essential that youth have access to books in which they can see themselves and engage with the lives of others (see, for example, platforms created by the current and former National Ambassadors for Young People's Literature, including Jacqueline Woodson, Gene Luen Yang, and Walter Dean Myers). NCTE believes that books help readers transform their lives and expand their visions of the world.

Nevertheless, there is a dearth of diverse books for youth in the United States as seen in yearly statistics about trends in multicultural children's book publishing prepared by the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #ReadInColor social media campaigns have illuminated the paucity of diverse books in the marketplace. Although the CCBC recently observed that children's picture books feature an increased number of characters with "brown skin . . . of unspecified race or ethnicity, with no visible culturally specific markers in either the story or the art," the CCBC questions whether books with racially ambiguous characters provide actual windows, mirrors, and sliding doors for today's readers (Horning, Lindgren, Schliesman, & Tyner, 2018, n.p.). NCTE joins the CCBC in urging educators to not only advocate for more authentically diverse children's and young adult books from US publishers, but also to support authors, illustrators, publishers, and booksellers whose work represents multiple perspectives and cultural diversity in the lives of all children.

In addition to being advocates and supporters of diverse literature for youth, educators who assume a transformative activist stance must build their capacities for discernment and critical evaluation so they are prepared to choose children's and YA books wisely and strategically from the books available to them. Simply because a book features diverse characters does not mean that the book endorses equality and/or cultural understanding (Apol, Sakuma, Reynolds, & Rop, 2003; Dávila, 2012). For example, some popular works of contemporary, "multicultural" realistic fiction privilege the assumption that all residents of the United States should embrace dominant mainstream culture [e.g., My Name is Yoon (Recorvitis, 2003); One Green Apple (Bunting, 2006)]. Some of these books reinforce assimilation social narratives (Yoon, Simpson, & Haag, 2010) and/or endorse monocultural language and identity (Ghiso & Campano, 2013). Educators and students should collectively cultivate critical literacy practices to critique the social narratives that are endorsed by the books they select (Leland, Lewison, & Harste, 2012; Morrell, 2007) and talk back to the literature (Enciso, 1997).

Educators who affirm diversity and exercise critical literacy as part of a transformative activist stance recognize that they are always learning and expanding their capacities for transformation. They are open to guiding difficult discussions about inequality with students and are willing to tolerate the possibilities of "wobbling" while they explore uncharted territories with students (e.g., Fecho, 2005; Garcia & O'Donnell-Allen, 2015). They recognize that children's books are political (Nodelman, 2008; Stephens, 1992) and are the artifacts of the authors', illustrators', and/or publishers' views of the world (Willis & Harris, 2003) and/or US history (Thomas, Reese, & Horning, 2016). Moreover, these educators follow national conversations via media and blogs about diverse books, especially related to issues of power and representation (e.g., Reading While White; American Indians in Children's Books).
4. Use appropriate pedagogy.
Teaching children's and young adult literature is about more than getting students to fall in love with reading. Preservice teachers also need to learn appropriate and effective strategies for helping students find books that will engage them as readers and as participants in critical, significant conversations about their lives (NCTE, 2006; Tschida, Ryan, & Ticknor, 2014). This requires a deep knowledge of excellent books and the willingness to carefully curate a classroom library that provides appropriate choices for all students (Crisp, Knezek, Quinn, Bingham, Girardeau, & Starks, 2016; NCTE, 2017). Preservice teachers also need to know evidence-based strategies for supporting student knowledge of literary crafting-that is, how authors develop characters, construct plots, and employ other literary elements to create an exemplary work. Examining literary craft does not mean that the focus is on dissecting a book's structure or meaning. Rather, teachers should be skilled at helping students develop a common language for determining what makes a book excellent literature. Finally, teachers need to know how to advocate for the freedom and autonomy to create classrooms that support research-based pedagogical strategies for teaching children's and young adult literature (Mathis et al., 2014; NCTE Children's Literature Assembly, 2004).
WORKS CITED
Apol, L., Sakuma, A., Reynolds, T. M., & Rop, S. K. (2003). "When can we make paper cranes?" Examining pre-service teachers' resistance to critical readings of historical fiction. Journal of Literacy Research, 34, 429-464.

Buehler, J. (2016). Teaching reading with YA literature: Complex texts, complex lives. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

Bunting, E. (2006). One green apple. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., Quinn, M., Bingham, G., Girardeau, K., and Starks, F. (2016). "What's on our bookshelves? The diversity of children's literature in early childhood classroom libraries." Journal of Children's Literature 42(2), 29-42.

Dávila, D. (2012). In search of the ideal reader for children's non-fiction books about el Día de Los Muertos. Journal of Children's Literature, 38(1), 16-26.

Enciso, P. (1997). Negotiating the meaning of difference: Talking back to multicultural literature. In T. Rogers & A. Soter (Eds.), Reading across cultures (pp. 13-41). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Fecho, B. (2001). "Why are you doing this?" Acknowledging and transcending threat in a critical inquiry classroom. Research in the Teaching of English, 36(1), 9-37.

Garcia, A., & O'Donnell-Allen, C. (2015). Pose, wobble, flow: A culturally proactive approach to literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Ghiso, M., & Campano, G. (2013). Ideologies of language and identity in U.S. children's literature. Bookbird, 51(3), 47-55.

Horning, K., Lindgren, M., Schliesman, M. & Tyner, M. (2018). A few observations: Literature in 2017. CCBC Choices 2018. Madison, WI: Cooperative Children's Book Center. Retrieved from: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/choiceintro18.asp

Leland, C., Lewison, M., & Harste, J. (2012). Teaching children's literature: It's critical. New York, NY: Routledge.

Mathis, J. B., Aziz, S., Crisp, T., Graff, J. M., Kesler, T., Liang, L. A., Sekeres, D. C., & Wilfong, L. (2014). Teaching children's literature in the 21st century. Journal of Children's Literature, 39(1), 56-61.

McKool, S. S., & Gespass, S. (2009). Does Johnny's reading teacher love to read? How teachers' personal reading habits affect instructional practices. Literacy Research and Instruction,48(3), 264-276.

Morrell, E. (2007). Critical literacy and urban youth: Pedagogies of access, dissent, and liberation. New York, NY: Routledge.

Morrison, T. G., Jacobs, J. S., & Swinyard, W. R. (1999). Do teachers who read personally use recommended literacy practices in their classrooms? Literacy Research and Instruction, 38(2), 81-100.

Moss, B., & Young, T. A. (2010). Creating lifelong readers through independent reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Mueller, P. N. (2001). Lifers: Learning from at-risk adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2006). Resolution on preparing and certifying teachers w ith knowledge of children's and adolescent literature. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2015). Resolution on the need for diverse books. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2017). Statement on classroom libraries. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

NCTE Children's Literature Assembly. (2004). Preparing teachers with knowledge of children's and adolescent literature. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

Newkirk, T. (2011). The art of slow reading: Six time-honored practices for engagement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Nodelman, P. (2008). The hidden adult. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Recorvitis, H. (2003). My name is Yoon. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Sims Bishop, R. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives, 1(3), ix-xi.

Stephens, J. (1992). Language and ideology in children's fiction. New York, NY: Longman.

Stetsenko, A. (2016). The transformative mind: Expanding Vygotsky's approach to development and education. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Thomas, E., Reese, D., & Horning, K. (2016). Much ado about A fine dessert: The cultural politics of representing slavery in children's literature. Journal of Children's Literature, 42(2), 6-17.

Tschida, C., Ryan, C., & Ticknor, R. (2014). Building on windows and mirrors: Encouraging the disruption of "single stories" through children's literature. Journal of Children's Literature, 40(1), 28-39.

Willis, A., & Harris, V. (1997). Preparing preservice teachers to teach multicultural literature. In J. Flood, S. Brice Heath, & D. Lapp (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts (pp. 460-469). New York, NY: Macmillan Library Reference USA.

Yoon, B., Simpson, A., & Haag, C. (2010). Assimilation ideology: Critically examining underlying messages in multicultural literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(2), 109-118.
STATEMENT AUTHORS
This document was revised by an NCTE working committee comprising the following:

Jennifer Buehler, Chair - Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO

Denise Dávila - The University of Texas at Austin

Amy McClure - Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH

Donalyn Miller - Author and Consultant, Colleyville, TX
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Young Adult Literature

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Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Young Adult Literature

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Approved by the NCTE Executive Committee, July 2013, revised July 2018 Overview
Unfettered student access to high-quality literature through curricula, independent choice reading, and "full authentic texts rather than adaptations" (NCTE, 2006, ¶7) is a central tenet in English education, and to that end, NCTE has developed policies that strongly discourage censoring practices in schools at all grade levels. Letter ratings, content warnings, and all forms of "red-flagging"-whether in classroom, school, or community libraries, or inserted via mandate into course syllabi-constitute blatant forms of censorship. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a red flag is a near-universal signal of danger (Red Flag, 2018). The term, in its widely used verb form, to red-flag something, is an expression noting that some person or institution has marked something as a danger, real or imagined. Thus, red-flagging a book marks it as somehow dangerous.

In fact, the practice of red-flagging is what is dangerous. It reduces complex literary works to a few isolated features. Red-flagging and rating books for controversial content undermines the process of book selection based on educational criteria and significantly reduces students' access to a range of available, high-quality literature. Because an "intransigent minority" (Taleb, 2018, p. 69) objects vocally and persistently to isolated features of a particular book instead of viewing its merit as a whole, school and community personnel sometimes succumb to political and/or personal pressure and incorporate red-flagging practices. Sadly, in order to avoid book controversies, some school districts have undertaken the practice of red-flagging books that have been challenged in other schools by using letter ratings and/or content warnings, while stopping short of actual book-banning. Instead, the practice leads parents, teachers, and entire school districts down a slippery slope toward censorship.
Nature of the Problem
Gatekeeping and labeling. First, it is important to note that "most challenges (formal attempts to remove or restrict access to library materials and services) go unreported" (ALA, 2018, ¶1). Second, the practice of gatekeeping results in books never hitting the open shelves for fear of being banned or challenged. This is essentially a predetermination that a book is not suitable for consumption by the consumer. Books may be consigned to a protected shelf where students need special permission to check them out. And, books may be removed temporarily when other local area schools are experiencing a challenge. The third common practice is the labeling of books. Whether the labels designate reading levels, lexiles, or problematic content, the bottom line is that labeling accomplishes two negative outcomes: it narrows students' ability to choose books based on interest, and it infringes on students' privacy since the labels can be seen by others.

Statement of purpose. The purpose of this position statement on red-flagging is twofold. First, it upholds NCTE's assertions that students' and teachers' unimpeded access to quality literature has to be assured. Second, it emphasizes how red-flagging books can severely limit choice of quality reading materials for students and educators alike. Since choice is key in the support and development of readers of all ages (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Ivey & Johnston, 2013), censoriously curtailing those choices can be detrimental to students (Wigfield, Gladstone, & Turci, 2016) and can impede teachers' professional efforts to promote lifelong reading and learning.
Recommendations for Teachers
Dialogue between parents and educators. NCTE appreciates that it is important to inform parents and guardians about the educational value of, and reasoning behind, the use and selection of classroom books and other reading materials. Indeed, parent-teacher partnerships can strengthen education outcomes for children and youth (Anderson & Minke, 2010). Through the sharing of rationales for books-by districts, schools, and teachers with parents-a dialogue between educators and families can be opened regarding materials used in the classroom. Such a dialogue can foster trust, cooperation, and a more complete understanding of how texts are used to meet educational goals. Such a process also encourages the opportunity for student and parental choice while honoring the expertise of teachers. However, when even one parent or community member seeks to curtail access by labeling or removing a book for a student other than his or her own, that person is, in effect, attempting to censor.

Usurping the prerogatives of educators and families alike, red-flagging privileges the concerns of a few individuals over a majority of parents and over the professional judgment of teachers and librarians who review and select the books for their students. Red-flagging or rating books by emphasizing only the "mature" content in particular books, or by creating a list of previously banned or challenged books, will encourage two negative outcomes. First, it will embolden those seeking to stimulate continuing controversy; and second, it will have a paradoxical effect on students by inciting student reading choices for prurient reasons while at the same time discouraging students' reading of works of literary merit.

Such ratings narrow the curriculum to only books that are deemed "safe" and deny students access to a wide variety of reading material. Moreover, how one person defines "safe" is likely to be different from another. What content is problematic? The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom website offers an annual infographic (ALA, 2016) depicting the top ten challenged books and their reasons, which included among the top reasons books that were "sexually explicit," used "offensive language," or incorporated LGBT content.
Core Values:
As English language arts teachers, we

appreciate the dialogue and communication with parents, administrators, and other stakeholders regarding the literary value of texts;

utilize our professional judgment when selecting texts to be taught in the classroom;

discourage formal "ratings" of a text, including those that deem books "safe" or "appropriate" for the reader without considering the literary and curricular value of the text;

oppose identifying a book as "safe" or "unsafe" based on its content.

Book rationales are essential. NCTE encourages schools and teachers to systematically access, develop, and provide parents with rationales that explain the pedagogical purposes curricular reading materials serve. Written rationales are an important element to have in place, particularly when teaching commonly challenged books (see link, Frequently Challenged Books, 2013). Such rationales should not be selectively prepared, but should encompass all curricular choices. Without clearly written rationales, schools often rely on flawed and highly subjective collections of warnings, developed by outsiders, that, in fact, discourage wide reading of books. Such collections or lists that segregate books into artificially created categories based on previous challenges give educators and would-be readers a biased and misinformed perspective, serving only to cast those reading materials into a negative light, regardless of their literary worth, and stoke unnecessary alarm. Insidiously, such categorization defers to individuals and/or an intransigent minority (Taleb, 2018) who object to a book-often for spurious random, personal, or ideological reasons. Rather than reducing challenged books and reading materials to out-of-context passages or words, NCTE encourages educators to articulate the important themes and ideas that such books highlight and that have well served thousands who have read, taught, enjoyed, and benefited from them.
Core Values:
As English language arts teachers, we

are prepared to discuss the pedagogical and curricular purposes served by the literature we teach;

commit to teaching books that may challenge cultural or societal expectations;

consider books as a whole, rather than passages taken out of context when identifying what we teach;

engage with learners through literature, encouraging personal choice, decision-making, and critical thinking.

Additional Resources
Rationales and other valuable resources can be found by visiting the offices and websites of the following organizations, in addition to NCTE. The American Library Association has established its Office of Intellectual Freedom with a myriad of resources available to educators and librarians for dealing with such challenges: http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/oif/. A brief, informative video from Banned Books Week/ALA can be found at https://youtu.be/yyd2kII-8D4.

Also dedicated to assisting educators in these situations are these groups:

The National Coalition Against Censorship: https://ncac.org/resources

NCTE's Standing Committee Against Censorship:
https://ncte.org/get-involved/volunteer/groups/standing-committee-against-censorship/ References
American Library Association [ALA]. (2016). Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2016 [Infographic]. Office of Intellectual Freedom, Banned and Challenged Books. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/statistics

American Library Association [ALA]. (2018). State of American Libraries 2018. Issues and Trends. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2018/issues-trends

Anderson, K. J., & Minke, K. M. (2010). Parent involvement in education: Toward an understanding of parents' decision-making. The Journal of Educational Research, 100(5), 311-323.

Banned Books Week. (2018, April 9). Top 10 most challenged books of 2017. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/yyd2kII-8D4

Frequently Challenged Books. (2013, March 26). American Library Association [webpage]. Document ID: 82134c30-c54c-447f-be34-bfbcb7d094e5. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research, Volume III (pp. 403-422). Malwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Ivey, G., & Johnston, P. H. (2013). Engagement with young adult literature: Outcomes and processes. Reading Research Quarterly, 48(3), 255-275.

NCTE. (2006). Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum [Position Statement]. Retrieved from https://ncte.org/statement/valueofliterature/

Red Flag. (2018). Definition of "red flag". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/red%20flag

Taleb, N. N. (2018). Skin in the game: Hidden asymmetries of daily life. New York, NY: Random House.

Wigfield, A., Gladstone, J. R., & Turci, L. (2016). Beyond cognition: Reading motivation and reading comprehension. Child Development Perspectives, 10(3), 190-195.
Statement Authors
This document was revised by an NCTE working committee comprising the following:

Gretchen Oltman, Chair, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska

Annamary Consalvo, The University of Texas at Tyler

Teri Lesesne, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas

Jocelyn A. Chadwick, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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NCTE Position Statement Regarding Rating or "Red-Flagging" Books

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Independent reading leads to an increased volume of reading. The more one reads, the better one reads. The more one reads, the more knowledge of words and language one acquires. The more one reads, the more fluent one becomes as a reader. The more one reads, the easier it becomes to sustain the mental effort necessary to comprehend complex texts. The more one reads, the more one learns about the people and happenings of our world.

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Contemporary nonfiction for young people plays a crucial role in the reading and writing lives of K-12 students. It is a rich and compelling genre that supports students' development as critically, visually, and informationally literate 21st century thinkers and creators. The purpose of this position statement is to propose a paradigm shift for teaching and learning with nonfiction literature in K-12 education.

Unlike many textbooks and materials written for online or print-based school curriculum, nonfiction literature for young people does more than communicate information (Moss, 2003; Sanders, 2018). Nonfiction literature contextualizes primary source evidence, offers multiple perspectives on current and historic events, and shares new scientific discoveries.

Contemporary nonfiction addresses historical silences; explores historic and contemporary events rooted in racism, oppression, and violence; and highlights courageous trailblazers and organized groups working toward societal transformation and liberation. It presents cutting-edge research, offering readers not just settled information, but access to emerging understandings at the vanguard of scientific knowledge and exploration (Aronson, 2011; Giblin, 2000; Isaacs, 2011).

Nonfiction empowers young people in the face of current and emerging challenges locally and globally, such as racial, cultural, social, and economic injustice, censorship and disinformation, and the climate crisis. In the urgency of this moment, nonfiction for young people has never been more vibrant or vital.

Introduction

Nonfiction is published for all ages in many formats: board books, picture books, beginner readers, graphic nonfiction, transitional chapter books, and long-form. Featuring engaging text, captivating art, and dynamic design that inspires as well as informs, today's nonfiction is ideal for a wide range of educational uses as well as independent reading. Referred to as a literature of fact (Moss, 2003) and a literature of questions (Sanders, 2018), contemporary nonfiction literature provides fact-based, well-documented explorations of topics that captivate readers.

By its very name, nonfiction literature is defined by what it is not: fiction. It has also been named and renamed in ways that reveal different attributes of its identity: informational text, information books, literary nonfiction, and more (Colman, 1999; Sanders, 2018; Zarnowski & Turkel, 2011; Zarnowski & Turkel, 2012). Using rich language embedded in expository and narrative writing, nonfiction conveys information that is factually true and accurate, drawing upon vetted and verifiable source material (Colman, 1999; Freedman, 1998). Though nonfiction leverages literary elements also found in fiction, it does not employ fiction.

For more than thirty years, the criteria for NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award® for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children have articulated what comprises high-quality nonfiction literature: accuracy in texts and illustrations, supported by documentation; organization; writing style; illustrative style; and book design. Today's nonfiction literature offers readers a richer and more diverse range of topics, authors' and illustrators' notes that help readers to understand the source material and creative processes behind the book, captivating page turns, and beautifully designed formats that build a multimodal experience that is both informative and compelling (Gill, 2009; Isaacs, 2011). Reading nonfiction is not simply about taking in information. It is a deeply enriching aesthetic experience.

Nonfiction Is Underrepresented in K-12 Education
Kids Love Nonfiction
While it's widely recognized that many adults enjoy reading nonfiction, the same is not always assumed for young people.

Although adults tend to select fiction to share with children (Conradi Smith et al., 2022; Jacobs et al., 2000; Håland et al., 2021; Robertson & Reese, 2017), research shows that most young readers enjoy nonfiction, and many prefer it (Clark & Teravainen-Goff, 2020; Correia, 2011; Doiron, 2003; Ives et al., 2020; Mohr, 2006; Moss & Hendershot, 2002; Repaskey et al., 2017; Robertson & Reese, 2017). For some children, nonfiction is a gateway to literacy (Caswell & Duke, 1998; Hynes, 2000) as well as a portal to knowledge that sparks curiosity and fuels a sense of wonder (Jobe and Dayton-Sakari, 2002).

Young people need adults who foster access to high-quality nonfiction books because they appreciate the power of these titles to excite and inspire as well as inform readers of all ages. A just and equitable educational system that values and empowers all learners is one in which every child, tween, and teen has the space to explore their curiosities, interests, and identities. With so much to offer young people as readers and thinkers, nonfiction should play a far more robust role in the reading and learning lives of young people in and out of school.
Nonfiction Literature Is Underutilized in the Language Arts Curriculum and Classroom Libraries
Given the limited role and time spent on nonfiction in elementary classrooms (Duke, 2000), efforts have been made via state standards and professional organizations to increase the role of nonfiction literature and informational text in K-12 education. Yet, fiction continues to have a dominant role in reading and language arts instruction, while nonfiction is frequently underrepresented (Dreher & Kletzien, 2015). Even when nonfiction is addressed, it is often studied through the use of basal readers and online texts that lack the richness of exceptional nonfiction literature in both the quality of information and the quality of presentation.

Perhaps these circumstances remain relatively unchanged because many states no longer require courses in children's and young adult literature as part of their teacher preparation programs, denying teachers the opportunity to learn about this essential body of work (NCTE, 2018). In addition, nonfiction book awards and book lists are not as well-known as their fiction counterparts. These include NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award® for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, the American Library Association's Sibert Informational Book Medal, and the subject-based book lists created by the National Science Teaching Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which include many nonfiction books. For classrooms in underresourced communities with high concentrations of minoritized populations, financial constraints, coupled with the lack of access to certified school librarians or media specialists (Hadjioannou, 2021; Lance & Kachel, 2021), put nonfiction literature even further out of reach.

Exceptional nonfiction should serve as a mentor text for student writing. But in an age of standardized testing, much of the nonfiction writing young people do in school is limited to the genre of test-driven essay writing and short responses, which does not reflect authentic nonfiction writing. Too often, students are not given the time and freedom to explore topics of personal interest or enthusiastically share their new knowledge with others.

These practices send the wrong message to young people-that nonfiction isn't as valid and valuable as fiction, and that it's not meant for everyday enjoyment.
The Information Literacy Crisis
Cultivating children's information literacy at the earliest of ages is an essential element of 21st century literacy learning. Exposure to a variety of nonfiction texts ensures students are able to develop their capacity to critically evaluate information, the perspectives of authors and experts, and systems of power (Elmborg, 2006).

With an overabundance of information and an increase of misinformation, there is a need for greater access to nonfiction scientific literature, as well as rigorous instruction on how to critically evaluate sources (Gu & Feng, 2021). Without exposure to credible scientific information found in nonfiction texts, students are more likely to experience mistrust of scientific knowledge (Haider & Sundin, 2022).

Book banning and censorship also remain perennial concerns, frequently targeting nonfiction created by authors and illustrators from marginalized and minoritized communities. The elimination of these texts from curricula, libraries, and classrooms is a systemic silencing of voices. Our literacy classrooms must be sites that affirm and honor multiple identities and cultures, foster pride in students' communities, offering both windows and mirrors (Bishop, 1990) of contributions across the global human community. Without access to nonfiction literature from a variety of voices and perspectives, students are limited to a dominant view of history, which selectively erases the contributions of marginalized people and obscures the processes by which histories are composed.

Another impediment to students' information literacy development is the fact that time devoted to social studies and science instruction at the elementary level has diminished (Au, 2009; Blank, 2013; Duke, 2019b; Griffith & Scharmann, 2008). This is more pronounced in underresourced schools, where students are even more likely to experience limited science and social studies instruction at the elementary level (Duke, 2019b; Fitchett et al., 2014).

Recommendations to Expand the Use of Nonfiction
Encourage Nonfiction Literature as Independent Reading across PreK-12
Nonfiction literature, with its varied formats and subjects, has something to offer readers across the developmental continuum. For our youngest students, nonfiction provides an introduction to the idea that books can be sources of information, offering a multimodal avenue for the exploration of information presented through both words and visual images. As students grow older, a broader range of nonfiction texts are suitable, and when matched to students' interests and passions, these texts can cultivate a passion for reading and deepen knowledge of the world.

To support readers' exposure and access to nonfiction reading, ELA professionals can:

offer access to and support with developmentally appropriate nonfiction books for the very young and their families and caregivers, to help children effectively and joyfully engage with them.

work with school librarians and media specialists to encourage children, tweens, and teens to engage with a broad range of nonfiction (beginner readers, picturebooks, chapter books, and graphic nonfiction) matched to their interests.

nurture students' curiosity and passions by making available a rich and evolving variety of nonfiction choices within the K-12 classroom library and providing time for young people to engage with them. The dedication of space and time to nonfiction demonstrates the importance and value of these texts (Young & Moss, 2006).

support K-12 students' preferences when choosing nonfiction for independent reading to affirm that nonfiction counts as a valid form of reading and is a worthy choice for both pleasure and learning (Alexander & Jarmin, 2018).

Students will gain confidence, knowledge, and satisfaction through these transactions, and their experiences reading nonfiction will propel them to seek out and engage with nonfiction throughout their lives (Duke, 2007).
Use Nonfiction Literature in Reading Instruction
Traditional notions of reading development operate under the assumption that children first learn to read, and then read to learn (Chall, 1983). This implies that readers must know how to decode words before they can learn information from text. This is simply not true (Duke, 2019a). Readers at all stages of development can glean knowledge from text (Cabell & Hwang, 2020; Cervetti & Hiebert, 2018). Nonfiction literature is ideal for reading instruction, as it introduces students to a vast array of topics across subject areas, allowing them to build knowledge, expand vocabulary, and experience different perspectives (Kiefer, 2009; Wooten & Rowe, 2018).

To leverage nonfiction to support readers' skill and strategy development, ELA professionals can:

read a wide range of nonfiction literature to "develop broad and sustained knowledge of quality books"(NCTE, 2018) and stay abreast of new nonfiction. Teachers can use this knowledge to identify books for their reading instruction, to match their readers' needs and interests, and to build diversified classroom libraries (Short, 2018).

model how to navigate and enjoy nonfiction, with the teacher displaying enthusiasm and demonstrating strategic pathways through the book. Interactive read-alouds provide significant opportunities for discussion related to nonfiction content as well as writing structure and style.

offer young readers opportunities to explore how nonfiction texts "work" (Serafini et al., 2018; Smith & Robertson, 2019; Stewart & Correia, 2021). Nonfiction books are varied, featuring multiple subgenres, formats, structures, and text features. Reading a broad array of nonfiction with regularity and support allows students to anticipate and navigate those differences effectively when reading independently.

motivate K-12 students to read by selecting nonfiction texts that nurture their interests, concerns, wonderings, and activities of daily life. By their very nature, well-chosen nonfiction texts are a motivating force.

increase K-12 students' vocabulary and build their content knowledge by providing opportunities for students to read, listen to, and discuss nonfiction literature (Calo, 2011; Cervetti & Hiebert, 2018). Nonfiction books, with their focused content and specialized language, expose young people to sophisticated and challenging vocabulary within an authentic reading context. Ultimately, a reader's knowledge of words and knowledge of the world lays the foundation for proficient reading comprehension (Kearns et al., 2021).

harness the power of students' funds of knowledge and life experiences, including content-specific knowledge, to foster strategic use of their working memory to maintain, keep track of, and enhance text comprehension (Smith et al., 2021). Proficient readers use content knowledge to monitor understanding and synthesize their thinking.

nurture students' reading stamina and reading strategies that lead to deep comprehension by engaging them with complex, developmentally appropriate nonfiction texts. Knowledge gained by interacting with nonfiction literature increases students' literal understanding and increases their ability to make inferences (Cabell & Hwang, 2020). Filling in the information gaps that typically exist in a text is essential (Dorn & Soffos, 2005).

support the development of students' decoding skills through the use of high interest, developmentally appropriate nonfiction texts where precise vocabulary is used in meaningful contexts and is ripe for phonetic and morphological explorations. Though clearly relevant for novice readers, the technical vocabulary of nonfiction can also offer rich opportunities for decoding and foundational word work with older students.

model reading nonfiction as multimodal (Serafini et al., 2018). Foster students' visual literacies as an essential component of reading nonfiction, whether working with nonfiction picture books, graphic nonfiction, or chapter nonfiction punctuated with photographs, primary sources, maps, infographics, and more.

invite students to search for and interrogate perspective and point of view within nonfiction literature. Though nonfiction has traditionally been thought of as offering an authoritative treatment of its topics, it is important for readers to understand that nonfiction, no matter how well researched and thorough, represents the authors' perspectives and points of view. Effective readers learn how to recognize these perspectives and ask questions about power and silencing that can lead to deeper, critical explorations of texts (Graff & Shimek, 2020).

ELA teachers adhere to goals and objectives that guide their planning and instructional decisions. Nonfiction literature provides opportunities to support those goals while engaging students in authentic, intrinsically motivating work.
Use Nonfiction Literature in Writing Instruction
Nonfiction writing is often assumed to be better suited for older children and teens (Newkirk, 1989). However, research demonstrates that younger learners enthusiastically and competently write and illustrate nonfiction, mirroring their world and the things within it that fascinate them (Britsch, 2002; Duke, 2000; Newkirk, 1989). Nonfiction writing is for everyone!

As noted in the NCTE Position Statement on Writing Instruction in School, "writing is an important form of self-expression and communication as well as a tool for thinking, reflecting, and learning" (2022). Engaging, high-quality nonfiction literature can serve as inspiration for student writers. It also introduces writers at all stages of development to a vast array of formats, structures, purposes, research processes, and writing and illustrating styles.

To leverage nonfiction to support writers' development, ELA professionals can:

read a wide range of nonfiction literature to develop a strong understanding of the differences between expository and narrative texts and nonfiction text types, and identify mentor texts for craft lessons, mentor texts for teaching about various types of nonfiction writing, and book sets that can serve as sources for student inquiry projects and nonfiction writing.

ensure students have ongoing exposure to a broad variety of nonfiction books as writing models by sharing varied nonfiction literature across the day and across the year.

showcase the passion, interest, and personal experiences and priorities that fuel and guide nonfiction writing by exploring book creators' purposes and inspirations, which are often included in the backmatter. When young writers understand that the topics professional nonfiction writers choose, the approaches they take, and the concepts and themes they explore are closely linked to their personalities, beliefs, and experiences in the world, the students can begin to take this approach to their own writing (Stewart, 2020).

honor students' personal and community knowledge, perspectives, and expertise. This commitment can be served by allowing students choice in the nonfiction topics they write about and inviting and valuing ways of knowing and ways of representing knowledge beyond Eurocentric norms of what constitutes good writing (NCTE, 2022).

utilize nonfiction book creators' creative decision making as mentor processes (Dawes et al., 2019). Contemporary nonfiction readers have unprecedented access to book creators' processes and insights through interviews, websites, and backmatter. By exploring nonfiction authors' creative decision making regarding everything from choosing a topic and finding a focus to structuring a manuscript and carefully crafting language, these experienced professionals can become invaluable teaching partners.

employ nonfiction literature to model and craft lessons. Nonfiction literature can be used as readily as fiction to teach writing.

model nonfiction writing as multimodal, highlight multiple options for representing meaning, and support students as they plan for and develop original visual representations (illustrations, photographs, graphics, etc.) for their nonfiction texts (Moses & Serafini, 2022). It is important to stress that visual representations are not merely decorative or supplemental but should contribute in meaningful ways to their texts.

encourage students to write nonfiction with an awareness of their own perspective and point of view as well as the perspectives and experiences of others.

Nonfiction writing offers vital opportunities for children to explore their passions and showcase their expertise. Nonfiction literature, through its compelling content and variety of text structures, styles, and formats, can serve as enjoyable and accessible mentor texts to support young writers as they raise their voices about issues and topics that matter to them.
Use Nonfiction Literature to Teach Research Processes and Information Literacy
Nonfiction texts ignite the curiosity of students, help them develop the critical thinking skills required to evaluate sources, and offer access to a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. Exceptional nonfiction books embody an elegant balance between exacting research and engaging text and illustrations. While researching their topics, book creators seek and study primary sources, visit locales, read scientific treatises, and observe and talk to scientists and other experts. The books they create reflect this painstaking immersion, which in turn ignites the curiosity of young people. These books also capture the process of scientific exploration and offer well-lit pathways through complex histories, events, and historical silences. Because professionals in different fields have distinctive ways of constructing new knowledge and communicating those new understandings to others in and outside of their field, developing familiarity with these disciplinary literacies is a vital component of students' literacy development (Cervetti, 2021; Moje, 2015; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008).

There is an urgency to hear and engage with the voices of those who have been historically excluded. Nonfiction texts provide possibilities to redefine what counts as credible information, to legitimize non-Western ways of knowing, and to revitalize culturally diverse practices (Burmester & Howard, 2022). Nonfiction texts that are integrated with indigenous knowledge create relevancy, igniting students' enthusiasm for scientific knowledge, sustainability, and social justice (Handayani et al., 2018). Students must be allowed to grow into critical consumers of information, developing the critical and analytic thinking skills required to question dominant narratives and explain whose voices are legitimized and whose are marginalized in nonfiction literature (Burmester & Howard, 2022).

To leverage nonfiction to support students' understanding of research processes and information literacy, ELA professionals can:

explore nonfiction books as models for sound research practices, offering young people insight into how disciplines operate and the opportunity to envision themselves as potential contributors to those fields in the future.

collaborate with content area teachers to select and share nonfiction books that support different students' disciplinary literacies.

investigate biographies of historical and contemporary innovators as well as other narrative and expository nonfiction texts to make visible the passion and curiosity that leads to scientific exploration and discovery and illuminate the processes involved in knowledge construction.

interrogate biographies of historical and contemporary activists and agents of change, as well as narrative and expository nonfiction texts about recent or historical events, to model the use of primary source evidence, to demonstrate the process of historiography, and to reveal a more nuanced and representative view of the histories of those who have been marginalized and oppressed.

select and study nonfiction books that center storytelling and oral traditions. Oral teachings that span generations deserve the same respect as written nonfiction texts. They provide students historical accounts that are often silenced in written interpretations (MacLeod, 2021) and can demonstrate the resilience of ancestral communities and of contemporary indigenous ways of knowing (Washburn, 2007; Horakova, 2021).

When young people read nonfiction literature with a critical eye, models of disciplinary and information literacy are normalized and diverse ways of knowing are recognized. Students can grow comfortable with the notion that knowledge is never fixed; even the most established understandings are open to refinement and reinterpretation. Readers will know how to evaluate the trustworthiness and perspective of a nonfiction book and apply similar standards when encountering claims of fact in other areas of their lives.
Use Nonfiction Literature to Support Visual Literacy
Nonfiction literature has never been more visually engaging. Technological advances in printing, artistic innovation, and expanded representation of illustrators from diverse backgrounds offer dynamic and dazzling visual displays in all forms of nonfiction, from the picture book to the chapter book (Giblin, 2000; Isaacs, 2011; Salisbury & Styles, 2020).

Visual literacy is broadly defined as strategies and skills related to engagement with, comprehension of, and the interpretation of visual images. Approaches to reading instruction that utilize visual literacy methodologies, including visual thinking strategies (Yenawine, 1997), increase opportunities for equitable access to the curriculum for all students, including students with language and reading disabilities (Cappello & Walker, 2016; Crawford & Calabria, 2018) and multilingual students (Louie & Sierschynski, 2015).

Because nonfiction books are research-based, readers may be tempted to assume that they represent indisputable facts and "truths" about the world. However, reading, writing, and illustrating nonfiction are all interpretative processes. Within the reading process, visual literacy is an essential component of meaning making that helps deepen text understanding (Barone & Barone, 2016) and supports the composition of multimodal products (Witte & Dail, 2018). As an interpretative aspect of readers' response to literature, visual literacy includes cognitive, affective, critical, social, cultural, and political elements connected to experience, identity, and place-based contexts of reading and viewing (Serafini, 2014).

To leverage nonfiction to support students' visual literacy, ELA professionals can:

examine images, graphics, primary sources, and illustration techniques and styles used in nonfiction and explore how they convey information, highlight particular aspects of the story or topic, develop themes, and build the emotional terrain of a book.

utilize visual text features, photography, illustrations, graphics, and iconography within nonfiction literature to activate prior knowledge and expand disciplinary inquiry and diverse perspectives. These explorations should create purposeful spaces for traumatic and critical responses as well as for critical evaluation of visual representations (Gardner, 2017; Yenika-Agbaw et al., 2018). Engaging in critical discourse with images and allowing readers to ask questions and express emotions can help expand readers' opportunities for affirmation and understanding and limit possibilities for retraumatization.

interrogate visual representation within picture books by considering whose perspectives they represent, whose stories they tell, and whose voices they leave out.

harness the visual codes and dexterity of display in graphic nonfiction to engage readers in critical visual literacy to explore racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and xenophobia, among other issues.

In our increasingly visual culture, it is imperative that young people learn how to evaluate images and discern the ways in which visual elements frame information, shape perspectives, and represent points of view.
Use Nonfiction Literature to Diversify the Curriculum PreK-12 and Practice Critical Literacies
Within the context of a nation that values free speech, it is important to disrupt any presumptions that nonfiction is neutral (Dávila & Elovich, 2021). Like fiction, nonfiction texts are political (Gardner et al., 2021). As political texts, nonfiction provides a landscape for fostering readers' critical literacy skills, which are essential to becoming active participants in a democracy (Powell et al., 2001). Informed citizens of pluralistic societies appreciate multiple perspectives and worldviews (Eck, 2006) and acknowledge the dangers of any single story (Adichie, 2009).

Children's nonfiction is well-suited for students' critical multicultural analysis (Crisp et al., 2021; Yenika-Agbaw, 2021). Such analyses attend to the examination of implicit and explicit biases and the interrogation of dominant sociocultural ideologies and power structures (Botelho & Rudman, 2009). They are grounded in the notion that like fiction, nonfiction texts are crafted for specific groups of readers (Dávila, 2012), often regarded as the ideal or implied audiences (Nikolajeva, 2005). With these audiences in mind, children's nonfiction offers a medium in which students can begin to identify and interrogate sociocultural stereotypes and social narratives of the dominant or mainstream culture (Reese & McEntarffer, 2021; Rodriguez & Kim, 2021). In a "post truth" era of "fake news," as described by Comber et al. (2018), it is essential for students to learn to analyze nonfiction texts to cultivate the skills of a critical citizenry.

To leverage nonfiction to support students' critical literacy, ELA professionals can:

utilize multiple nonfiction trade books on the same topic to convey that neither history nor information can be limited to a single perspective of facts. In traditional school settings, the textbook has often been positioned as the preeminent, sanctioned, and single source of information. Incorporating nonfiction trade books in the curriculum can help debunk the myth that there is one way to perceive and represent sociohistorical events (Enriquez & Shulman-Kumin, 2014; Gill, 2009).

interrogate diverse nonfiction texts to consider representations of power and privilege, as well as issues that demand examination and critique (Behrman, 2006). Teachers can help young people develop a sense of critical questioning by encouraging them to ask key questions about biographies and other nonfiction texts: Who wrote this book? Why did they write it? Who is featured in this book? Who has power in this book? Who is missing from this book?

invite students to consider authors' and illustrators' perspectives. What do the book creators think about the topic? What are the identities of the implied readers for the book?

support students to take action and create change. Nonfiction offers young people the opportunity to learn about the world around them. When confronted with information that disrupts their understanding of justice, equity, and responsibility for humans and the natural world, young people should be supported in envisioning change and taking transformative actions.

Nonfiction literature, a "literature of questions" (Sanders, 2018), diversifies the curriculum and helps students to develop critical perspectives. But more importantly, it serves as a vehicle for recognizing patterns of systemic silencing and oppression, makes visible biases and injustices, and ignites the urgency for taking justice-oriented action.

Recommended Resources

Colman, P. (2007). A new way to look at literature: A visual model for analyzing fiction and nonfiction texts. Language Arts, 84(3), 257-268.

Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., & Gardner, R. P. (Eds.). (2021). Reading and teaching with diverse nonfiction children's books: Representations and possibilities. NCTE.

Dávila, D. (2012). In search of the ideal reader for children's nonfiction books about el Día de Los Muertos. Journal of Children's Literature, 38(1), 16-26.

Duke, N. K. (2019, March 5). Speaking up for science and social studies [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWO2lvAnjI

Enriquez, G., & Schulman-Kumin, A. (2014). Searching for "truth": Using children's nonfiction for social justice and Common Core goals. Journal of Children's Literature, 40(2), 16-25.

Giblin, J. (2000). More than just the facts: A hundred years of children's nonfiction. Horn Book Magazine, 76(4), 413-424.

Stewart, M. (Ed.). (2020). Nonfiction writers dig deep: 50 award-winning authors share the secret of engaging writing. NCTE.

Yenika-Agbaw, V., Hudock, L. A., & Lowery, R. M. (Eds.). (2018). Does nonfiction equate truth? Rethinking disciplinary boundaries through critical literacies. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Zarnowski, M., & Turkel, S. (2011). Nonfiction literature that highlights inquiry: How real people solve real problems. Journal of Children's Literature, 37(1), 30-37.

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Statement Authors

Xenia Hadjioannou, Co-chair, Penn State University, Berks Campus

Mary Ann Cappiello, Co-chair, Lesley University

Patricia Bandré, Salina Public Schools

Matthew Burgess, Brooklyn College & Nonfiction Author

Patricia Crawford, University of Pittsburgh

Denise Dávila, University of Texas, Austin

Roberta Price Gardner, Kennesaw State University

Kari Johnston, Austin Independent School District

Ruth Lowery, University of North Texas

Melissa Stewart, Nonfiction Author

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Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K-12)

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Nonfiction literature provides opportunities to support curricular goals while engaging students in authentic, intrinsically motivating work.

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Background

NCTE has a long history of commitment to the teaching of literature in connection with the teaching of reading, to the use of children's and adolescent literature in a balanced curriculum, to the benefits of a print-rich environment for all students, and to appropriate and thorough preparation of teachers. A disturbing trend, confirmed by a recent Children's Literature Assembly survey, is the elimination of separate courses of study for children's and/or adolescent literature in some teacher education programs.

Teacher education programs must provide the chance for prospective teachers to study a wide selection of books for children and adolescents, including texts from diverse cultures, genres, and historical periods. Such preparation should also involve a broad view of the appropriate and effective uses of this literature in classrooms (e.g., aesthetic appreciation, reader responses) and an understanding of the issues associated with such a curriculum (e.g., challenges to materials, appropriateness of selections, relations to media representations).

To have a meaningful impact on the inclusion of children's and adolescent literature in teacher preparation and certification, NCTE must coordinate its efforts with state education agencies, other professional organizations, and institutions of higher education. Various groups within NCTE have expertise about children's literature, adolescent literature, and teacher preparation. Working together, these groups can draw on the considerable research and scholarship on children's and adolescent literature to craft an effective position statement on preparing and certifying teachers in the use of children's and adolescent literature. Be it therefore

Resolution

RESOLVED, that the National Council of Teachers of English reaffirm

the value of opportunities for students at all levels to read and respond to literature beyond basal readers and other programmed materials;

the value of children's and adolescent literature in the curriculum; and

the value of preparing and certifying teachers with strong content and pedagogical knowledge of children's and/or adolescent literature.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NCTE develop and disseminate a position statement that fully expresses the organization's commitment to these values and that can be used by educators and their communities.
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Resolution on Preparing and Certifying Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Adolescent Literature

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Background

NCTE has long recognized the importance of promoting a love of literature and reading in students, evidenced by its position statements such as "Supporting School and Community Libraries" (2005), "El día de los niños/El día de los libros" (2005), "Preparing and Certifying Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Adolescent Literature" (2001), and "Literature-Based Reading Instruction" (1988). Research findings affirm the crucial role of teachers in fostering interest in reading and literature through the use of trade books (Ayra et al., 2005; Galda & Cullinan, 2003; Hickman, 1981). This research also verifies the impact of using literature in the classroom on children's language development, reading achievement, content learning, and writing. Furthermore, the NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts reiterate that educators must help children become lifelong readers, who read a variety of texts representing diverse experiences and perspectives for different purposes, including personal fulfillment. Recent trends in education, however, have made it nearly impossible for teachers to help inspire this appreciation in their students.

The current era of high-stakes testing has resulted in a narrowed curriculum in many schools, leaving little time or resources for extended interaction with literature. The Reading First Initiative of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 encourages the use of specific commercial reading programs, many of which make minimal use of authentic books. "Teachers are finding . . . that some of the mandated scripted programs are crowding out of the curriculum the time needed for reading aloud, independent reading of enjoyable and informational texts, writing, discussion, and in-depth exploration of literature" (NCTE position statement "On the Reading First Initiative," 2002).

Additionally, reading incentive programs used in many schools emphasize earning points or prizes instead of reading for enjoyment or learning. Children's literature experts argue that this use of extrinsic rewards does not foster the development of life-long readers (Lamme, 2003).

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America (2004), a report by the National Endowment for the Arts, further emphasizes the critical need for helping to create a love of literature in students. This study reports a dramatic decline in literary and total book reading among all age groups, ethnic groups, sexes, and education levels. Of particular note is the finding that the 18-24 age group showed the steepest decline.

For additional background, refer to other NCTE policy statements, particularly "On Reading, Learning to Read, and Effective Reading Instruction: An Overview of What We Know and How We Know It" (2004). Be it therefore

Resolution

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English continue to affirm the

value of reading and literature for appreciation, learning, and enjoyment;

critical need of instilling in young people a love of literature and reading for its own sake;

important and critical roles that children's and young adult literature should play in the classroom; and

that NCTE recommend that

reading curricula focus on selecting, reading, responding to, and analyzing a wide range of literature;

a wide range of high-quality literature representing diverse experiences and perspectives be integrated into all content areas, including reading instruction;

students engage in deep and extended experiences with full authentic texts rather than with adaptations; and

students are guaranteed opportunities to select literature representing a variety of topics and degrees of difficulty.

This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum

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This statement, formerly known as Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Adolescent Literature, was updated in July 2018 with the new title, Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Young Adult Literature. Originally created by NCTE Children's Literature Assembly (CLA), 2004, revised July 2018 OVERVIEW
Purpose: Given increased calls for diversity in the English language arts curriculum and growing awareness of the need for young people to see themselves in the books they read, NCTE has commissioned an updated statement on preparing teachers with knowledge of children's and young adult literature.

Key Message: Research shows that when students are given the chance to read books that respect the questions, challenges, and emotions of childhood and adolescence, they read with greater interest and investment (Buehler, 2016; Mueller, 2001). Research also shows that teachers who are readers themselves do a better job of engaging their students in reading (Morrison, Jacobs, & Swinyard, 1999). Thus, teacher educators must support preservice teachers as they build rich and deep knowledge of children's and young adult literature over the course of their certification programs. Then teachers must invest in their own continued growth, learning, and development as children's and young adult literature advocates throughout their professional lives.

Context: A committee of English educators has updated NCTE's 2004 statement Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Adolescent Literature by calling teachers at all stages of their careers to cultivate knowledge of books for young people, be readers of these books themselves, affirm diversity in book selection, and teach children's and young adult literature in ways that honor the books' literary quality as well as their potential to spark personal and social transformation.
STATEMENT
Evidence indicates that teachers' knowledge of children's and young adult literature is inconsistent and uneven from community to community, school to school, and classroom to classroom. Preservice teachers do not read any more than the general population (McKool & Gespass, 2009). Many of today's teachers have never taken a class in children's and young adult literature, and some states have eliminated the requirement for a dedicated course in children's and/or young adult literature for teaching certification. A growing number of schools no longer employ a librarian, who may be the only professional in the building who has formal training in children's and young adult literature, collection development, and matching young readers with books. Without librarians, the burden for reading advisory and material selection falls to classroom teachers, who often lack the training needed to perform these tasks.

Therefore, teacher education programs have the opportunity-and the responsibility-to

introduce preservice teachers to books for children and teens;

develop preservice teachers' understanding of the inherent value of these books for both general reading and classroom use;

raise preservice teachers' awareness of the power of these books to affirm lived experience, create empathy, catalyze conversations, and respect the questions, challenges, and emotions of childhood and adolescence;

call preservice teachers to embrace the roles of reading advocate and book matchmaker alongside their work as implementers of curriculum;

inspire preservice teachers to commit to reading these books throughout their professional lives;

cultivate in preservice teachers a commitment to teaching these books in ways that honor their literary quality as well as their potential to spark personal and social transformation;

build preservice teachers' capacity for continued growth, learning, and development as advocates of children's and young adult literature.

As an organization, NCTE compels teachers at all stages of their careers to invest in books for young people-as readers of those books and as advocates for their worth in the classroom.
Recommendations
NCTE recommends that teacher educators and teachers commit to the following four principles in the service of increasing their ability to teach and advocate for children's and young adult literature.
1. Know the literature.
Preservice teachers should cultivate book knowledge throughout various methods courses and across their entire teacher preparation program, regardless of state certification requirements. They should develop broad and sustained knowledge of quality books in the fields of children's and young adult literature, including fiction, nonfiction, and multimodal texts.

At the same time, they should build knowledge of resources-including review journals, websites and blogs, social media discussions, book awards, and author appearances at local libraries and bookstores-that can provide them with information about quality new books and their potential for classroom use and reading advisory.

They should also invest in relationships with librarians and organizations such as NCTE and ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE) that can help them build capacity to discuss and recommend books, evaluate literature, remain current, and discover new ways to teach children's and young adult literature effectively.
2. Be readers.
Teachers who are engaged readers do a better job of engaging students as readers. According to Morrison, Jacobs, and Swinyard (1999), "perhaps the most influential teacher behavior to influence students' literacy development is personal reading, both in and out of school" (p. 81). Teachers should commit to leading literate lives and becoming connected to reading communities-whether in person or through social media-that support them as readers and literacy professionals. Teachers should understand the value of different modes and platforms for reading (Garcia & O'Donnell-Allen, 2015) and build their capacity to read with a critical, discerning eye (Newkirk, 2011).
3. Affirm diversity and exercise critical literacy.
In alignment with NCTE's Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books (2015), NCTE challenges teachers and teacher educators to assume a transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2016) that supports a future of equality for all youth by engaging students with diverse books, which offer readers what scholar Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) calls windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. It is essential that youth have access to books in which they can see themselves and engage with the lives of others (see, for example, platforms created by the current and former National Ambassadors for Young People's Literature, including Jacqueline Woodson, Gene Luen Yang, and Walter Dean Myers). NCTE believes that books help readers transform their lives and expand their visions of the world.

Nevertheless, there is a dearth of diverse books for youth in the United States as seen in yearly statistics about trends in multicultural children's book publishing prepared by the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #ReadInColor social media campaigns have illuminated the paucity of diverse books in the marketplace. Although the CCBC recently observed that children's picture books feature an increased number of characters with "brown skin . . . of unspecified race or ethnicity, with no visible culturally specific markers in either the story or the art," the CCBC questions whether books with racially ambiguous characters provide actual windows, mirrors, and sliding doors for today's readers (Horning, Lindgren, Schliesman, & Tyner, 2018, n.p.). NCTE joins the CCBC in urging educators to not only advocate for more authentically diverse children's and young adult books from US publishers, but also to support authors, illustrators, publishers, and booksellers whose work represents multiple perspectives and cultural diversity in the lives of all children.

In addition to being advocates and supporters of diverse literature for youth, educators who assume a transformative activist stance must build their capacities for discernment and critical evaluation so they are prepared to choose children's and YA books wisely and strategically from the books available to them. Simply because a book features diverse characters does not mean that the book endorses equality and/or cultural understanding (Apol, Sakuma, Reynolds, & Rop, 2003; Dávila, 2012). For example, some popular works of contemporary, "multicultural" realistic fiction privilege the assumption that all residents of the United States should embrace dominant mainstream culture [e.g., My Name is Yoon (Recorvitis, 2003); One Green Apple (Bunting, 2006)]. Some of these books reinforce assimilation social narratives (Yoon, Simpson, & Haag, 2010) and/or endorse monocultural language and identity (Ghiso & Campano, 2013). Educators and students should collectively cultivate critical literacy practices to critique the social narratives that are endorsed by the books they select (Leland, Lewison, & Harste, 2012; Morrell, 2007) and talk back to the literature (Enciso, 1997).

Educators who affirm diversity and exercise critical literacy as part of a transformative activist stance recognize that they are always learning and expanding their capacities for transformation. They are open to guiding difficult discussions about inequality with students and are willing to tolerate the possibilities of "wobbling" while they explore uncharted territories with students (e.g., Fecho, 2005; Garcia & O'Donnell-Allen, 2015). They recognize that children's books are political (Nodelman, 2008; Stephens, 1992) and are the artifacts of the authors', illustrators', and/or publishers' views of the world (Willis & Harris, 2003) and/or US history (Thomas, Reese, & Horning, 2016). Moreover, these educators follow national conversations via media and blogs about diverse books, especially related to issues of power and representation (e.g., Reading While White; American Indians in Children's Books).
4. Use appropriate pedagogy.
Teaching children's and young adult literature is about more than getting students to fall in love with reading. Preservice teachers also need to learn appropriate and effective strategies for helping students find books that will engage them as readers and as participants in critical, significant conversations about their lives (NCTE, 2006; Tschida, Ryan, & Ticknor, 2014). This requires a deep knowledge of excellent books and the willingness to carefully curate a classroom library that provides appropriate choices for all students (Crisp, Knezek, Quinn, Bingham, Girardeau, & Starks, 2016; NCTE, 2017). Preservice teachers also need to know evidence-based strategies for supporting student knowledge of literary crafting-that is, how authors develop characters, construct plots, and employ other literary elements to create an exemplary work. Examining literary craft does not mean that the focus is on dissecting a book's structure or meaning. Rather, teachers should be skilled at helping students develop a common language for determining what makes a book excellent literature. Finally, teachers need to know how to advocate for the freedom and autonomy to create classrooms that support research-based pedagogical strategies for teaching children's and young adult literature (Mathis et al., 2014; NCTE Children's Literature Assembly, 2004).
WORKS CITED
Apol, L., Sakuma, A., Reynolds, T. M., & Rop, S. K. (2003). "When can we make paper cranes?" Examining pre-service teachers' resistance to critical readings of historical fiction. Journal of Literacy Research, 34, 429-464.

Buehler, J. (2016). Teaching reading with YA literature: Complex texts, complex lives. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

Bunting, E. (2006). One green apple. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., Quinn, M., Bingham, G., Girardeau, K., and Starks, F. (2016). "What's on our bookshelves? The diversity of children's literature in early childhood classroom libraries." Journal of Children's Literature 42(2), 29-42.

Dávila, D. (2012). In search of the ideal reader for children's non-fiction books about el Día de Los Muertos. Journal of Children's Literature, 38(1), 16-26.

Enciso, P. (1997). Negotiating the meaning of difference: Talking back to multicultural literature. In T. Rogers & A. Soter (Eds.), Reading across cultures (pp. 13-41). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Fecho, B. (2001). "Why are you doing this?" Acknowledging and transcending threat in a critical inquiry classroom. Research in the Teaching of English, 36(1), 9-37.

Garcia, A., & O'Donnell-Allen, C. (2015). Pose, wobble, flow: A culturally proactive approach to literacy instruction. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Ghiso, M., & Campano, G. (2013). Ideologies of language and identity in U.S. children's literature. Bookbird, 51(3), 47-55.

Horning, K., Lindgren, M., Schliesman, M. & Tyner, M. (2018). A few observations: Literature in 2017. CCBC Choices 2018. Madison, WI: Cooperative Children's Book Center. Retrieved from: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/choiceintro18.asp

Leland, C., Lewison, M., & Harste, J. (2012). Teaching children's literature: It's critical. New York, NY: Routledge.

Mathis, J. B., Aziz, S., Crisp, T., Graff, J. M., Kesler, T., Liang, L. A., Sekeres, D. C., & Wilfong, L. (2014). Teaching children's literature in the 21st century. Journal of Children's Literature, 39(1), 56-61.

McKool, S. S., & Gespass, S. (2009). Does Johnny's reading teacher love to read? How teachers' personal reading habits affect instructional practices. Literacy Research and Instruction,48(3), 264-276.

Morrell, E. (2007). Critical literacy and urban youth: Pedagogies of access, dissent, and liberation. New York, NY: Routledge.

Morrison, T. G., Jacobs, J. S., & Swinyard, W. R. (1999). Do teachers who read personally use recommended literacy practices in their classrooms? Literacy Research and Instruction, 38(2), 81-100.

Moss, B., & Young, T. A. (2010). Creating lifelong readers through independent reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Mueller, P. N. (2001). Lifers: Learning from at-risk adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2006). Resolution on preparing and certifying teachers w ith knowledge of children's and adolescent literature. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2015). Resolution on the need for diverse books. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2017). Statement on classroom libraries. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

NCTE Children's Literature Assembly. (2004). Preparing teachers with knowledge of children's and adolescent literature. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

Newkirk, T. (2011). The art of slow reading: Six time-honored practices for engagement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Nodelman, P. (2008). The hidden adult. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Recorvitis, H. (2003). My name is Yoon. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Sims Bishop, R. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives, 1(3), ix-xi.

Stephens, J. (1992). Language and ideology in children's fiction. New York, NY: Longman.

Stetsenko, A. (2016). The transformative mind: Expanding Vygotsky's approach to development and education. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Thomas, E., Reese, D., & Horning, K. (2016). Much ado about A fine dessert: The cultural politics of representing slavery in children's literature. Journal of Children's Literature, 42(2), 6-17.

Tschida, C., Ryan, C., & Ticknor, R. (2014). Building on windows and mirrors: Encouraging the disruption of "single stories" through children's literature. Journal of Children's Literature, 40(1), 28-39.

Willis, A., & Harris, V. (1997). Preparing preservice teachers to teach multicultural literature. In J. Flood, S. Brice Heath, & D. Lapp (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts (pp. 460-469). New York, NY: Macmillan Library Reference USA.

Yoon, B., Simpson, A., & Haag, C. (2010). Assimilation ideology: Critically examining underlying messages in multicultural literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(2), 109-118.
STATEMENT AUTHORS
This document was revised by an NCTE working committee comprising the following:

Jennifer Buehler, Chair - Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO

Denise Dávila - The University of Texas at Austin

Amy McClure - Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH

Donalyn Miller - Author and Consultant, Colleyville, TX
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Young Adult Literature

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Preparing Teachers with Knowledge of Children's and Young Adult Literature

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Research: Exploring Trends in a Growing Field: A Content Analysis of Young Adult Literature Scholarly Book Publications 2000-2020 | ncte.org

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To understand trends in what seems to be an explosion of books written about young adult literature (YAL), the authors conducted a content analysis of scholarly books published between 2000 and 2020. The question What trends in YAL research and pedagogy do the books published in this span of time reflect?

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Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press)

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Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors

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a brief history of young adult literature - cnn

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A brief history of young adult literature - CNN

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With young adult literature regularly burning up the bestseller lists, it's clear many young adults don't need an excuse to seek out the written word.

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The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR.

Ellen Conford, who died on March 23, was one of the pioneering writers of what was then a nascent literary movement: young adult (YA) fiction. In honor of her life and work, here's a look back at YA before it was YA-a time when librarians struggled not just to define a genre, but to figure out how to get books about young readers in the hands of young readers.

Though young adult literature has arguably existed since at least Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, which was published in the 1930s, teachers and librarians were slow to accept books for teenagers as a genre. "Today, many librarians are acting like frightened ostriches," Mary Kingsbury complained in 1971. Afraid of parental criticism and the threat of concerned administrators, she claimed, librarians were turning away from a tide of literature about and for young adults. "Librarians may never span the generation gap," she predicted, "but by sensitive book selection they can demonstrate an awareness of the particular hang-ups being lived through by young people."

Today, young adult fiction is a force to be reckoned with.

Just seven years later, the phrase "young adult" was becoming increasingly common in libraries. But with the new title came new concerns about realism in books for young readers-books that, according to Maia Pank Mertz, worried adults who feared that "some young-adult novels defy, or indeed attempt to subvert, society." Mertz, on the other hand, defended the trend of "New Realism" in young adult novels, looking at books like S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and challenging librarians to "develop students who can critically examine our culture's covert as well as overt assumptions."

By 1980, critics were already looking for some kind of canon of young adult novels. Noting that the genre had begun to tackle "subjects of real depth," Linda Bachelder and colleagues nominated 17 books, including Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War and Judy Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret as "classics" of the genre. By comparing young adult novels to books by classic authors like Faulkner and Dickens, Bachelder helped legitimize books for young readers.

Another decade led to even more legitimacy for young adult books. In her 1989 essay "Laughing with, or Laughing at the Young Adult Romance," Brenda O. Daly noted that young adult literature was extremely popular with its intended audience-but that adult critics made the mistake of assuming it was all the same. By interrogating works such as Conford's Strictly for Laughs, Daly pointed out a new trend in YA: books that explore "the territory of female imagination" and act as inclusive portrayals of teenagers.

Today, young adult fiction is a force to be reckoned with -books for children and young adults gained 22.4% in sales in 2014, and a whopping 55 percent of YA novels are now purchased by adults. The genre's road toward legitimacy has been a rocky one, but we can thank pioneers like Ellen Conford for blazing a trail for YA.

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

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A Brief History of Young Adult Fiction - JSTOR Daily

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Like jazz, the Broadway musical, and the foot-long hot dog, young adult literature is an American gift to the world, an innovative, groundbreaking genre that I've been following closely for more than 30 years. Targeted at readers 12 to 18 years old, it sprang into being near the end of the turbulent decade of the 1960s-in 1967, to be specific, a year that saw the publication of two seminal novels for young readers: S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Robert Lipsyte's The Contender.

Hinton and Lipsyte clearly were writing a new kind of novel for young adults-one of unsparing contemporary realism that met a need articulated by Hinton herself in a passionate article in The New York Times Book Review published on August 27, 1967. Here's what she wrote:

Teenagers today want to read about teenagers today. The world is changing, yet the authors of books for teen-agers are still 15 years behind the times. In the fiction they write, romance is still the most popular theme with a horse and the girl who loved it coming in a close second. Nowhere is the drive-in social jungle mentioned. In short, where is the reality?

The answer, of course, was to be found in the pages of her novel. The Outsiders had a mean-streets setting and dealt with urban warfare between teenage gang members, dubbed, respectively, the Greasers and the Socs. Hinton's mean streets were in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma; those of her equally innovative fellow author Robert Lipsyte were in New York City. His 1967 novel The Contender featured one of the first protagonists of color to appear in young adult literature, the African-American teenager Alfred Brooks, who struggles to become a contender both in the boxing ring and in life.

Before these two novels, literature for 12- to 18-year-olds was about as realistic as a Norman Rockwell painting-almost universally set in small-town, white America and featuring teenagers whose biggest problem was finding a date for the senior prom. Such books were patronizingly called "junior novels" and were typically sweet-spirited romances, a genre that defined the 1940s and 1950s and featured books by the likes of Janet Lambert, Betty Cavanna, and Rosamond DuJardin, among others. Indeed, virtually all literature for young readers in those two nostalgia-inducing decades consisted of inconsequential, formulaic, genre fiction: not only romance but also science fiction, adventure tales, and novels about sports, cars, and careers.

Small wonder, then, that this newly hard-edged, truth-telling, realistic fiction filled such a need. Seemingly overnight, a new genre, young adult literature, sprang into being. Within two years, noteworthy novels such as Paul Zindel's My Darling, My Hamburger and John Donovan's I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip had embraced real world considerations like abortion and homosexuality, respectively. In 1971, Hinton wrote about drug abuse in That Was Then. This Is Now and in 1973 Alice Childress joined her with A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich, which told a story of heroin addiction.

And then came 1974, and the publication of one of the most important and influential novels in the history of young adult literature. Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War was arguably the first young adult novel to trust teens with the sad truth that not all endings are happy ones. In this unforgettable book, arguably the first literary young adult novel, 17-year-old protagonist Jerry Renault steadfastly refuses to sell chocolates for his school-an act with dire consequences. Cormier took his readers into the dark heart of adolescent anxiety, and turned on the lights, revealing a bleak moral landscape. In The Chocolate War and 14 other novels that followed, Cormier continued to dare to disturb a too-comfortable universe by acknowledging, as he told an interviewer, that, "Adolescence is such a lacerating time that most of us carry the baggage of it with us all our lives."

Young adult literature, as we know it today, has been an exercise in evolution consonant with the evolution of the concept of the young adult itself. It hinges on the obvious fact that there could not be a young adult literature until there were "young adults," something that didn't happen until the late 1930s and early 1940s, when there emerged an American youth culture populated by kids newly called "teenagers."

The word first appeared in print in the September 1941 issue of the magazine Popular Science Monthly. In earlier times, there had been-generally speaking-only two population segments in America: adults and children (the latter becoming adults when they entered the workforce, sometimes at as young as age 10). But in the 1930s and 1940s, driven by a drying-up of the job market during the Great Depression, record numbers of adolescents started attending high school. In 1939, 75 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds were enrolled in high school. A decade earlier only 50 percent had been.

Popular culture took note and teenagers quickly became a staple feature of radio and motion pictures, often presented as stereotypical figures of fun. Boys were depicted as socially awkward, blushing, stammering, and accident-prone, while girls were giggly and boy-crazy. Teenagers were also consumers, editors at the new Seventeen magazine saw in 1945, when they hired the research company Benson and Benson to conduct market research that showed that girls-and boys-now had money of their own to spend. As a result, the entertainment industries began creating radio programs and motion pictures targeted at teens, offerings like A Date with Judy, Meet Corliss Archer, and-for boys- The Roy Rogers Show, Hopalong Cassidy, and Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. That quintessential teenager Mickey Rooney became a star of the Andy Hardy movies, while Deanna Durbin emoted for girls. Teenagers clearly were more innocent then-or so parents hoped.

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How "Young Adult" Fiction Blossomed With Teenage Culture in America

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In the '60s and '70s, books like The Outsiders and The Chocolate War told stories that dealt with complex emotions and social realities

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Across the country, young adult (YA) literature is a growing field in publication, research, and teaching, and includes youth and adolescent studies, literary criticism, and literacy education. In the search for a balance between the classics and contemporary classics, educators and scholars seek literary works that speak to the lives of adolescents ages 12-20.

The adolescent protagonists and characters young people meet in these books help them cope with dilemmas and make sense of their relationships and their world, by shedding light both on experiences that resonate with and experiences that differ from their own.

The number of YA books increases each year; recent literary works joining the YA canon include:

Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

Us, in Progress: Short Stories about Young Latinos by Lulu Delacre

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell

Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero and Zeke Peña

Iguana Lady: La Vida de Graciela Iturbide (Spanish-language version)

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

La Hija Que No Soñaste (2018) (Spanish-language version)

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

La Lógica Inexplicable de Mi Vida (Spanish-language version)

Dear Martin by Nick Stone

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The search for YA literary works such as those listed above can be revealing when it comes to questions about characters' identity markers and portrayals and the authors who write the books. In fact, character and identity portrayals can support adolescent readers and their abilities when they meet a strong, believable character with whom they can relate.

Moreover, the literary works educators select can sustain the everyday interests of students as they build trust while reading and are transported to other times, similar or new dilemmas, timeless joys, and geographic spaces and back again, as they come of age.

These were guiding signposts for my writing the book Teaching Culturally Sustaining and Inclusive Young Adult Literature: Critical Perspectives and Conversations.

I began writing the book in 2014 when I interviewed Benjamin Alire Sáenz in El Paso, Texas. Many moments were exhilarating while writing the book, especially meeting YA literature authors whose conversations revealed their own adolescent and adult lives and their decision to write the unspoken stories and truths faced by young people of all backgrounds and colors.

The connections made to authors' lives and purpose for writing opened our dialogue on authorship, representation, and cultural knowledge.
Outsiders
Literary history and research on literature for young adults often positions the novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton as a seminal text and signpost to situate YA literary works in American letters, and as a literary work that continues to be banned and challenged across the United States. From its debut in 1967 to the present, the novel's trajectory includes cinema and stage adaptations that also extend to a recent reissue of the novel.

In the author's note found in the 50th anniversary edition, Hinton explains, "Apparently feeling like an 'outsider' even in your own group is universal. 'Us versus them' and 'let's understand each other, not hate each other' are concepts everyone-no matter how old-can grasp" (paragraph 7). Hinton's perspective applies to the world of reinterpreting canonical works educators and researchers are rethinking and repositioning in middle school and high school classrooms across the country for adolescent readers.

The drive to challenge social norms and even to dispel myths about adolescence applies to many YA literature novels, which present protagonists searching for meaning about themselves in civic communities, community schools, and desegregation busing schools.

The essential questions young people face in the greater world of the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, can be noted as follows: Who am I? How can I belong or be me? What's next? When does change happen? Why did this happen to me or us? Where am I meant to be?
Valuing Stories
We Need Diverse Books, which was founded as a movement at BookCon in 2014, ushered new voices and representation-and even repositioning and reinterpreting-of works deemed as "classics" and "contemporary classics" for a young adult readership to reflect all Americans in editorial, publishing, and readership spaces.

In his Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech, Matt de la Peña described the outsider roles often faced by both authors and readers alike in the making of stories for US readers: "And sometimes when you grow up outside the reach of the American Dream, you're in a better position to record the truth. That we don't all operate under the same set of rules. That our stories aren't all assigned the same value in the eyes of decision makers" (2).

Reinterpreting also calls for repositioning as one reads to experience points of view that challenge mindsets and values that can either hinder or support learning to create new knowledge. If a literary conversation or our own teaching privileges an exclusive literary canon over another, significant literary works can be overlooked if intentional inclusion and a wider net are not considered.

As readers, teachers, and teacher educators, we set the stage for our colleagues, students, and profession by valuing the inclusive YA literature contributions by US writers of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and identities.
Works Cited
de la Peña, Matt. Newbery Medal Acceptance Speech. Association for Library Service to Children, 2016.

Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders, 50th Anniversary Edition. Penguin Books, 2017.

Rodríguez, R. Joseph. Teaching Culturally Sustaining and Inclusive Young Adult Literature: Critical Perspectives and Conversations. Routledge, 2019.

We Need Diverse Books. 2016 Annual Report. WNDB, 2016.

Joseph Rodríguez joined NCTE in 1996 during his senior year at Kenyon College. Since then, he has taught English and Spanish language arts in public schools and universities. Currently, he teaches in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at California State University, Fresno. Joseph is the incoming coeditor of English Journal. Catch him via email at rjrodriguez@csufresno.edu or @escribescribe. Photo: California State University, Fresno, Office of University Communications.

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Culturally Sustaining and Inclusive YA Literature: Valuing the Knowledge, Stories, and Truths of Adolescent Life

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YA lit is a growing field, and offers us the opportunity to connect students with new inclusive books that they can relate to.

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Representation Matters – American Indians in Children’s Literature

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Approved by NCTE Members Voting at the Annual Business Meeting for the
Board of Directors and Other Members of the Council, November 2014 Ratified by a Vote of the NCTE Membership, February 2015
Background

In the world of literature for young people, the kinds of print and digital texts that are accessible to youth are determined and authorized by influential individuals and professional organizations: editors/publishers, agents, authors/book creators, illustrators, distributors, booksellers, librarians, educators, parents, and the media. The absence of human, cultural, linguistic, and family diversity in children's and young adult literature attests to the growing disparity and inequity in the publishing history in the United States (Naidoo & Dahlen, 2013; Vavrus, 2014). Stories matter. Lived experiences across human cultures including realities about appearance, behavior, economic circumstance, gender, national origin, social class, spiritual belief, weight, life, and thought matter.

The U.S. Census Bureau continues to report the increase in diversity across the country with significant increases projected by 2020; however, publishing rates do not mirror this trend. Every year the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), housed in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reports the number of multicultural titles in print. In comparison to titles deemed as "mainstream" or "popular," the number of published multicultural titles by and about people of color remains low. First Book (2014) reports, "Diverse characters are scarce in kids' books." In a CCBC survey (2013) of 3,600 titles,

3.3 percent were about African Americans,

2.1 percent were about Asian-Pacific Americans,

1.5 percent were about U.S. Latinas and Latinos, and

0.6 percent were about Native Americans.

More representative writing for young people is needed on bookshelves and in e-libraries to reflect the cultural diversity of the United States.

In 2006, NCTE issued the Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum in support of authentic texts and high-quality literature. The Conference on English Education (CEE) Position Statement Supporting Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Learners in English Education provides teachers and teacher educators guidance for "creating humane classrooms" for language and literacy instruction. Most recently, in early 2014, NCTE issued the joint Position Statement on Leisure Reading with the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Canadian Children's Book Centre. The statement included recommendations for recreational reading in classrooms and beyond the school setting. This proposed resolution builds on the 2006 resolution and the two referenced position statements, although greater emphasis is placed on the publication and production of literature to intentionally reflect human diversity. Now is the time for NCTE to advocate for increased publication of culturally diverse literature that reflects human, cultural, linguistic, and family diversity. Be it therefore

Resolution

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English

advocate for more children's and young adult books from publishers and booksellers that reflect the culturally diverse lives and experiences present in the United States, and

highlight and support authors, illustrators, publishers, and booksellers whose work represents multiple perspectives and cultural diversity in the lives of all children.
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books

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Approved by NCTE Members Voting at the Annual Business Meeting for the
Board of Directors and Other Members of the Council, November 2014 Ratified by a Vote of the NCTE Membership, February 2015
Background

In the world of literature for young people, the kinds of print and digital texts that are accessible to youth are determined and authorized by influential individuals and professional organizations: editors/publishers, agents, authors/book creators, illustrators, distributors, booksellers, librarians, educators, parents, and the media. The absence of human, cultural, linguistic, and family diversity in children's and young adult literature attests to the growing disparity and inequity in the publishing history in the United States (Naidoo & Dahlen, 2013; Vavrus, 2014). Stories matter. Lived experiences across human cultures including realities about appearance, behavior, economic circumstance, gender, national origin, social class, spiritual belief, weight, life, and thought matter.

The U.S. Census Bureau continues to report the increase in diversity across the country with significant increases projected by 2020; however, publishing rates do not mirror this trend. Every year the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), housed in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reports the number of multicultural titles in print. In comparison to titles deemed as "mainstream" or "popular," the number of published multicultural titles by and about people of color remains low. First Book (2014) reports, "Diverse characters are scarce in kids' books." In a CCBC survey (2013) of 3,600 titles,

3.3 percent were about African Americans,

2.1 percent were about Asian-Pacific Americans,

1.5 percent were about U.S. Latinas and Latinos, and

0.6 percent were about Native Americans.

More representative writing for young people is needed on bookshelves and in e-libraries to reflect the cultural diversity of the United States.

In 2006, NCTE issued the Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum in support of authentic texts and high-quality literature. The Conference on English Education (CEE) Position Statement Supporting Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Learners in English Education provides teachers and teacher educators guidance for "creating humane classrooms" for language and literacy instruction. Most recently, in early 2014, NCTE issued the joint Position Statement on Leisure Reading with the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Canadian Children's Book Centre. The statement included recommendations for recreational reading in classrooms and beyond the school setting. This proposed resolution builds on the 2006 resolution and the two referenced position statements, although greater emphasis is placed on the publication and production of literature to intentionally reflect human diversity. Now is the time for NCTE to advocate for increased publication of culturally diverse literature that reflects human, cultural, linguistic, and family diversity. Be it therefore

Resolution

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English

advocate for more children's and young adult books from publishers and booksellers that reflect the culturally diverse lives and experiences present in the United States, and

highlight and support authors, illustrators, publishers, and booksellers whose work represents multiple perspectives and cultural diversity in the lives of all children.
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books

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Can A Children's Book Change the World? | Linda Sue Park | TEDxBeaconStreet

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(Marilyn) I have been using, writing about, and speaking about Reading Responses for over a decade, and each year I continue to be amazed at what my students - and students around the country - produce with the Reading Response method.

I am also deeply heartened by the response of teachers who try using RRs in their own classroom. They often tell me it's the technique that finally got their students responding to literature in a genuine and invested way.

This feedback confirms what I believe: Teachers want to create a space for their students to speak with authenticity and agency. What I also believe is that the RR method gives teachers agency and lets them use their expertise in authentic ways.

The RR Method Is Simple

After reading a text, students write a response of no fewer than five sentences, including a cited quote from the text. They must categorize their response using a category from a list that they've received. Categories include Spot the Setting, Mark the Motivation, Tell the Theme, Find the Foreshadowing, Give an Opinion, and so on. Finally, their response must have an original thought; they can't only summarize.

That's it. Every time students complete an RR, they must have an original thought, a cited quote, a category, and a minimum of five sentences (this minimum can be adjusted slightly up or down depending on your class).

It is simple and direct. And those are the criteria I check for, plus one extra criterion of doing your best work. I grade my own students' RRs on this five-point rubric. For a more in-depth description of this process, and to see some examples, visit my MiddleWeb article " This Strategy Promotes Real Reading Discussions."

Why Do RRs Work So Well?

The magic comes in two ways: first, in the repetition and practice of the method, and second, in the in-class discussions afterward.

In my class we do these three to four times a week. This means that students habitually practice having an original thought and supporting it with a cited quote, as well as metacognitively analyzing that thought, on a regular basis. In addition, they are writing, writing, writing. The RR method is a continuous low-stakes exercise in writing fluency. Although I may discuss grammar in a student's RR when appropriate, I do not grade for it.

In addition, students can be WRONG in an RR! Completely, 100% wrong. And they can still receive full credit for the work provided they have five sentences with an original thought, cited quote, and category. Slip-ups happen sometimes. When they do, the records will get set straight in the in-class discussions (with either me or a small group of their peers). After all, we don't want anyone leaving class with misinformation about a text.

Think for a minute what this communicates to the students: It's okay to be wrong. It's okay to take intellectual risks. It's ok to read something and not fully understand it. If we want to create lifelong readers and critical thinkers, these are the messages we must impart. The right / wrong dichotomy that students live with throughout their academic career often results in meek, disengaged readers who have been trained to look to an expert for "the right answer." This type of thinker does not make for a strong citizenry.

How the RR Activity Plays Out in Class

In class students discuss their RRs in small groups while I visit each student for a one-minute check and conference about what they wrote. (Students also have some kind of additional activity to do after discussing their RRs, so they stay engaged with the text as I visit everyone individually.)

The mini-conferences give me a chance to connect with each student, be present to them, and help them with whatever they need in that moment. I won't know what they need till I get to their desk, but options range from text interpretation, metacognition, grammar, pronunciation, answering a question they have, or even something personal that might come up. It gives me a chance to respond to the student as well as respond to their thinking.

As the years go on, I appreciate this simple method more and more. It is the bread and butter of my classroom. Sure, we do all the other Englishy stuff - we write in different genres, act out scenes, play Kahoot, have tests, do creative projects, and all the rest. But RRs are how we process texts, and the results are amazing. Since it involves genuine student thinking, I am always intrigued, often surprised, and never bored. Each day, I know the chunk of text we're going to talk about, but I don't know how we're going to talk about it. The students take the lead.

I present to districts about RRs often, and connect with teachers all over the country. Last summer, I had the pleasure of speaking in Katy, Texas to both high school and middle school teachers there. One seventh-grade teacher, Sharon Ratliff, reached out to me after to say how excited she was about trying Reading Responses in her classroom.

What I love about hearing from teachers who try using RRs is the ways that they make it their own and adapt it for the students who are sitting in front of them. Ideas have included color-coding, inventing new categories, having category stations, and even letting students draw - the possibilities are endless!

I've asked Sharon to share some of her ideas here.

RR Ideas for the Middle Grades

(Sharon) I do not like Green Eggs and Ham, I do not like them Sam I Am! This is the YouTube caption running through the minds of most middle school students if a teacher mentions "reading response." However, I've found this automated echo can be diverted using various methodologies. Here are some strategies I use with my 7th graders:

Use the writing community in your classroom and start small. Begin by using mentor texts and have students write responses together.

Give a Limited Menu related to the specific objectives you are covering for the next month. For example, in Texas, teachers code our TEKS objectives to the curriculum. TEKS then correspond to reading response categories.

Write with Your Students: The results are twofold: an automatic book talk is built in about what you are reading and students get a peek at what you are thinking as a reader.

Gradually Introduce the Process: After introducing students to the practice of reading responses at the beginning of the year, assign them responses for homework. Students are introduced to a new category or two on Monday with a menu of 4 to 5 reading response choices that have been introduced previously. Then students come to class on Thursday or Friday with their reading responses. (Note: Having students submit all reading responses electronically is beneficial because it gives an accounting system for responses and it's easy to project various responses for other classes to view.)

Clarify Categories: Purposefully introduce some of the more complex categories. For instance, when introducing the category of "Audience Appeal," compile a Padlet (see ours) where students simply respond to this prompt: "What kind of reader would your book appeal to?" This question is then a springboard for this particular category and activates student thinking. Here is another example of how to introduce "Cultural Values." By taking a few minutes to introduce categories, content vocabulary is clarified and students grasp what the category entails.

Celebrate or Share Responses: Try these Response Stems. For Specific Categories, tweak response feedback even more.

Have Students Collaborate: You can extend Reading Responses into a group writing activity to incorporate more discourse. As an example, try this plan.

Smooth Out Sentences: As students grasp writing RRs, introduce embedded quotes. We discuss how readers have not necessarily read the article or book they are responding to, so it is important to write a lead-in to the quote. Our motto is "No lonely quote." Key evidence needs to be introduced using a transition, a lead-in, and then the quote.To further illustrate the impact of using a lead-in for evidence, I use a basketball analogy. Most plays in basketball are "set up"- players don't just grab the ball and make the shot. There is a strategy and set-up to support the "basket" which is the evidence used in an RR. As students compose RRs, they are surprised at how much their writing progresses simply by using the "No lonely quote" motto.

As teachers, we often feel like Sam I Am; however, by using specific strategies with reading responses, students will write responses on a boat with a goat or on a train and a plane! These strategies I use with my middle grades learners will help build student confidence to see that reading responses are not daunting, and are an excellent way to think, read, and write about various texts.

Your Next Moves

(Marilyn) If you've been thinking about trying Reading Responses and have been wondering where to start, or if you are intrigued and want to know more, read all the articles about RRs here on MiddleWeb.

You can also visit my website for a free starter pack, and see my book, Reading with Presence, for an in-depth explanation about how RRs work and ways they can be used in the classroom.

This spring, fellow Heinemann author and seventh-grade teacher Rebekah O'Dell and I recorded a podcast about using RRs that you can listen to. And don't hesitate to reach out to me with questions! Helping students - and teachers - find more voice, choice, and authenticity in their work is my passion. Reading Responses have been the vehicle for me to do so.
Marilyn Pryle (@MPryle) is a National Board Certified Teacher in Clarks Summit, PA and the 2019-20 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. Marilyn has taught middle and high school English for over twenty years. She is the author of seven books about teaching reading and writing, including 50 Common Core Reading Response Activities and Writing Workshop in Middle School, both from Scholastic. Sharon Ratliff (@sharondratliff) is an English teacher at Seven Lakes Junior High in Katy, Texas. Before stepping into the mysterious land of middle school, Sharon taught upper elementary in Texas and Florida, and with the Department of Defense. Sharon enjoys developing curriculum and discovering reading and writing techniques that empower students in real-life applications. It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. Marilyn's most recent book is Reading with Presence: Crafting Meaningful, Evidenced-Based Reading Responses (Heinemann, 2018). Learn more about her at marilynpryle.com and read other articles she's written for MiddleWeb.

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Here's How to Get Kids Talking about Literature

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Here's How to Get Kids Talking about Literature

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"What good is an education if you must shed who you are?"

―Bettina L. Love, We Want To Do More Than Survive

Young people, especially students of color, enter classrooms every day where they do not matter. Through policies and practices that center whiteness, schools continue to enact violence on a personal and systemic level (Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist; Love, We Want to Do More Than Survive).

Bettina Love argued that contemporary schools function as the "educational survival complex," where learning for survival is the purpose of education for students of color (p. 27). In this sense, young people are not expected to thrive in classrooms-in fact, the system anticipates their failures as explanations for historical and modern economic, social, and political issues.

One way to create opportunities for young people to not only matter in schools, but to thrive, is through revisioning the role of popular culture in the curriculum. As a teacher, my high school students were often current on various popular culture texts, even recommending texts to one another as our classroom community developed. As I transitioned into my doctoral program, I wondered about additional affordances of popular culture in the classroom beyond serving as a "window, mirror, or sliding glass door" ( Rudine Sims Bishop) to lived experiences for my students.

Popular culture (also referred to as mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized as a collection of ideas, cultural practices, and objects that are representative of a certain time in society. In this sense, popular culture captures the experiences relevant to a certain group of people much in the same way young adult (YA) literature contains stories representative of adolescence. Because both popular culture and YA literature have proven valuable separately as a means toward critical reflection in the classroom, the intersection of these two areas should be considered for new possibilities in the classroom.

Below, I describe three potential benefits of highlighting popular culture references in YA literature using Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give (2017), which is a coming-of-age story about navigating struggle and empowerment. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Thomas's novel integrates contemporary socio-political issues, popular culture, and critical conversations about social justice.
Popular culture references in YA literature can help teachers to better understand their own adolescent students.
"As usual it matches my J's, the blue-and-black Elevens like Jordan wore in Space Jam. . . . I hate dressing like everybody else, but The Fresh Prince taught me something." (p. 54)

Knowing more about students than their academic ability in your content area is an essential part of teaching. Understanding popular culture that resonates with young people is one way toward fully recognizing your students. The above example from The Hate U Give contains numerous takeaways for a teacher considering protagonist Starr as a representation of their own students: appreciation of sneaker culture (e.g., J's, blue and black Air Jordan Elevens), the movie Space Jam, professional basketball player Michael Jordan, and the show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Reading the text while prioritizing popular culture references, either alone or with students, can serve as a reminder of the powerful and persuasive potential of popular culture in your own students' lives.
By analyzing popular culture references in YA literature, students can better understand and relate to fictional characters.
". . . Drake raps from the speakers. I nod to the beat and rap along under my breath. Everybody on the dance floor yells out the 'started from the bottom, now we're here' part. Some days, we are at the bottom in Garden Heights, but we still share the feeling that damn, it could be worse." (p. 16)

Although Starr's reflection of her life in Garden Heights is supported by the lyrics to Drake's popular song, "Started from the Bottom," the experience of feeling conflicted about their circumstances resonates with many students. Still, some students will have trouble relating to these experiences. The above reference to popular culture can help students to identify with fictional characters through a shared popular culture reference, even if their experiences are different.
A focus on popular culture references in YA literature provides a generative space for considering, critiquing, and revisioning sociopolitical issues.
"A Tupac song on the radio makes up for our silence. He raps about how we gotta start making changes. Khalil was right. 'Pac still relevant." (p. 258)

While The Hate U Give contains numerous poignant moments appropriate for discussions around police brutality, the book also has potential for conversations around race and class that are supported through popular culture references. The above example alludes to "Changes" by Tupac -a song critiquing the war on drugs and poverty.

In The Hate U Give, Starr reflects "I can't change where I come from or what I've been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?" (p. 364). For students of color, mattering in school should be the minimum; existing as fully seen, included, empowered, and loved the goal. Centering popular culture references while reading YA literature can be one approach for making sure that students, especially those who don't feel seen through the traditional school curriculum, know that they matter in school.
Shelby Boehm is a current doctoral student in English education at the University of Florida and a former high school teacher. She can be reached at It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified. sboehm@ufl.edu or on Twitter

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Toward Mattering: Popular Culture References in Young Adult Literature

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This post was written by NCTE member Shelby Boehm. "What good is an education if you must shed who ...

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This post was written by guest blogger Sara Johnson, a teacher candidate at the University of Arkansas. This past …

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This blog post was written by NCTE members and Michigan State University secondary English Education student teaching interns Amanda Blay (left) and Carolyn Brown (right).
As student teachers, we have discovered that the texts (including films, music, and television shows) that our students are interested in are not consistently making their way into the classroom. Rather, teachers more often encourage students to read those texts on their own time, and devote class time to teaching the "classics."

Yet students express less interest in some canonical texts, due, for example, to language or subject matter that is seen as inaccessible. Moreover, many students have trouble connecting to canonical texts that are embedded in the English curriculum. For instance, many culturally and linguistically diverse youth may consider canonical texts less relevant to their lived experiences.

When a teacher incorporates newer texts alongside "classic" texts, this teaching move may help bridge the gap between a novel and a student's lived experiences. Therefore, we argue that bringing in more contemporary texts to pair with or replace "classic" texts can make the classroom a more exciting and engaging place to learn.

For example, rather than relying on the chance that students connect with some aspect of an assigned text, we recommend showing students a modern adaptation in which the creators engage in the work of relating the text to a new audience. This teaching move allows us to ask ourselves what is valuable in a canonical text, and if those teaching points can be found somewhere else. In most cases, the answer is yes!

Another benefit of bringing in new and diverse content is that doing so shows that the texts students engage with outside of school are valid and can be sites of academic literacy in secondary English teaching and learning. Students who may be focused on grades as indicators of in-school performances may be more open to the idea of reading a young adult novel for fun if they have been exposed to such texts in an academic context. Students who hesitate to read in general may perhaps bring a level of interest if given a more accessible text, including graphic novels.

As mentioned, one way to pair texts is by bringing in modern adaptations. For example, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube is a series that follows the same structure of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Lizzie Bennet is a "vlogger," which is the case for many of our students' favorite celebrities. The YouTube series is composed of short three- to five-minute episodes, and is free to access, so it may be readily shown in class during study of the novel. Pairing these texts is one example of a quick way to add a modern twist to an existing curriculum.

Another way to pair texts is to do so by theme. For example, The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a canonical text that has similar themes to the movie Although the texts take place in very different time periods, they both follow the story of a group of girls who cause trouble in their community by spreading rumors and lies. Themes that are present in both texts are jealousy and reputation.

Rather than having your students just watch or listen to these modern texts, we suggest teachers have students actually engage with them!

For instance, you can find the script to a movie or television show and ask students to engage in a close reading. You can also have students analyze the visual and audio components of the film, then consider how those components convey themes of the story differently than the written word alone. In English education, watching a movie may often be seen as a "cop-out" used when there's nothing else to do. With pairing texts, that doesn't have to be the case!

These thoughts took us to our first NCTE Convention - the 2018 Houston Convention - where we presented on text pairings at a roundtable session for student teachers. It was a great opportunity to engage in collaborative work, which was our vision for this initiative. Our plan now is to continue inviting our colleagues and students to compile their favorite text pairings into an accessible online resource.

We currently have a Google document that anyone can edit, which can be found on our Twitter accounts (below), or here.

We invite you to add your own text pairings, or share the link!

Amanda Blay: @amanda_blay

Carolyn Brown: @Carolynbr95
This scholarship was presented as part of the "Future Is Now" session at the 2018 NCTE Annual Convention. For more information about this session for undergraduate and master's level students, see the session website at <https://nctefutureisnow.weebly.com>.

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Engaging Student Interests by Using New and Diverse Texts

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Bringing in more contemporary texts to pair with or replace "classic" texts can make the classroom a more exciting and engaging place to learn.

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Research- What is Young Adult Literature and Its Purpose?

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The Future Is Known. Now What? Using Macbeth to Explore the Social Complexity of the Climate Crisis and COVID-19

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The Future Is Known. Now What? Using Macbeth to Explore the Social Complexity of the Climate Crisis and COVID-19

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Teaching Activity. By Matt Reed and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools.
A mixer activity, inspired by the 2016 Democracy Now! documentary Thirsty for Democracy, introduces students to the struggle of residents to access safe water for drinking, cooking, and bathing in the majority-Black cities of Flint, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; and Newark, New Jersey.

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Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
A lesson about multiple cohorts of climate activists: Indigenous leaders in the Climate Justice Movement, valve turners using civil disobedience to stop the flow of oil, and the legal team that uses the "necessity defense" in the courts.

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Here’s What Young Climate Activists are Doing—and Reading

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Here’s What Young Climate Activists are Doing—and Reading

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Hannah Testa believes encouraging teens to talk solutions is key to the environmental justice movement

Photo courtesy of the Testa family

Generation Z are among those most worried about the impact of climate change on their future. And they're not just worried; they're taking action-action that goes beyond the sustainable behaviors that they adopt in greater numbers than their parents' or grandparents' generations. Today's teens are prioritizing environmental justice, which addresses the intersectionality of inequalities that marginalized groups experience when it comes to health, safety, and well-being in their environment. The evidence is both in what they're doing and what they're reading. The list of powerful fiction and nonfiction titles for teens from authors engaged in activism, passionate about the environment, and speaking up on its behalf continues to grow. Schools and libraries have the opportunity to tap into this movement through books and further invigorate the next generation of socially conscious land stewards.

Youth activists turned YA authors

Hannah Testa, 19, founded the environmental justice nonprofit Hannah 4 Change when she was 15. "[T]he Black Lives Matter movement was growing globally, and I was inspired to expand my knowledge on the intersectionality between social justice and environmental justice," she says.

"Our generation is a fresh set of eyes on the societal standards and normalities that previous generations are accustomed to. Our generation can ask 'Why do we do this that way?' We can find intersectionalities and use our creativity to lead an interdisciplinary movement."

Environmental justice envelops the movements of climate justice (how climate change impacts different groups of people at varying rates), environmental racism (how marginalized communities disproportionately experience environmental hazards), and sustainability. It explicitly ties human rights to environmental rights, emphasizing the rights of all to a safe place to live, work, and play. Online, teens have connected around this movement. And beyond demanding better for the environment, they are highlighting environmental justice's roots in global Indigenous populations and how corporations use activism as a means of profit.

When Testa learned how often America's used plastic is sent overseas, she reached out to the Indonesian youth activists dubbed the "River Warriors" to learn about the damage happening in their communities. "Hearing firsthand how these students were talking about the environmental justice issue they were facing, I was fired up to speak up about it," she says. "By highlighting the stories of communities polluted and forgotten, we can build public support to enforce better regulations and mitigate the environmental justice issues we are seeing across the United States and globally."

To ensure that her experiences and insight could move beyond social media and share what she'd learned with other young people, Testa wrote Taking on the Plastics Crisis (Penguin, 2020).

Jamie Margolin, 20, is the cofounder of youth climate action organization Zero Hour. Like Testa, she also emphasizes the importance of getting to know the people and communities on the front lines-not only in our own backyard, but also around the world-to understand how big the movement is and how much work has been done in marginalized and Indigenous communities. "There is not nearly enough media attention on the battles happening all over the world, between land defenders protecting their territory and extractive industries trying to destroy and take their homelands to churn into profit," says Margolin. "Most climate funding goes to corporate greenwashed solutions, when the funding, resources, and attention needs to be on the frontlines where the very fate of our planet is being decided."

Between organizing climate justice marches and events, giving speeches around the world, and learning from other activists, Margolin wrote Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It (Hachette, 2020), a book for young people that not only explores the history and contemporary realities of environmental justice but also encourages young people to add their unique voices to the movement.

Environmental justice in young adult literature

With today's teens choosing to engage in more political issues, the last several years have given rise to more depictions of youth activism-including environmental justice-in YA literature.

For Natalia Sylvester, (Clarion, 2020) was an opportunity to tackle the realities of climate change in south Florida, and give young people space to consider what the label "activist" means to them. The book follows 15-year-old Cuban American Mari as her father runs for president. She witnesses the contamination of her best friend's drinking water as a result of a local real estate developer's new project and realizes she needs to act. Mari, who never sees herself as an activist, finds herself beginning a revolution by doing what she believes is right.

"I wrote Running for young people who, like Mari, perhaps hesitate to call themselves activists," says Sylvester. "But they know what they believe in, and they want to do something."

Ultimately, Mari's actions lead to changes that help ensure equitable access to the environment for people in her community.

Similarly, Ellen Hagan's Don't Call Me a Hurricane (Bloomsbury, 2022), told in verse, explores environmental justice through the eyes of high school seniorEliza, whose life on the Jersey shore was rocked five years prior by a hurricane. She lives in the community year-round and has now turned her focus toward protecting the shore's marshland, threatened by a developer. A chance meeting with a rich tourist leads Eliza to fight harder-even as it ultimately costs her a lot of relationships.

"My hope is that teen readers see themselves in Eliza, Zach, Isa, and Mia, and understand that it takes deep work around community building, gathering, talking, listening and then taking action," says Hagan, who is continually inspired by young people engaged in environmental justice in her work as a teacher, artist, and parent. Questions around what it means to be a global citizen shape her thinking and encourage her to consider what she brings to her students, who are living in an ever-evolving climate. She hopes books like hers can serve as a jumping-off point for other educators. "I hope teachers will be inspired to start these conversations with their students, to introduce poetry and make space for their students to bring up their own concerns and issues."

Given the growing interest in environmental justice, it comes as little surprise that some of the best-known adult titles on the topic are being sought by young readers, too. Both Testa and Margolin list Robin Wall Kimmerer's modern classic Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed, 2013) among the books that have influenced them most. And this fall a young readers edition, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (Zest, 2022), adapted by Monique Gray Smith, hit shelves, making its wisdom accessible to an even broader audience.

The adaptation pairs Kimmerer's experiences as an Indigenous woman and a scientist with insights into how and where teens can take action to protect the world around them. The book remains both timely and timeless.

"This generation is experiencing climate change and climate catastrophes at a magnitude that we've never experienced before, and they are inspired and motivated to be part of the change," says Gray Smith. She emphasizes that Kimmerer's wisdom can help guide young people not only in their activism, but in understanding the reciprocity between themselves and the land. "With high rates of anxiety and depression, the messages in Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults help us understand being in good relation with ourselves so we can be in good relation with all living beings."

Jamie Margolin at the September 2022 climate strike in New York City.

The #NoMVP on her cheek stands for "No Minnesota Valley Pipeline"

Teaching environmental justice, fostering activism

In Ayesha T. Qazi-Lampert's AP Environmental Science course, students not only learn about environmental justice but get hands-on experience with the movement.

"If we want to communicate the climate crisis effectively and how the climate crisis impacts communities of color and low-income communities predominantly, literacy of all types of modes and mediums is important," says Qazi-Lampert, who teaches at Northside College Prep in Chicago.

Students read the Principles of Environmental Justice, created by delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, and select one of the 17 principles that resonates with them to reflect upon. This teaches that much of the knowledge of the movement has been passed down for generations, that there has not always been a single person to credit.

The students put these lessons into practice through the Tree Inventory project. Walking the school campus, students identify trees and tag them. They then discuss how to share their knowledge of the trees with the community to promote collective care of the campus environment.

Encouraging young people to talk about solutions is key to the environmental justice movement, says Testa. While highlighting environmental injustice does the work of educating, it's also important that adults provide opportunities to engage in change. "Young people often don't have the support system to feel empowered to take action and feel they are too young to do anything about climate change or plastic pollution," Testa says. "We can empower students by sharing stories of other young people, providing mentorship, and including youth in adult-dominated conversations."

Often, empowering teens is as straightforward as modeling the behavior: writing letters to your representatives, showing up to environmental cleanup initiatives, amplifying voices most impacted by injustice, and remembering that even small changes make a difference.

Sylvester emphasizes that everyone's role in the movement is different, but each one is valid as it sets off a chain reaction. "It's important to help teens see their inherent power, and to remind them they each have a unique role to play when it comes to protecting the environment," she says. "Some are the organizers. Others are the marchers and amplifiers, both online and off. Others are the ones who grab a mic. Still others are the artists whose work reminds people what they're fighting for. They all make a difference."

Moreover, like Qazi-Lampert demonstrates with her students, encouraging a love and curiosity for the land in your own backyard makes a difference. In her class, students build a habit of researching local environmental news. Later, Qazi-Lampert says they continue sending her stories to make sure she doesn't miss them.

"When you foster a love for the land, water, and all living beings with children and young people, they will naturally have a passion to nurture, care for, and protect the environment," she says. "If we are talking about caring for the Earth, and then toss our water bottle into the garbage can, it calls our integrity into question. The first thing a young person will ask is, 'Why are you drinking bottled water?' Then they will ask, 'Where are the recycling and compost bins?'"

While it is vital to engage and energize young people in the movement, it is important to remember that teens alone will not save the Earth from injustice. Margolin warns that believing the movement is only with young people overlooks the centuries of Indigenous knowledge being passed down and shared with those engaged in the movement. Moreover, the fixation of the youth-led elements of environmental justice too easily allows corporations to market towards and attempt to exploit real work being done on the ground.

"I think there's been a bit of a perversion of the 'youth empowerment' thing where it started off being about creating spaces for young people to also be a part of the climate fight, and then it became that we should only focus on and truly listen to young people."

Young people are important because they're listening to and implementing the wisdom of generations before-but it will not be and cannot be young people upon which environmental justice for all succeeds.

"The point was never that young people are the ones who are going to save the world; the point is that young people have a valuable place in this intergenerational struggle for justice in the face of systems of oppression," she says.

Kelly Jensen is a writer for Book Riot and the editor of nonfiction anthologies, including (Don't) Call Me Crazy.

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Fighting for environmental justice, these young people write some books of their own, too.

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To investigate and make recommendations to counteract racism and racial bias in teaching materials, methods, and programs for language arts, English, and humanities and to recommend to the NCTE Executive Committee considerations related to professional learning and practice regarding teaching linguistically and culturally diverse students, with the assistance of appropriate scholars and experts, as well as careful documentation from the research base for the recommendations.

New Resources!

This November, the Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English created a set of resources to be shared with attendees at the NCTE Annual Convention. These resources were very popular and we received many requests for them to be available for download. We reformatted them from the large poster size and all can now be downloaded as PDFs when you click the images below and print from your own computer.

Current Members

CHAIR, Lorena Germán (2024)
(Headwaters School, Austin, TX)

Damian Baca (2024)
(University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ)

Nawal Q. Casiano (2024)
(NQC Literacy LLC, Chicago, IL)

Dulce-Marie Flecha (2024)
(Cayuga Centers, New York, NY)

Felicia Hamilton (2024)
(Windsor Public Schools, Windsor, CT)

Patrick L. Harris (2024)
(Bishop John T. Walker School of Boys, Washington, DC)

Dorian Harrison (2023)
(The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH)

Sawsan Jaber (2025)
(Maine West District 207, Des Plaines, IL)

Natalie Johnson-Berry (2024)
(Shawnee Mission North High School, Overland Park, KS)

Diana Liu (2025)
(Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY)

Dillin Randolph (2025)
(Niles West High School, Skokie, IL)

Keisha Rembert (2024)
(Crone Middle School, Naperville, IL)

Jineyda Tapia (2024)
(Andover Bread Loaf and Philips Academy, Andover, MA)

Executive Committee Liaison, Tonya B. Perry
(Miles College, Fairfield, AL)

NCTE Staff and Administrative Liaison, NCTECommittees@ncte.org

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Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English

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The Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English works to counteract racism in teaching materials, methods, and programs for language arts.

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‘I can’t believe I didn’t learn this in school’: ‘refusing secondly’ as an anti-racist English education framework

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‘I can’t believe I didn’t learn this in school’: ‘refusing secondly’ as an anti-racist English education framework

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Knowledge of the past exists to serve the needs of the living. In the current context, this includes an honest reckoning with all aspects of that past. Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today, an exchange that should take place inside the classroom as well as in the public realm generally. To ban the tools that enable those discussions is to deprive us all of the tools necessary for citizenship in the 21st century. A whitewashed view of history cannot change what happened in the past. A free and open society depends on the unrestricted pursuit and dissemination of knowledge. (American Historical Association)

Recently, an honest reckoning with the past has come under renewed attack at the federal, state, and local levels. Legislation has been proposed to cut federal funding for schools that use lessons based on the New York Times's 1619 Project ( Ujifusa, 2021) and 27 states with legislation either passed, pending, or under discussion would severely limit K-12 and university educators' ability to engage with critical race theory (CRT) and antiracist teaching. Such legislation is "designed to stifle a full exploration of the role of race and racism in United States history" (Association of American Law Schools, 2021). In fact, such legislation stands in opposition to the principles of academic freedom and the comprehensive teaching of history, literature, sciences, and social sciences that are so integral to maintaining a democratic society.

Recognizing that the motivation behind this legislation comes from a desire to silence teaching about race and racism, we also know that many people support these bills because they are informed by divisive soundbites used to provoke fear and knee-jerk reactions. As a result, while many educators, educational leaders, and community members across the country may sense that the bills are unjust, they may also lack the necessary background to fully understand, support, and/or actualize their concerns.

This statement addresses these realities and asserts that antiracism must be a collective effort with educators, students, and community members working as partners, taking action together to bring about social change (Kinloch, 2017) grounded in our belief that "Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today, an exchange that should take place inside the classroom as well as in the public realm generally" (American Historical Association, 2021). With this foundation, this statement was developed in response to legislation that obstructs antiracist pedagogical efforts to create a more just and equitable society, the principles of academic freedom (e.g., 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure), and the right to teach about systemic and ideological racism.

Statement
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) actively follows recommendations put forth by the Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English and the NCTE Statement on Anti-Racism to Support Teaching and Learning (2007/2018) to inform and support accurate public discourse around antiracist education. Drawing from and remaining consistent with earlier assertions, educators have both the right and responsibility to engage in antiracist teaching. Recommendations on how to do so include:

Identify and challenge individual and/or systemic acts of racism and other forms of discrimination and bigotry in educational institutions and within our profession, exposing such acts through external communications and publications.

Express declarations of solidarity with people of diverse human, cultural, and racial backgrounds to eradicate all forms of racism, bias, and prejudice in spaces of teaching and learning.

Promote not only cultural diversity and expansive forms of linguistic knowledge, but also explicitly advocate for antiracism by participating in ongoing professional development for educators to productively counter racism and other forms of bigotry.

Support the enforcement of laws and policies that provide sanctions against racial and ethnic discrimination in education. Also, advocate for legislative reform that will lead to policies that provide sanctions against discrimination in education based on race, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, class, mental and physical abilities, nationality, and migrant, immigrant, and refugee status.

Furthermore

Administrators should secure funds and resources to provide opportunities for professional development for teachers and instructional programs that affirm cultural diversity and expansive forms of linguistic knowledge among all students.

All educational stakeholders-policymakers, parents and families, and the general public-understand that they can best support educators or teacher professionals and students by actively participating in public conversations about racism and bigotry in our multilingual and multicultural American society, defined in the key opening words of the United States Constitution's Preamble, "We the People . . . . "

NCTE also advocates for support for educators at all levels, administrators, students, parents and families, and communities to deepen understandings of antiracist education that includes and emphasizes:

the importance of antiracist education in a democratic society;

that teaching racial histories and antiracist education do not constitute anti-Americanism but serve as one element in an education that supports the development of informed citizens who can work toward a more equitable society;

antiracist education as the antithesis of teaching that one race is superior to another or that anyone should feel guilty for the past actions of members of their race; and that "educators must provide an accurate view of the past in order to better prepare students for community participation and robust civic engagement" (American Historical Association, 2021) in the present and into the future;

antiracist teaching as that which encompasses the complexity of history including but not limited to systemic and ideological racism, as well as nuances and rich histories of who we are as peoples, including joys, accomplishments, resistance, and resilience;

research demonstrating how children receive racialized messages in the first years of life, necessitating that antiracist education begin with our youngest children;

strategies for countering rhetoric of fear and reactions to it that would prohibit antiracist teaching at any level (legislation, book bans, curricular bans, withdrawal of funding, etc.);

clarification that critical race theory is one of many research-based theoretical frameworks (such as behaviorist, sociocultural, constructivist, critical disabilities, and feminist theories, to name a few) originating in legal studies in the 1970s as a framework for "understanding . . . racial inequity within our social, economic, political, legal, and educational systems . . . even absent of individual racist intent . . . among other exclusionary systems [sexism, classism, homophobia, etc.]" (American Association of Law Schools, 2021).

References and Resources
American Association of University Professors. 1940 Statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure. https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure

American Historical Association. (2021). Joint statement on legislative efforts to restrict education about racism in American history. https://www.historians.org/divisive-concepts-statement/

American Library Association. (2022). Equity, diversity, and inclusion. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity

Anderson, P. (2021). The conspicuous absence of Derrick Bell-Rethinking the CRT debate, part 1. http://www.blackagendareport.com/conspicuous-absence-derrick-bell-rethinking-crt-debate-part-1

Association of American Law Schools. (2021). Statement by AALS on efforts to ban the use or teaching of critical race theory. https://www.aals.org/aals-newsroom/statement-on-critical-race-theory/

Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well. New York: Basic Press.

Delgado, R., and Stefancic, J. (1984). Critical race theory: An introduction. New York: NYU Press.

Gorski, P. (2019). Equity literacy practices. http://www.edchange.org/publications/Avoiding-Racial-Equity-Detours-Gorski.pdf

Kinloch, V. (2017). "You ain't making me write": Culturally sustaining pedagogies and Black youths' performances of resistance. In D. Paris & S. Alim (Eds.), Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world (pp. 25-42). Teachers College Press.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1(1), 7-24.

López, F., Molnar, A., Johnson, R., Patterson, A., Ward, L., & Kumashiro, K. (2021). Understanding the attacks on critical race theory. National Education Policy. Center. https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/crt

MSNBC on YouTube. Creator of term "critical race theory" Kimberlé Crenshaw explains what it really is (2021). https://youtu.be/n4TAQF6ocLU

NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. (2019). What anti-racist language teachers do. http://ncte.org/app/uploads/2018/07/WhatAntiRacistLanguageTeachersDo.pdf

Stanford University. Anti-racism guides. https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/engage/ideal-staff/guidance-support/anti-racism-guides

Taylor, E., Gillborn, D., & Ladson-Billings, G., eds. (2015). Foundations of critical race theory in education. New York: Routledge.

Statement Authors
This position statement was developed from an original resolution created by the 2021 NCTE Committee on Resolutions. The 2021 NCTE Committee on Resolutions combined two resolutions to produce the text for a single resolution. Existing NCTE work from the Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English also provided substantial guidance and is listed in the citations. At the direction of the NCTE Presidential Team and the NCTE Executive Committee, NCTE leaders used the text from the resolution as the basis for this NCTE position statement.

2021 NCTE Committee on Resolutions:

Susi Long (Chair), University of South Carolina
Katrina Bartow Jacobs (Associate Chair), University of Pittsburgh
Renée Wilmot, Michigan State University
Lynsey Burkins, Dublin City Schools, OH
Becky Sipe, Eastern Michigan University
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Educators' Right and Responsibilities to Engage in Antiracist Teaching

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As more and more teachers, administrators, schools and organizations are questioning their practices and looking at the racist history of their institutions, many are finally asking, "How we can listen to and support Black students, teachers and communities who have been systemically silenced for too long?"

This question is essential, and examining anti-Blackness in our practice is something we all must be looking at. Looking at anti-Blackness or inequities brought about by systems rooted in white supremacy and racism is something all students should be doing. While more institutions, including primarily or historically white ones, are committing to this work, white teachers with primarily white students can feel hesitant to discuss these issues since they may not feel it affects them. This idea is a fundamental misunderstanding of what anti-racist work actually is.

Anti-racist work means acknowledging that racist beliefs and structures are pervasive in all aspects of our lives-from education to housing to climate change-and then actively doing work to tear down those beliefs and structures. Those beliefs and structures don't just exist in primarily white/and or privileged institutions-they thrive there.

Schools that house mostly students and teachers who have benefited from white privilege can lack the perspective to push back on institutional malpractice or racist mindsets that may be present. In addition, it is difficult to convince those with power and privilege to give those privileges up without clear education and work to understand why doing so is a necessity for true justice in our society.

Doing the work in spaces of privilege may look different, but educators cannot pretend that anti-racist work doesn't exist simply because their student body isn't directly harmed by racism. There are clear aims that primarily white and otherwise privileged institutions must work toward in the fight against racism.

Teachers must re-evaluate their curriculum.

When teaching standards and core curricula have been developed for your students, it's easy to simply follow along. However, it's important to remember that our education system has been founded on historically racist practices, including silencing those from disenfranchised communities.

It's not just BIPOC who need to see themselves in the literature or history they study. White students need to hear those perspectives as well, just as straight and cisgender students need to read LGBTQ+ stories. This is because students need not just mirrors but also windows into other cultures, as Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop notes in her essay " Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors. "

Students from communities with white privilege need to hear voices from other perspectives in order to grow their own thinking. Those perspectives need to be diverse and empowering as well-only showing Black suffering or slavery does not begin to break down problematic beliefs about Black people. Instead, students coming from positions of power need to see and understand the power and agency of those who have been historically disenfranchised, particularly since society frequently tells them otherwise. This will allow white students and teachers to have a more accurate and nuanced understanding of our history, while also ensuring they can center BIPOC voices and be allies and accomplices instead of "saviors."

Students need to understand privilege and rethink power.

Students from privileged communities can struggle to understand privilege since they may feel that they have had to work hard or struggle at times in their lives. Teachers must help students understand how privilege works at a systemic level that may have given students an edge that, while it may be one they didn't ask for, is still very real.

The work does not stop there, though. It can be easy in teaching privilege to fall into the trap of "white guilt" or "privilege guilt" (or even "survivor guilt" for BIPOC who have moved up socioeconomically and have internalized the belief that their communities were something to be "survived"). While guilt can be an important emotion to notice and process, educators should help students move through it to a place of action. Beyond "feeling bad" about generations of oppression, how can they use this knowledge to advocate for change and begin breaking down their own racist beliefs? How can they also reframe their understandings of privilege so that they stop prioritizing hegemonic ideas of success and worth?

Some of that will mean teaching students to analyze and reframe how they see values and stories from other cultures. Most of us were taught to praise white-dominant cultural ideas: financial success, rugged individualism, paternalism. Because of this, cultures with different priorities may not be seen as "successful" or "valuable" in our eyes and in the eyes of our students. We need to teach students with privilege not to be "saviors" for historically disenfranchised communities, but rather to listen to, value and stand in kinship with them so we can work together toward justice.

Schools must interrogate their practices and how they gained institutional privilege to begin with.

Anti-racist work cannot be done on an individual or classroom level. Administrators, faculty and staff at primarily white or otherwise privileged institutions must question how this has affected their school, students and community. If you don't have any Black students, why is that? If your school primarily serves folks with high socioeconomic status, what policies and events led to that? Schools need to consider how they can help create more integration in their community by having open and honest discussions with their parents and caregivers about the benefits of diverse schools ( including for white students) or questioning policies (such as requirements regarding tardiness and truancy and dress codes) that have made it historically difficult for more diverse populations to join their school community.

This also means making students from historically disenfranchised communities feel included when they do attend school. It's not enough to simply have representation-students must feel that their identities are validated and that their school is a place that accepts them completely. In addition, schools must hold educators and students accountable when they say and do things that make school unsafe for those they claim they want to support. Only when students feel they will be supported by their schools will they be able to fully become a part of that school community.

As Dr. Ibram X. Kendi notes in his work How to Be an Antiracist, "There is no neutrality in the racism struggle. ... The claim of 'not racist' neutrality is a mask for racism. ... An antiracist is someone who is supporting an antiracist policy by their actions or expressing an antiracist idea."

This means we educators have important questions to ask ourselves: Will I work to be anti-racist? Or will I continue thoughtlessly breathing in what Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum calls the "smog of racism" and allowing that to affect my classroom, school and conduct in our larger world? We must actively take a stand against racism with all our students if we want to truly fight its systemic grasp on society.

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Schools across the nation are committing to the all-important work of anti-racism. Schools with predominately white or privileged students should be no exception.

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Using Pressure Maps to Help Middle Grades Readers Develop Nuanced Understandings of LGBTQ+ Characters

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This post was written by guest authors Michelle Hopf and Ryan Schey. As a middle-grade English teacher (Michelle) and a …

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"Can we do this again sometime?"
"Yeah, it was so fun!"
"Pleeeeeease."

These were the pleas from my sixth-grade students after completing our first breakout game.

Breakout games have become popular activities in classrooms of all ages and disciplines. While they may seem to be designed for other content areas, they can be successfully used in ELA classrooms too.

What Is a Breakout Game?
Similar to escape rooms, breakout games require groups to work together to solve a series of challenges in order to open a locked container before the time limit expires. They are an engaging activity to review content as well as foster collaboration and problem-solving skills.

How Can Breakout Games Be Used in the ELA Classroom?
Breakout games can be used to review literary elements, figurative language, parts of speech, vocabulary, class routines/syllabus, and more.

When Is a Good Time To Do Breakout Games?
Breakout games are great to use for reviewing material, reinforcing concepts, building community, and anytime you want to help your students shake off the doldrums. At the beginning of the school year, they can be used to review previously learned material or as an engaging way to review the syllabus. They are perfect to get students up and moving after being sedentary. Also, when students tend to be more energized on days before breaks from school, we can embrace the energy with breakout games.

What Is the Set-Up for Breakout Games? Breakout games can be as simple or as complicated as the creator decides. There are many ways to set up a breakout game. Consider whether to have a physical game, a digital game, or a combination of the two. Also, consider the movement of the students. Will they be mainly in one area of the classroom or moving about to find clues?

A couple options for breakout game set-ups are:

One box with multiple locks on the box. For each challenge, students figure out the combination to remove one of the locks. The game ends when the final lock is removed and the box is opened to reveal prizes or words of congratulations for completing the game. Clues may be hidden around the room or given to students after removing a lock.

Multiple boxes or envelopes that each contain a clue. The first clue leads to a particular box or envelope which holds the second clue and so on, until students reach the final box or envelope. Locks may or may not be used. Clues may be hidden around the room.

What Materials Do I Need?
Besides the clues that you create, common physical materials include envelopes, a variety of locks (3-digit, 4-digit, directional, letter), and boxes for the clues. Some more advanced breakout games use invisible ink, black lights, or different types of puzzles.

Planning My First Breakout Game
In planning my first breakout game for my sixth-grade ELA classes, I analyzed my students' learning needs to determine the focuses for the breakout game. The challenges focused on characterization, types of conflict, plot, and themes in Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day." Once I knew the focuses of our learning, I determined to keep the set up of the game simple.

To introduce the activity, I created a forty-five-second video through a web-based video editing platform in order to dramatize the premise of our breakout game. In the story "All Summer in a Day," set on Venus, Margot is locked in a closet by her classmates and misses the opportunity to see the sun, which only appears every seven years.

For our game, students were tasked to use their knowledge of characterization, conflict, plot, and theme in order to break Margot out of the closet in time to see the sun. The music and images in the video helped to build anticipation for the game when it was projected for the class alongside my oral introduction. Students then read the story, focusing on annotating characterization, types of conflict, plot, and themes.

For the game, each group received the first clue on paper and four locked envelopes each containing the other clues. The first clue asked students to identify quotations from the story as examples of either direct or indirect characterization. Students wrote their answers about characterization on the clue and then used the cipher on the clue to get the combination to the second clue's locked envelope.

If the combination did not work on the locked envelope, students worked together to correct mistakes. Once students correctly entered in the combination to the second clue's lock, they opened the envelope for the second clue, focusing on identifying internal and external conflict in the story.

Students used their answers about conflict and the cipher to get the combination for the locked envelope holding the third clue. The process was repeated, with the third clue focusing on themes in the story and the fourth clue focusing on plot.

All of the clues used the same visual format of identifying quotations and using the same type of cipher for the lock combinations. The final envelope contained prizes for the students. Like at the end of many escape rooms, a photo area with props and signs was set up for the groups to snap their picture after completing the game.

Feedback from Students
After completing the breakout game, students individually completed a reflection form. The questions focused on groups' cooperative learning, students' individual learning, and feedback on the breakout game.
How did you engage in the game to help your group accomplish the task?
How did the group collaborate to solve challenges?
What did the group learn from any missteps?
If your same group were to do another breakout game, how might the group communicate or problem solve differently?
How did the breakout game add to your learning about characterization, conflict, plot, and theme?
How could the breakout game be improved?
Are you interested in doing more breakout games? Please explain your answer.
When asked what they would change about the activity, students' most common answer was to add more challenges. All students responded that they would be interested in doing more breakout games. Student responses included the following:
"They are fun and they are also really helpful to people who want to get more help with the things we are learning."
"It can help you be more social and cooperative with other people."
"It is a fun way to figure out what parts of the text are what."
Next Step
After the success of the first breakout game, one of the classes worked in groups to create their own breakout games. Students used the first game as a model but used different texts. The conversations that student creators had in constructing the breakout games showed a deeper level of engagement with the texts. What started out as students being participants in an enjoyable review activity became students taking ownership of their individual and collective learning.

Breakout games are engaging activities for students to demonstrate and deepen their learning in a variety of ELA areas. They can be a tool to strengthen communication and collaboration skills, while they enliven the classroom community.
Susan Gustafson is a middle school reading and language arts teacher in the Chicago area. She is also certified as a reading specialist and is pursuing a master's degree in educational leadership. You can follow her on Twitter at @MiddleMsGus.

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Enlivening Learning with Breakout Activities

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Popular breakout games can be successfully used in ELA classrooms too, and can contribute to learning and classroom community.

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Playlist for Holden: Character Analysis With Music and Lyrics

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Have students return to their groups from Session 1. Students will work together to create the rationale, the letter, and the playlist, with one student acting as the leader for each assignment. The group leader begins by describing the overall process and explaining possible difficulties or differences of opinion within the group.

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Reading and writing texts online are basic skills that students need to be literate citizens in today's world. Teaching with blogs provides the opportunity to engage students in both of these literacy activities, and the strategy has the additional benefit of enabling students to publish their writing easily and to share their writing with an authentic audience.

When students write entries and comment on the entries of their peers, blogs become an integral part of a lively literacy community. Students can post on such topics as journal/diary entries, reflections on their writing process, details on their research projects, commentary on recent events or readings, and drafts for other writing they are doing.

Once a student posts an entry, others in the class can respond, provide supportive feedback, and offer additional suggestions or perspectives. By writing and commenting on blogs, students write for real readers (not just for their teachers). As a result, students focus on clear communication and get immediate feedback on whether they communicate effectively.

Check out these additional resources for teaching with blogs:

Weekly Writer's Blogs: Building a Reflective Community of Support
Students explore the conventions of blog writing while using it to self-reflect on their writing and communicate with classmates about one another's reflections.

Creating Character Blogs
Students view examples of blogs, learn the basic elements of blog creation, and then create a blog from the perspective of a fictional character.

Using Microblogging and Social Networking to Explore Characterization and Style
Students use social networking sites to trace the development of characters by assuming the persona of a character on a class site and sending a set number of tweets, or status updates.

What Would Ben, Tom, and George Think? Blogging about the American Revolution
After researching famous people of the American Revolution, students take on the identities of these Patriots and Loyalists. Students then participate in a blog, writing responses about events leading up to and during the American Revolutionary War.

Blog about Courage Using Photos
Engage teens in this activity in which they use photographs to examine and write about courage on a blog.

The Blog of Anne Frank?: Taking on Social Roles through Online Writing
Anne Frank shared her experiences through a private diary that became public as a book. In this lesson, students will consider how writing creates social identities as they blog about a political issue.

Create a Career Blog
This activity invites children and teens to explore various careers and then write about what they might want to be when they grow up in a blog.

Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia
Students work together to create their own utopias, using blogs as the primary source of publication.

Blogging in the Primary Grades? Yes, Indeed!
Give students an authentic reason to read and write by researching blogs written by their peers around the world and then writing their own.

How else do you use blogs with students?

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What is imperative for students to know? What is important for students to know? What is nice for students to know? These are the three simple questions that guide my curriculum planning.

In a time when teachers are bombarded with district pacing guides, new trends in education, and a plethora of literacies to teach, it is easy to get lost and lose sight of what is best for students. As teachers, we can quickly get burnt out or overwhelmed when we see the endless lists of what "should" be accomplished each day, each week, and each year.

For myself, I have learned the best way to ameliorate this is by going back to the basics I was taught in my teacher licensure program. At the beginning of each new class, I create three concentric circles: in the innermost circle, I note what I believe is imperative for students to know and be able to do; in the middle circle, I note what is important for students to know and be able to do; finally, in the outermost circle, I note what is nice for students to know and be able to do.

This simple graphic organizer focuses me on what I value most in my classroom and helps me align all my other choices in my classroom with a clear sense of purpose.

As I get further into my teaching career, I notice that my inner circle stays the same: in my classroom, students must read deeply, robustly, and diversely in order to gain a better understanding of themselves, and to develop empathy for those around them; they write in ways that reflect their critical understanding of a text, not to regurgitate a list of plot events or character traits; and they work on developing their speaking and listening abilities throughout our activities.

The reading, writing, speaking, and listening we do is vital when it encourages students to think critically about themselves, others, and the world around them; yet my inner circle contains another key concept: empathy.

I believe empathy is the highest level of critical thinking.

So often we spend hours researching and creating lesson plans and activities to encourage critical thinking; we seek out rigorous texts and projects to reinforce meaningful analysis. But the highest and most important analysis we conduct as we read is empathy. Before parsing out the significance of setting, before delving into the imagery, metaphors, symbols, and motifs, we must perform a critical analysis by which we open ourselves to the lives, feelings, and experiences of others.

Through critical thinking, writing, reading, and re-reading, we analyze texts and authors' craft in order to both gain empathy for lives we have not lived and for experiences we have not had, all while meeting a new character whom we come to care for deeply.

This work not only bolsters our students academic skills but teaches students in ways that extend far beyond the classroom and our short time together. For "every time I read a book like me, I diminish. Every time I read a book with characters not like me, I grow more than I ever thought possible" (Kylene Beers, NCTE 2019).

If the central goal in my classroom is for students to develop critical thinking skills which afford them insight into the world beyond their own understanding of it, my work and my mission is clear. If the central goal in my classroom is for students to read robustly and to read consciously in a way that stimulates empathetic imagination and action, my work and my mission is vital.

How fortunate we are to have a role in schools that allows us to select texts in which students can find themselves and gain an understanding of others! How intimidating it can be to have a role that encourages us to select texts in which students can find themselves and gain an understanding of others!

My mission is clear and vital: to design a curriculum filled with diverse protagonists, settings, and conflicts as well as curate a classroom library overflowing with books that serve as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.

We cannot teach students simply to read, but rather to READ ( Randy Ribay, ALAN 2019); we must teach students to read with a critical eye, an open heart, and hands that are moved to action. We, too, must read this way, and more robustly than ever before.

Critical analysis takes many forms: understanding characterization, scanning lines of poetry for meter and effect, creating and substantiating arguments, and articulating meaning throughout an entire text. Yet the highest form in critical thinking is an empathy that doesn't just read the words on a page but rather truly sees, hears, and act upon a world beyond ourselves.
Lindsay Schneider teaches senior and freshman English in North Carolina. She is an avid reader and aspiring writer who is passionate about all things related to YA lit, building life-long readers beyond the walls of the classroom, integrating the arts into the English classroom, good coffee, baking, and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. She is honored to serve as an NCTE Community Ambassador.

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Empathy Is the Highest Level of Critical Thinking

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This post was written by NCTE Ambassador Lindsay Schneider. What is imperative for students to know? What is important ...

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Teaching Student Annotation: Constructing Meaning Through Connections | Read Write Think

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Active strategies for annotation like collaborative work and illustration increase students' comprehension and retention.

Annotating texts is not the most exciting tactic for reading comprehension. In my classroom experience, even the mention of the word annotate was met with looks of confusion or boredom. Traditional annotations have been students' only interactions with the text. When students are asked to underline important parts of the texts, they will usually pick the first line that seems appealing or attempt to highlight the whole page of text with pretty-colored highlighters. Simply underlining the text will not meet the needs of our 21st-century learners.

Annotations are a critical strategy teachers can use to encourage students to interact with a text. They promote a deeper understanding of passages and encourage students to read with a purpose. Teachers can use annotations to emphasize crucial literacy skills like visualization, asking questions, and making inferences.

Purposeful instruction with annotating texts is required for students to benefit from this strategy. Focused instructional activities associated with annotation make the process engaging. Teachers can encourage students to participate in the annotation in new ways that use visual and collaborative strategies.

Illustrated Annotations

Illustrated annotations use images to increase comprehension and understanding. Students create illustrations to represent concepts and elements of literature. Prior to reading the text, the students create a visual representation or symbol for the concept or element of focus for the learning target. When the students annotate the text, they use the illustration they created.

I recently used this strategy to teach Hamlet. Specifically, we focused on the seven elements of Shakespearean tragedies. Before reading the texts, students drew visuals or symbols of each element. Students could choose any illustration that enhanced their learning. Those who were not adept at art could draw a "TF" for tragic flaw. After the students created their illustrations, I selected chunks of the texts for the students to annotate throughout our reading of the play.

The process of creating an illustration helps students synthesize information and increases student engagement and creativity. It makes annotating texts a more hands-on experience and makes their learning meaningful and personal. One challenge with this assignment occurs when students believe they cannot draw, do not have artistic talent, or are not creative. Allowing less artistic students to use symbols or simple drawings also emphasizes the importance of student choice. The purpose of the assignment is to capture the symbolism of concepts, so they can create any marking that represents their perception and understanding of a concept.

Collaborative Annotations

Another annotation strategy is collaborative annotation, or an annotation on a shared text by multiple students. Students annotate the same text and analyze each person's annotations to find inspiration, discover similarities, or ask questions.

Students were given guided analysis prompts while annotating the text and their peers' responses. During this lesson, the students were instructed to write two extended comments and pose one question per page of text. The next set of students had to do the same, but they could comment on the text or a previous annotation from another student. Each class was able to view and analyze the annotations of their peers from previous classes. At the end, students had a collection of annotations that showed several different processes of reading a text.

This strategy encourages students to close-read a text. Students think critically and have a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the text. Students also collaborate and communicate about a text with their peers by commenting and questioning the marks of others.

Personalizing the Process

Annotation strategies can be differentiated for learners in a single classroom by adjusting the requirements for each reading. Learning targets for the annotation activities can be modified for different learning needs.

Digital applications may be used in several different ways. In order to facilitate collaborative annotations in a digital format, teachers can use Google Docs. Students analyze the same text and leave comments or highlight portions of the text. Students can easily share documents and comment on other students' annotations. For visual annotations, teachers can use graphic tools like Adobe Spark. Students can pull parts of the texts and choose pictures to represent their interpretations.

Teachers in any content area can use these annotation strategies for any texts in the class to emphasize certain themes or to promote literacy in their classes. Creativity and collaboration are crucial to 21st-century learners. When creative annotating strategies facilitate student interaction with a text, the annotation process is a meaningful learning experience and not just a coloring page with meaningless highlights.

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More Than Highlighting: Creative Annotations

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Active strategies for annotation like collaborative work and illustration increase students' comprehension and retention.

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Annotation 'rules' can zap students' natural curiosity, but building a culture of observation encourages them to ask questions.

The act of reading elicits a feeling of curiosity. We notice stuff, certain words or phrases that make us pause or experience a feeling of weight. I know this is true for adult readers, for high school readers, and for my own children. My 3-year-old son stops me while we read together so that he can touch illustrations or ask random questions. When my 6-year-old daughter reads, her eyes grow wide as she shouts, "Wait! I see something!"

My high school students notice stuff, too. Their eyes also grow wide with recognition. They see repetitions and discrepancies. They experience cognitive dissonance and ask questions. However, at the beginning of the school year, many consistently claim, "I don't know" or "I don't see anything," when approaching an unfamiliar text. They annotate nothing or highlight everything. Only after months of observation routines do they admit the truth: They didn't think their annotations would be correct.

In the late 1990s before No Child Left Behind, the National Reading Panel performed a large-scale secondary analysis to determine the effectiveness of reading instruction. Not surprisingly, they learned that teaching reading comprehension does in fact improve reading, which ignited a series of conditional arguments. If I must teach comprehension, I should teach how to annotate correctly. If there are correct ways, there must be incorrect ways. If there are incorrect ways, there must be ways to assess.

The unsettling consequence of using annotations to assess comprehension is that annotations are no longer used to record curiosity or investigation while reading. Perhaps this is why students constantly ask if their annotations are correct or, more compellingly, why they express contempt toward annotating.

Building a Culture of Observation

Allow me to make myself clear: I am not asking students to stop annotating. I am asking teachers to guide students to observe as a habit of mind, rather than explicitly teach how to annotate.

When we prescriptively teach annotating, students comply rather than comprehend. When we use annotation guides, students scan the text for answers rather than observe and question. When we grade annotations, students are afraid of being incorrect. The more explicitly we teach it, the more they hate it.

Often, teaching annotation leads students to notice what the teacher has decided is important, and they too quickly forfeit their own observations and ideas in order to finish an assignment. Instead, teachers must explicitly reframe the skill of annotation and build a culture of observation.

6 Ways to Encourage Observation
2. Reframe annotation, and invite students to observe through mantras.

"No one knows what's important on the first read; trust what you notice-it could matter!"

"I'm not asking you to find something specific or deep. Notice any little thing."

"Can you take this big text and break it down into little parts? What do you see?"

3. Reframe annotation using different analogies or metaphors.

"Read with a pencil. Let the pencil be an extension of your thoughts-from brain, to arm, to pencil, to paper."

"Have you ever played I Spy? I Spy stuff, and don't judge what you find."

"Don't run-walk. Walk through the text, and smell the flowers. Notice everything."

1. Prioritize "observing text" as a habit of mind. Insist that "good reading" is not fast or perfect reading. Good readers slow down to observe, to notice. Observe texts together, and annotate collectively. Do not reject any observation, even if it sounds wrong.

4. Exemplify various styles of annotations. Laud and display different styles. Victoria loves colors, Angel uses arrows, John draws boxes around phrases, and Oscar only uses a pencil. Omit examples that have scant annotations.

5. Model annotation using different students. While collectively annotating, ask different students to annotate on a projected text as the class shouts out what they notice. Then explicitly state that the style doesn't matter. What matters is the content-the stuff you notice!

6. Encourage marking words and phrases. Patricia Kain's essay from the Harvard College Writing Center invites students to focus on words and phrases instead of whole sentences. This is the only suggestion for annotation that I give explicitly. I do not correct their annotations but explain that words and phrases create connections in a way that whole sentences do not. A repetition of phrases or discrepant word choices could lead to important discoveries.

The suggestions above seem simple, but they must be implemented consistently to build a culture. Teachers must genuinely forfeit their own sense of correctness and resist the lure of leading students to the teacher's answers. Building a culture will require more time, patience, and practice, but not necessarily extra work.

Teachers will no longer have to tediously grade annotations, trying to guess whether a student understands the text. Students will no longer have to guess what the teacher wants them to mark down and feel like they cannot master a reading assignment. Instead, both will engage in a more observational and analytical learning culture that will pay off in time and energy when students begin to meaningfully engage with texts. They will shout, "Wait! I see something!" and endearingly take photos of their messy annotations, proud of all the scribbles and arrows and stuff that only they can understand.

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A Different Approach to Teaching Annotation

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Annotation 'rules' can zap students' natural curiosity, but building a culture of observation encourages them to ask questions.

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"I want my students to move beyond passive reading and begin engaging in critical conversation with a text."

-Participant in the NCTE 2021 Summer Sandbox

Our students are well-versed in the everyday literacy practice of annotation. Readers-as writers-add sticky notes to novels, write marginalia in textbooks (whether we want them to or not), and compose commentary with digital media when reading online. Learners' handwritten and digital mark-making is a means by which they elicit observations and questions, identify confusion, and spark collaborative dialogue. Whether with poetry or primary sources, annotation is an interactive approach to reader response that helps learners to make meaning of their texts, contexts, and curiosities. Annotation makes thinking visible.

This past summer, NCTE supported educators in making their thoughts about annotation, literacy, and learning both visible and actionable. The four-part 2021 Summer Sandbox Series "Annotation Makes Thinking Visible " invited educators to explore the historic, creative, civic, and disciplinary qualities of annotation. Nearly 600 educators registered to join us for at least one Sandbox session.

The Sandbox Series extended a partnership between NCTE and the Library of Congress by guiding educators' engagement with the Library of Congress Labs' Speculative Annotation project and technology. Created by Library of Congress Innovator-in-Residence Courtney McClellan, Speculative Annotation places students in "direct conversation" with primary sources through annotation, shares curators' annotated items and other educational resources, and provides a free, hands-on opportunity for learners of all ages to experience the playful and powerful qualities of annotation.

During the Summer Sandbox, a participating educator asked: "Why is it called 'speculative' annotation?" In response, sandbox cofacilitator Jaime Mears, Senior Innovation Specialist at the Library of Congress Labs, noted: "History is an enduring mystery. Speculation is a form of investigation. [Speculative Annotation] allows students to question and examine the point of view of the creators of primary sources. In response, students' annotations are an interpretation. We are asking students to make their insights visible and in doing so, to join history's record."

Each Sandbox session demonstrated how Speculative Annotation-as both a tool and a creative approach to mark-making-can support students' meaningful interaction with historical artifacts and narratives. The first session featured Stephanie Stillo, curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, who shared her annotation of "Ars Memorandi" (the "Art of Memory"), a 15th-century book that helped readers to remember Biblical scripture. In her presentation, Stephanie remarked that annotation is about "making a book what it should be"-she also discussed exorcism and censorship, and observed that "early-modern folks were excellent annotators."
Library of Congress Curator Stephanie Stillo's annotation of "Ars Memorandi" using speculative annotation
The sandbox's second session featured Courtney's commentary about creative expression. She focused on monuments, as well as themes of remembrance, protest, and counternarrative, so as to examine Maya Lin's proposal for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Our third session's focus on civic annotation was guided by Jen Reidel, a social studies teacher and a former Civics Teacher in Residence for the Library of Congress. Jen discussed Patsy Mink's handwritten notes for a 1960 speech about civil rights, concluding that "the act of civic engagement itself is a form of annotating one's own story into that of the American narrative, of which there are many." Our sandbox session concluded with guests Karen Linn Femia, a senior archives specialist in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and Josh Levy, the historian of science and technology at the Manuscript Division. Karen and Josh encouraged participants to appreciate "historical weirdness" and "moments of strangeness"-as with an artifact from the Finn Ronne Antarctic Expedition in the 1930s -that can reveal complex narratives about scientific exploration, literature, gender, and place.

Recordings of the four Summer Sandbox presentations are available to view online. Project updates, as well as annotated items, are being shared via social media using #AnnotateLoC. Use of the Speculative Annotation website is free, and you and your students can begin annotating items anytime. This educator guide is a useful starting point that addresses how Speculative Annotation can be used in your classroom. Moreover, if you are interested in ongoing professional learning about Speculative Annotation and classroom annotation practices, please complete the form at the bottom of the sandbox website. These professional learning opportunities will be organized in coordination with sandbox cofacilitator Antero Garcia of Stanford University.

During the final session of our sandbox we asked educators: "Why is annotation important for your students' literacy education?" We heard that annotation slows down the process of reading so learners can "notice what might escape us" and that annotation contributes to deep understanding. With annotation, one participant noted, students "are able to discuss online and have conversations with [the] text, themselves, and each other." Another educator mentioned how annotation enables students to have a "personal conversation" with texts, emphasizing: "What do they have to add to the dialogue?"

Educators' wisdom about the value of annotation echoes research indicating that annotation aids students' reading comprehension, meaning-making, and collaborative learning. Whether with Speculative Annotation or other approaches to this everyday literacy practice, this school year is an opportune time to amplify annotation as students read and write their learning journeys.
Remi Kalir is an associate professor of Learning, Design, and Technology at the University of Colorado Denver. He is the coauthor, with Antero Garcia, of Annotation. Remi is also cofounder of the Marginal Syllabus, a professional learning initiative that uses social annotation to spark and sustain conversation about educational equity. His scholarship about annotation has appeared in the Journal of Literacy Research, English Journal, and Information and Learning Sciences, among other publications. Contact Remi or connect with him via Twitter at @remikalir.

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NCTE Summer Sandbox Explores Speculative Annotation

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Remi Kalir. "I want my students to move beyond passive reading ...

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It's the season of cozy sweaters, of scarves, and of all things pumpkin spice. Welcome to fall! Whether or not your weather changes, it's the perfect time to curl up with a great book as the nights get a little bit longer. There are so many exciting fall 2019 YA books to get excited for, too.

The titles here include stand alone titles, series books (marked in a *), books from well-known YA authors, debut authors, and books that'll be blockbuster books as well as quieter titles. Both fiction and nonfiction are represented.

This collection of fall 2019 YA books isn't comprehensive, but it's pretty darn close. Like always, these titles were pulled from a variety of publisher catalogs, and publication dates could shift slightly from what's been listed. As is the case at this time of the year, we'll see a drop in new titles come November and December, which means you'll have ample time for catching up with the new releases you missed earlier this year (one can dream, right?).

Grab your TBR and be prepared to spend this summer-and beyond!-with your nose in an outstanding book. Descriptions come from Amazon. And if you haven't already, make sure you've got plenty of summer 2019 YA books on your radar, too.

Fall 2019 YA Books For Your Tumblin' TBR

October

1

Sophie wants one thing for Christmas-a little freedom from her overprotective parents. So when they decide to spend Christmas in South Louisiana with her very pregnant older sister, Sophie is looking forward to some much needed private (read: make-out) time with her long-term boyfriend, Griffin. Except it turns out that Griffin wants a little freedom from their relationship.

Heartbroken, Sophie flees to her grandparents' house, where the rest of her boisterous extended family is gathered for the holiday. That's when her nonna devises a (not so) brilliant plan: Over the next ten days, Sophie will be set up on ten different blind dates by different family members. Like her sweet cousin Sara, who sets her up with a hot guy at an exclusive underground party. Or her crazy aunt Patrice, who signs Sophie up for a lead role in a living nativity. With a boy who barely reaches her shoulder. And a screaming baby.

When Griffin turns up unexpectedly and begs for a second chance, Sophie feels more confused than ever. Because maybe, just maybe, she's started to have feelings for someone else . . . Someone who is definitely not available.

This is going to be the worst Christmas break ever . . . or is it?

More than a century has passed since Liliath crept into the empty sarcophagus of Saint Marguerite, fleeing the Fall of Ystara. But she emerges from her magical sleep still beautiful, looking no more than nineteen, and once again renews her single-minded quest to be united with her lover, Palleniel, the archangel of Ystara.

It's a seemingly impossible quest, but Liliath is one of the greatest practitioners of angelic magic to have ever lived, summoning angels and forcing them to do her bidding. Four young people hold her interest: Simeon, a studious doctor-in-training; Henri, a dedicated fortune hunter; Agnez, a glory-seeking musketeer; and Dorotea, icon-maker and scholar of angelic magic.

The four feel a strange kinship from the moment they meet but do not suspect their importance. And none of them know just how Liliath plans to use them, as mere pawns in her plan, no matter the cost to everyone else . . .

After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, designed to be the playthings of royals, usurped their owners' estates and bent the human race to their will.

Now Ayla, a human servant rising in the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging her family's death...by killing the sovereign's daughter, Lady Crier.

Crier was Made to be beautiful, flawless, and to carry on her father's legacy. But that was before her betrothal to the enigmatic Scyre Kinok, before she discovered her father isn't the benevolent king she once admired, and most importantly, before she met Ayla.

Now, with growing human unrest across the land, pressures from a foreign queen, and an evil new leader on the rise, Crier and Ayla find there may be only one path to love: war.

*Cursed by Frank Miller, Thomas Wheeler
Whosoever wields the Sword of Power shall be the one true King.
But what if the Sword has chosen a Queen?

Nimue grew up an outcast. Her connection to dark magic made her something to be feared in her Druid village, and that made her desperate to leave...

That is, until her entire village is slaughtered by Red Paladins, and Nimue's fate is forever altered. Charged by her dying mother to reunite an ancient sword with a legendary sorcerer, Nimue is now her people's only hope. Her mission leaves little room for revenge, but the growing power within her can think of little else.

Nimue teams up with a charming mercenary named Arthur and refugee Fey Folk from across England. She wields a sword meant for the one true king, battling paladins and the armies of a corrupt king. She struggles to unite her people, avenge her family, and discover the truth about her destiny.

But perhaps the one thing that can change Destiny itself is found at the edge of a blade.

No world is like the other. Within this masterful collection, each setting is more strange and wonderful than the last, brimming with new technologies and beings. And yet, for all the advances in these futuristic lands, the people still must confront deeply human problems.

In these six stories, Veronica Roth reaches into the unknown and draws forth something startlingly familiar and profoundly beautiful.

With tales of friendship and revenge, plus two new stories from the Carve the Mark universe, this collection has something for new and old fans alike. Each story begins with a hope for a better end, but always end with a better understanding of the beginning.

With beautifully intricate black-and-white interior illustrations and a uniquely designed package, this is the perfect gift for book lovers.

What if Anna and Elsa never knew each other?

As the future Queen of Arendelle, Princess Elsa's life is full of expectation and responsibility-not to mention, questions. What type of ruler will she be? When will she have to pick a suitor? And why has she always harbored the feeling that some critical piece of herself is missing?

Following the unexpected death of her parents, Elsa is forced to answer those questions sooner than she'd hoped, becoming the sole ruler of her kingdom and growing lonelier than ever. But when mysterious powers begin to reveal themselves, Elsa starts to remember fragments of her childhood that seem to have been erased-pieces that include a very familiar-looking girl. Determined to fill the void she has always felt, Elsa must take a harrowing journey across her icy kingdom to undo a terrible curse . . . and find the missing Princess of Arendelle.

Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into the country under the welcoming guise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of a Texas oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography-and fate-introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War-as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.

Aster, the protector
Violet, the favorite
Tansy, the medic
Mallow, the fighter
Clementine, the catalyst

THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS

The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls―they know their luck is anything but.

Sold to a "welcome house" as children and branded with cursed markings.

Trapped in a life they would never have chosen.

When Clementine accidentally kills a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by Arketta's most vicious and powerful forces, both human and inhuman, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one Good Luck Girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe.

It's going to take more than luck for them all to survive.

The Larkin family isn't just lucky-they persevere. At least that's what Violet and her younger brother, Sam, were always told. When the Lyric sank off the coast of Maine, their great-great-great-grandmother didn't drown like the rest of the passengers. No, Fidelia swam to shore, fell in love, and founded Lyric, Maine, the town Violet and Sam returned to every summer.

But wrecks seem to run in the family: Tall, funny, musical Violet can't stop partying with the wrong people. And, one beautiful summer day, brilliant, sensitive Sam attempts to take his own life.

Shipped back to Lyric while Sam is in treatment, Violet is haunted by her family's missing piece-the lost shipwreck she and Sam dreamed of discovering when they were children. Desperate to make amends, Violet embarks on a wildly ambitious mission: locate the Lyric, lain hidden in a watery grave for over a century.

She finds a fellow wreck hunter in Liv Stone, an amateur local historian whose sparkling intelligence and guarded gray eyes make Violet ache in an exhilarating new way. Whether or not they find the Lyric, the journey Violet takes-and the bridges she builds along the way-may be the start of something like survival.

Epic, funny, and sweepingly romantic, The Last True Poets of the Sea is an astonishing debut about the strength it takes to swim up from a wreck.

When a determined girl is confronted with the culture of toxic masculinity, it's time to even the score.

Michigan Manning lives for hockey, and this is her year to shine. That is, until she gets some crushing news: budget cuts will keep the girls' hockey team off the ice this year.

If she wants colleges to notice her, Michigan has to find a way to play. Luckily, there's still one team left in town ...

The boys' team isn't exactly welcoming, but Michigan's prepared to prove herself. She plays some of the best hockey of her life, in fact, all while putting up with changing in the broom closet, constant trash talk and ?harmless? pranks that always seem to target her.

But once hazing crosses the line into assault, Michigan must weigh the consequences of speaking up - even if it means putting her future on the line.

When Zora Novak is framed for a crime she didn't commit, she must track down the true culprit and clear her name before it's too late. But in a small town obsessed with ghosts, getting people to believe the truth might prove to be impossible.

Stranger Things meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this eerie murder mystery. "A darkly humorous, rapid-fire read in which the living are sometimes scarier than the dead."- Kirkus

When someone burns down the home of the school janitor and he dies in the blaze, everyone in Addamsville, Indiana, points a finger at Zora. Never mind that Zora has been on the straight and narrow since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to uncover the identity of the real killer.

There's one big problem-Zora has no leads. No one does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and thirty years ago a similar string of fires left several townspeople dead. The arsonist was never caught.

Now, Zora must team up with her cousin Artemis-an annoying self-proclaimed Addamsville historian-to clear her name. But with a popular ghost-hunting television show riling up the townspeople, almost no support from her family and friends, and rumors spinning out of control, things aren't looking good. Zora will have to read between the lines of Addamsville's ghost stories before she becomes one herself.

*Rebel by Marie Lu

With unmatched suspense and her signature cinematic storytelling, #1 New York Times -bestselling author Marie Lu plunges readers back into the unforgettable world of Legend for a truly grand finale.

Eden Wing has been living in his brother's shadow for years. Even though he's a top student at his academy in Ross City, Antarctica, and a brilliant inventor, most people know him only as Daniel Wing's little brother.

A decade ago, Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. But Day is no longer the same young man who was once a national hero. These days he'd rather hide out from the world and leave his past behind. All that matters to him now is keeping Eden safe―even if that also means giving up June, the great love of Daniel's life.

As the two brothers struggle to accept who they've each become since their time in the Republic, a new danger creeps into the distance that's grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City's dark side, even his legendary brother can't save him. At least not on his own . . .
Before, I was a million things. Now I'm only one. The Burned Girl.
Ava Lee has lost everything there is to lose: Her parents. Her best friend. Her home. Even her face. She doesn't need a mirror to know what she looks like-she can see her reflection in the eyes of everyone around her.

A year after the fire that destroyed her world, her aunt and uncle have decided she should go back to high school. Be "normal" again. Whatever that is. Ava knows better. There is no normal for someone like her. And forget making friends-no one wants to be seen with the Burned Girl, now or ever.

But when Ava meets a fellow survivor named Piper, she begins to feel like maybe she doesn't have to face the nightmare alone. Sarcastic and blunt, Piper isn't afraid to push Ava out of her comfort zone. Piper introduces Ava to Asad, a boy who loves theater just as much as she does, and slowly, Ava tries to create a life again. Yet Piper is fighting her own battle, and soon Ava must decide if she's going to fade back into her scars . . . or let the people by her side help her fly.

Danger "Danny" Danielle Warren is no stranger to falling. After losing an eye in a childhood accident, she had to relearn her perception of movement and space. Now Danny keeps her head down, studies hard, and works to fulfill everyone else's needs. She's certain that her mom's bitterness and her TV star father's absence are her fault. If only she were more ―more athletic, charismatic, attractive―life would be perfect.

When her dad calls with an offer to join him to film the next episode of his popular survivalist show, Danny jumps at the chance to prove she's not the disappointment he left behind. Being on set with the hottest teen movie idol of the moment, Gus Price, should be the cherry on top. But when their small plane crashes in the Amazon, and a terrible secret is revealed, Danny must face the truth about the parent she worships and falling for Gus, and find her own inner strength and worth to light the way home.

The Cold War spanned five decades as America and the USSR engaged in a battle of ideologies with global ramifications. Over the course of the war, with the threat of mutually assured nuclear destruction looming, billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives were devoted to the art and practice of spying, ensuring that the world would never be the same.

Rife with intrigue and filled with fascinating historical figures whose actions shine light on both the past and present, this timely work of narrative nonfiction explores the turbulence of the Cold War through the lens of the men and women who waged it behind closed doors, and helps explain the role secret and clandestine operations have played in America's history and its national security.

Tensions are rising between the Quatrans and the Specters, and the Quatra Fleet is gearing up for an epic fight. With a galaxy on the brink of war and loyalties divided, the friendship of four cadets will be tested.

Orelia has been arrested for espionage, and her future is looking bleak . . . until the Quatrans make her a surprising offer that could save her life-and the lives of everyone in the galaxy.

Reeling from his breakup, Arran finds comfort in a sympathetic boy from Loos, someone who understands how hard it can be to fit in. But is it enough for Arran to forget his heartbreak?

Cormack's position at the Academy is finally secure. But when someone discovers his treasonous secret, it jeopardizes everything he's fought for, including his relationship with the person he cares about most.

And Vesper is ready to become a superstar officer . . . until she uncovers a conspiracy that shakes her faith in the Quatra Fleet to its core.

As secret machinations come to light, these cadets will be forced to overcome their differences and band together to restore peace to their worlds.

When Frankie's mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary-just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That's why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket.

Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans-two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.

And as the embers of the Great Depression are kindled into the fires of World War II, and the shadows of injustice, poverty, and death walk the streets in broad daylight, it will be up to Frankie to find something worth holding on to in the ruins of this shattered America-every minute of every day spent wondering if the life she's able to carve out will be enough.
I will admit I do not know the answer. But I will be watching, waiting to find out. That's what ghosts do. scream
so that one day
a hundred years from now
another sister will not have to
dry her tears wondering
where in history
she lost her voice
The six sections of the book explore what it means to be a young woman living in a world that doesn't always hear her and tell the story of Kiran as she flees a history of trauma and raises her daughter, Sahaara, while living undocumented in North America.

Delving into current cultural conversations including sexual assault, mental health, feminism, and immigration, this narrative of resilience, healing, empowerment, and love will galvanize readers to fight for what is right in their world.

3

Lyra Silvertongue's adventures in the North are long over-the windows between the many worlds have been sealed, and her beloved Will is lost to her. She does still have the alethiometer: the truth-telling device given to her by the master of Jordan College, which guided her journey.

Lyra doesn't know the full story of the alethiometer, though. Or the role that young Malcolm Polstead played in bringing both the instrument and baby Lyra to Jordan. She's now a twenty-year-old undergraduate at St. Sophia's College. To her, Malcolm is Dr. Polstead, an overly solicitous professor she would prefer to avoid.

But intrigue is swirling around Lyra once more. Her daemon Pantalaimon is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. They learn of a city haunted by daemons, of a desert said to hold the secret of Dust.

Powerful forces are about to throw Lyra and Malcolm together once again. And the dangers they face will challenge everything they thought they knew about the world, and about themselves.

8

Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world.
Athena operatives are never supposed to shoot to kill-so when Jessie can't stop herself from pulling the trigger, she gets kicked out of the organization, right before a huge mission to take down a human trafficker in Belgrade.

Jessie needs to right her wrong and prove herself, so she starts her own investigation into the trafficking. But going rogue means she has no one to watch her back as she delves into the horrors she uncovers. Meanwhile, her former teammates have been ordered to bring her down. Jessie must face danger from all sides if she's to complete her mission-and survive.

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans is a safe haven after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent in the middle of the carnival season, Celine is quickly enraptured by the vibrant city, from its music to its fancy soirées and even its danger. She becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's enigmatic leader, Sébastien Saint Germain.

When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in Sébastien's own lair-the second dead girl to turn up in recent weeks-Celine battles her attraction to Sébastien and suspicions about his guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

After a third murder, New Orleans becomes gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose-one who has now set Celine in his sights. As the murderer stalks her, Celine finally takes matters into her own hands, only to find herself caught in the midst of an age-old feud between the darkest creatures of the night, where the price of forbidden love is her life.

At once a sultry romance and a decadent, thrilling mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet.

When Evelyn Dasher crossed paths with Luc, she was thrown headfirst into the world of the Lux-only to discover that she was already far more involved in their world than she ever suspected.

Because the Luxen aren't the only ones with a hidden past. There's a gap in Evie's memory, lost months of her life and a lingering sense that something happened, something she can't remember and nobody is willing to tell her. She needs to find out the truth about who she is-and who she was. But every answer she finds only brings up more questions.

Her search for the truth brings her ever closer to Luc, the Origin at the center of it all. He's powerful, arrogant, inhumanly beautiful, extremely dangerous...and possibly in love with her. But even as Evie falls for him, she can't help but wonder if his attraction is to her, or to the memory of a girl who no longer exists.

And all the while, a new threat looms: reports of a flu-like, fatal virus that the government insists is being spread by Luxen. A horrifying illness that changes whoever it touches, spreading panic across a country already at its breaking point.

On the day Torrey moves and officially becomes a college freshman, he gets a call that might force him to drop out before he's even made it through orientation: the bank is foreclosing on the bee farm his Uncle Miles left him.

Torrey's worked hard to become the first member of his family to go to college, but while the neighborhood held him back emotionally, Uncle Miles encouraged him to reach his full potential. For years, it was just the two of them tending the farm. So Torrey can't let someone erase his uncle's legacy without a fight.

He tries balancing his old life in L.A. with his new classes, new friends, and (sort of) new boyfriend in San Francisco, but as the farm heads for auction, the pressure of juggling everything threatens to tear him apart. Can he make a choice between his family and his future without sacrificing a part of himself?
The deadly game continues...
Olivia and Candace are dead, both casualties of Violet's deadly game of Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. McKenna and Mischa are the only ones left, and having failed to locate and destroy the source of Violet's power, her curse still abounds, eager to claim more lives.

What does Violet want? And how can she be stopped? Armed with a mysterious package containing clues, as well as a little help from the beyond, McKenna hopes to end this once and for all...before it's too late.

No one speaks of the grace year. It's forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That's why they're banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life-a society that doesn't pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it's not just the brutal elements they must fear. It's not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

Zahra Gaines is missing.

After three long years away, Ruthie Hayden arrives in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska to this devastating news. Zahra was Ruthie's best friend-the only person who ever really understood her-and she vows to do whatever it takes to find her.

Zahra vanished from a party just days before Ruthie's return, but the more people she talks to, the more she realizes that the Zahra she knew disappeared long before that fateful night. Gone is the whimsical, artistic girl who loved books and knew Ruthie's every secret. In her place is an athlete, a partier, a girl with secrets of her own. Darker still are the rumors that something happened to Zahra while Ruthie was gone, something that changed her forever...

As Ruthie desperately tries to piece together the truth, she falls deeper and deeper into her friend's new world, circling closer to a dangerous revelation about what happened to Zahra in the days before her disappearance-one that might be better off buried.

When a storm strikes at Blackbrook Academy, an elite prep school nestled in the woods of Maine, a motley crew of students-including Beth "Peacock" Picach, Orchid McKee, Vaughn Green, Sam "Mustard" Maestor, Finn Plum, and Scarlet Mistry-are left stranded on campus with their headmaster. Hours later, his body is found in the conservatory and it's very clear his death was no accident. With this group of students who are all hiding something, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has a motive for murder. Fans of the CLUE board game and cult classic film will delight in Diana Peterfreund's modern reimagining of the brand, its characters, and the dark, magnificent old mansion with secrets hidden within its walls.

In a world thriving with black magic, four young crooks embark on a quest to take down their criminal leader after they discover the plot behind his dangerous new magic.
If I'd told the truth, it would have been fiction.
Everyone loves Eva. Beautiful, bright, fun, generous - she's perfect.

So when her body is found in a ditch in the local woods the only thing anyone wants to know is: Who could have done this?

It has to be Luke, her boyfriend. He has the motive, the means, the opportunity and he's no stranger to the police.

Even though the picture is incomplete, the pieces fit. But as time passes, stories change.
Who could have done this? You decide.
It Ends With You is clever and compulsive. It challenges preconceptions, makes you second-guess yourself with each chapter, and it holds an uncomfortable mirror up to the way societies and systems treat outsiders.

Enough Is Enough by Michelle Roehm McCann, Shannon Watts (Foreword by)

Young people are suffering the most from the epidemic of gun violence-as early as kindergarten students are crouching behind locked doors during active shooter drills. Teens are galvanizing to speak up and fight for their right to be safe. They don't just want to get involved, they want to change the world. Enough Is Enough is a call to action for teens ready to lend their voices to the gun violence prevention movement. This handbook deftly explains America's gun violence issues-myths and facts, causes and perpetrators, solutions and change-makers-and provides a road map for effective activism.

Told in three parts, Enough Is Enough also explores how America got to this point and the obstacles we must overcome, including historical information about the Second Amendment, the history of guns in America, and an overview of the NRA. Informative chapters include interviews with teens who have survived gun violence and student activists who are launching their own movements across the country. Additionally, the book includes a Q&A with gun owners who support increased gun safety laws.
Caught in a war between the rebels and the invading colonizers, Jetta must make an impossible choice-save her people or protect her sanity.
The second book in Heidi Heilig's acclaimed Shadow Players trilogy blends traditional storytelling with ephemera to weave an enthralling fantasy that fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir will sink into.

Jetta is a wanted criminal. The army wants her for treason against the crown, for the sabotage of Hell's Court temple, and for the murder of General Legarde. They also want her for the power in her blood-the magic that captures wandering spirits to give life to puppets, to rocks, to paper . . . to weapons. They're willing to trade the elixir that treats Jetta's madness for the use of her blood. The rebels want her, too, to help them reclaim their country. Jetta may be the one who can tip the scales in this war.

But Jetta fears using her power will make her too much like Le Trepas, the terrifying and tyrannical necromancer who once held all Chakrana under his thumb-and who is Jetta's biological father. She's already raised her brother from the dead, after all. And scared off Leo, the only person who saw her as she truly is. With Le Trepas at large and a clash between the army and the rebels becoming inevitable, Jetta will have to decide if saving her country is worth sacrificing her soul.

From the moment she first learned to read, literary genius Darcy Wells has spent most of her time living in the worlds of her books. There, she can avoid the crushing reality of her mother's hoarding and pretend her life is simply ordinary. But when a new property manager becomes more active in the upkeep of their apartment complex, the only home Darcy has ever known outside of her books suddenly hangs in the balance.

While Darcy is struggling to survive beneath the weight of her mother's compulsive shopping, Asher Fleet, a former teen pilot with an unexpectedly shattered future, walks into the bookstore where she works...and straight into her heart. For the first time in her life, Darcy can't seem to find the right words. Fairy tales are one thing, but real love makes her want to hide inside her carefully constructed ink-and-paper bomb shelter.

Still, after spending her whole life keeping people out, something about Asher makes Darcy want to open up. But securing her own happily-ever-after will mean she'll need to stop hiding and start living her own truth-even if it's messy.

Abandoned by a single mother she never knew, 16-year-old Raya-obsessed with ancient myths-lives with her grandmother in a small conservative Texas town. For years Raya has fought to hide her feelings for her best friend and true love, Sarah. When the two are outed, they are sent to Friendly Saviors: a re-education camp meant to "fix" them and make them heterosexual. Upon arrival, Raya vows to assume the role of Orpheus, to return to the world of the living with her love-and after she, Sarah, and the other teen residents are subjected to abusive and brutal "treatments" by the staff, Raya only becomes more determined to escape.

In a haunting voice reminiscent of Sylvia Plath and the contemporary lyricism of David Levithan, Brynne Rebele-Henry weaves a powerful inversion of the Orpheus myth informed by the disturbing real-world truths of conversion therapy. Orpheus Girl is a story of dysfunctional families, trauma, first love, heartbreak, and ultimately, the fierce adolescent resilience that has the power to triumph over darkness and ignorance.

Tucker knows that some relationships take work. With his best friend, Bobby, and his mom, everything is simple, steady. His dad, on the other hand, seems to only show up when he wants to bring Tucker down. Then there's Erika Green, who comes back into his life, stirring up old feelings. A small part of him knows he shouldn't get too attached during senior year. But a bigger part doesn't want her to disappear again.

Erika from before the video loved to shock people. Now, she just wants to hole up in her quiet college life and leave the past where it belongs-in a dumpster fire. But then she reconnects with Tucker Campanelli. Erika can't explain what it is about him. There's just this undeniable connection between them, and she really doesn't want to lose that feeling. Not yet.

Playlist: The Rebels and Revolution of Sound by James Rhodes, Martin O'Neill (Illustrated by)
Bach. Mozart. Beethoven. Old guys with curly wigs, right? But trust me: those composers were the original rock stars.
Open your mind to some of the most breathtaking and magnificent pieces of music ever created, and find out why the rebels and revolutionaries who wrote them are responsible for every track on your phone today. Discover their backstories and how each one shaped and defined classical music. Learn about the structure of an orchestra, the language of music, and the history of musical periods. With jaw-dropping artwork and avant-garde design, this visually exquisite celebration of classical music is a surefire hit for both first-time listeners and longtime fans. Budding aficionados will appreciate the online playlist featuring James Rhodes's favorite selections.

The Rift by Rachael Craw

For generations, the rangers of Black Water Island have guarded the Old Herd against the horrors released by the Rift. And Cal West, an apprentice ranger, fights daily to prove he belongs within their ranks. But even greater challenges await with the return of his childhood friend Meg Archer and the onset of a new threat that not even the rangers are prepared for. Now Meg and Cal, while struggling with their mutual attraction, must face their darkest fears to save the island from disaster. In a possible near future where Big Pharma is pitted against ancient traditions and the supernatural, Rachael Craw's gripping and brutal tale, inspired by Greek mythology, will immerse readers and leave them intoxicated by its richly imagined world.

15

Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone-even the lowborn-a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders.

Now they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn't be more different. Annie's lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee's aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.

But everything changes when survivors from the old regime surface, bent on reclaiming the city.

With war on the horizon and his relationship with Annie changing fast, Lee must choose to kill the only family he has left or to betray everything he's come to believe in. And Annie must decide whether to protect the boy she loves . . . or step up to be the champion her city needs.

Girls run biotech companies.
Girls run online fashion sites.
Girls run environmental enterprises.
They are creative. They are inventive. They mean business.
Girls run the world.
This collection gives girls of all ages the tools they need to follow their passions, turn ideas into reality and break barriers in the business world.

Meet Rico: high school senior and afternoon-shift cashier at the Gas 'n' Go, who after school and work races home to take care of her younger brother. Every. Single. Day. When Rico sells a jackpot-winning lotto ticket, she thinks maybe her luck will finally change, but only if she-with some assistance from her popular and wildly rich classmate Zan-can find the ticket holder who hasn't claimed the prize. But what happens when have and have-nots collide? Will this investigative duo unite...or divide?

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon-until one sister's betrayal split their world in two. A Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in eternal night, the other scorched beneath an ever-burning sun.

While one sister rules the frozen fortress of Aranth, her twin rules the sand-locked Golden City-each with a daughter by their side. Now those young goddesses must set out on separate, equally dangerous journeys in hopes of healing their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

Seventeen-year-old Ali Chu knows that as the only Asian person at her school in middle-of-nowhere Indiana, she must be bland as white toast to survive. This means swapping her congee lunch for PB&Js, ignoring the clueless racism from her classmates and teachers, and keeping her mouth shut when people wrongly call her Allie instead of her actual name, Ah-lee, after the mountain in Taiwan.

Her autopilot existence is disrupted when she finds out that Chase Yu, the new kid in school, is also Taiwanese. Despite some initial resistance due to the they belong together whispers, Ali and Chase soon spark a chemistry rooted in competitive martial arts, joking in two languages, and, most importantly, pushing back against the discrimination they face.

But when Ali's mom finds out about the relationship, she forces Ali to end it. As Ali covertly digs into the why behind her mother's disapproval, she uncovers secrets about her family and Chase that force her to question everything she thought she knew about life, love, and her unknowable future.

Snippets of a love story from nineteenth-century China (a retelling of the Chinese folktale The Butterfly Lovers) are interspersed with Ali's narrative and intertwined with her fate.

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
Two sisters are torn apart by war and must fight their way back to each other in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria.
The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky.

In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life.

Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together.

And they're willing to fight an entire war to get there.

Eran Sharon knows nothing of his father except that he left when Eran was a baby. Now a senior in high school and living with his protective but tight-lipped mother, Eran is a passionate young man deeply interested in social justice and equality. When he learns that the Houston police have launched a program to increase traffic stops, Eran organizes a peaceful protest. But a heated moment at the protest goes viral, and a reporter connects the Sharon family to a tragedy fifteen years earlier - and asks if Eran is anything like his father, a supposed terrorist. Soon enough, Eran is wondering the same thing, especially when the people he's gone to school and temple with for years start to look at him differently. Timely, powerful, and full of nuance, Rafi Mittlefehldt's sophomore novel confronts the prejudices, fears, and strengths of family and community, striking right to the heart of what makes us who we are.

22

News stations across the country are reporting mysterious messages that Earth has been receiving from a planet-Alma-claiming to be its creator. If they're being interpreted correctly, in seven days Alma will hit the kill switch on their "colony" Earth.

True or not, for teenagers Jesse Hewitt, Cate Collins, and Adeem Khan, the prospect of this ticking time bomb will change their lives forever.

Jesse, who has been dealt one bad blow after another, wonders if it even matters what happens to the world. Cate, on the other hand, is desperate to use this time to find the father she never met. And Adeem, who hasn't spoken to his estranged sister in years, must find out if he has it in him to forgive her for leaving.

With only a week to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem's paths collide as their worlds are pulled apart.
Greek mythology meets the Kardashians in Emily Roberson's Lifestyles of Gods and Monsters, a fresh, fast-paced debut young adult novel about celebrity culture, family dynamics, and finding love amidst it all.
Sixteen-year-old Ariadne's whole life is curated and shared with the world. Her royal family's entertainment empire is beloved by the tabloids, all over social media, and the hottest thing on television. The biggest moneymaker? The Labyrinth Contest, a TV extravaganza in which Ariadne leads fourteen teens into a maze to kill a monster. To win means endless glory; to lose means death. In ten seasons, no one has ever won.

When the gorgeous, mysterious Theseus arrives at the competition and asks Ariadne to help him to victory, she doesn't expect to fall for him. He might be acting interested in her just to boost ratings. Their chemistry is undeniable, though, and she can help him survive. If he wins, the contest would end for good. But if she helps him, she doesn't just endanger her family's empire―the monster would have to die. And for Ariadne, his life might be the only one worth saving.

Ariadne's every move is watched by the public and predestined by the gods, so how can she find a way to forge her own destiny and save the people she loves?
Told in a series of vignettes from multiple viewpoints, Kekla Magoon's Light It Up is a powerful, layered story about injustice and strength―as well as an incredible follow-up to the highly acclaimed novel How It Went Down.
A girl walks home from school. She's tall for her age. She's wearing her winter coat. Her headphones are in. She's hurrying.

She never makes it home.

In the aftermath, while law enforcement tries to justify the response, one fact remains: a police officer has shot and killed an unarmed thirteen-year-old girl. The community is thrown into upheaval, leading to unrest, a growing movement to protest the senseless taking of black lives, and the arrival of white supremacist counter demonstrators.

29

Something happened to Ava. The curving scar on her face is proof. Ava would rather keep that something hidden-buried deep in her heart and her soul.

But in the woods on the outskirts of town, the traces of someone else's secrets lie frozen, awaiting Ava's discovery-and what Ava finds threatens to topple the carefully constructed wall of normalcy that she's spent years building around her.

Secrets leave scars. But when the secret in question is not your own-do you ignore the truth and walk away? Or do you uncover it from its shallow grave and let it reopen old wounds-wounds that have finally begun to heal?

Everyone has a soul. Some are beautiful gardens, others are frightening dungeons. Soulwalkers―like Kamai and her mother―can journey into other people's souls while they sleep.

But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it.

When Kamai touches the door, it is warm and beating, like it has a pulse. When she puts her ear to it, she hears her own name whispered from the other side. And when tragedy strikes, Kamai does the unthinkable: she opens the door.

A.M. Strickland's imaginative dark fantasy features court intrigue and romance, a main character coming to terms with her asexuality, and twists and turns as a seductive mystery unfolds that endangers not just Kamai's own soul, but the entire kingdom ...

Shay, one of the rare survivors of the epidemic sweeping the UK, has surrendered herself to the Army because she believes she's a carrier of the deadly disease. Along with other survivors, she unwillingly becomes a test subject in an effort to find a cure. When the lab where she's being held is attacked, Shay and a few others escape-with the help of Dr. Alex Cross, Kai's hated stepfather and Callie's father. Alex is the leader of the cult-like group Multiverse. Their agenda is murky, but genetic engineering might be one of their goals.

Meanwhile, a heartbroken Kai is determined to find Shay. He's discovered survivors aren't carriers, and Shay sacrificed herself for nothing. Teaming up with other survivors who are being hunted, Kai races to rescue Shay before it's too late. His sister, Callie, the true carrier of the epidemic, continues to hide her secret, and a wave of infection follows in her wake as she travels across the country.

As mysteries deepen, the teens must decide whom to trust, and their friendships are tested. Is Callie who she says she is? Should Shay trust the man her mother ran away from-a man Kai hates? Will Kai ever forgive Shay for her betrayal?

Simone Garcia-Hampton is starting over at a new school, and this time things will be different. She's making real friends, making a name for herself as student director of Rent, and making a play for Miles, the guy who makes her melt every time he walks into a room. The last thing she wants is for word to get out that she's HIV-positive, because last time...well, last time things got ugly.

Keeping her viral load under control is easy, but keeping her diagnosis under wraps is not so simple. As Simone and Miles start going out for real-shy kisses escalating into much more-she feels an uneasiness that goes beyond butterflies. She knows she has to tell him that she's positive, especially if sex is a possibility, but she's terrified of how he'll react! And then she finds an anonymous note in her locker: I know you have HIV. You have until Thanksgiving to stop hanging out with Miles. Or everyone else will know too.

Simone's first instinct is to protect her secret at all costs, but as she gains a deeper understanding of the prejudice and fear in her community, she begins to wonder if the only way to rise above is to face the haters head-on...

Girls Like Us by Randi Pink

Four teenage girls. Four different stories. What they all have in common is that they're dealing with unplanned pregnancies.

In rural Georgia, Izella is wise beyond her years, but burdened with the responsibility of her older sister, Ola, who has found out she's pregnant. Their young neighbor, Missippi, is also pregnant, but doesn't fully understand the extent of her predicament. When her father sends her to Chicago to give birth, she meets the final narrator, Susan, who is white and the daughter of an anti-choice senator.

In the walled city-state of Alu, Kammani wants nothing more than to become the accomplished healer her father used to be before her family was cast out of their privileged life in shame.

When Alu's ruler falls deathly ill, Kammani's beautiful little sister, Nanaea, is chosen as one of three sacred maidens to join him in the afterlife. It's an honor. A tradition. And Nanaea believes it is her chance to live an even grander life than the one that was stolen from her.

But Kammani sees the selection for what it really is-a death sentence.

Desperate to save her sister, Kammani schemes her way into the palace to heal the ruler. There she discovers more danger lurking in the sand-stone corridors than she could have ever imagined and that her own life-and heart-are at stake. But Kammani will stop at nothing to dig up the palace's buried secrets even if it means sacrificing everything...including herself.
Hope had abandoned them to the wrath of all the waters.
In the last days of the twenty-first century, sea creatures swim through the ruins of London. Trapped in the abyss, humankind wavers between fear and hope-fear of what lurks in the depths around them, and hope that they might one day find a way back to the surface.

When sixteen-year-old submersible racer Leyla McQueen is chosen to participate in the prestigious annual marathon, she sees an opportunity to save her father, who has been arrested on false charges. The Prime Minister promises the champion whatever their heart desires. But the race takes an unexpected turn, forcing Leyla to make an impossible choice.

Now she must brave unfathomable waters and defy a corrupt government determined to keep its secrets, all the while dealing with a guarded, hotheaded companion she never asked for in the first place. If Leyla fails to discover the truths at the heart of her world, or falls prey to her own fears, she risks capture-or worse. And her father will be lost to her forever.

Sixteen-year-old Eva is a princess, born with the magick of blood and marrow-a dark and terrible magick that hasn't been seen for generations in the vibrant but fractured country of Myre. Its last known practitioner was Queen Raina, who toppled the native khimaer royalty and massacred thousands, including her own sister, eight generations ago, thus beginning the Rival Heir tradition. Living in Raina's long and dark shadow, Eva must now face her older sister, Isa, in a battle to the death if she hopes to ascend to the Ivory Throne-because in the Queendom of Myre only the strongest, most ruthless rulers survive.

When Eva is attacked by an assassin just weeks before the battle with her sister, she discovers there is more to the attempt on her life than meets the eye-and it isn't just her sister who wants to see her dead. As tensions escalate, Eva is forced to turn to a fey instructor of mythic proportions and a mysterious and handsome khimaer prince for help in growing her magick into something to fear. Because despite the love she still has for her sister, Eva will have to choose: Isa's death or her own.

A River of Royal Blood is an enthralling debut set in a lush North African inspired fantasy world that subtly but powerfully challenges our notions of power, history, and identity.

Naya Garth, recently resurrected, is returning to Talmir-to the homeland that betrayed her. She is no longer their spy and weapon. She will testify against her former ambassador and spymaster, Valn, the man who had her murdered. Sucked into complicated politics at the Congress of Powers, Naya must forge new alliances in order to survive-as a wraith, one of the undead, she is a reviled creature. But her true mission is to uncover secret necromancy journals that might achieve the impossible: resurrect her love, Corten, for a second time.

Corten is stuck in the fringe fighting against shadows and monsters pulling him toward true death. There he learns that something is brewing in the world of the living, in the distant land of Endra-a dangerous ritual that will seal shut the doors of death and create chaos. Will Naya and Corten be able to reunite long enough to find out who seeks immortality? In a sea of diplomats, is it even possible to uncover the truth without plunging the world into war?

November

5

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. Things are looking up... until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discover near the family's summer home-and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making. No one is quite who they seem to be in this twisty, soapy, gasp-inducing sequel to Jennifer Lynn Barnes' unputdownable Little White Lies.

On a scorching hot day in July 1936, thousands of people cheered as the U.S. Olympic teams boarded the S.S. Manhattan, bound for Berlin. Among the athletes were the 14 players representing the first-ever U.S. Olympic basketball team. As thousands of supporters waved American flags on the docks, it was easy to miss the one courageous man holding a BOYCOTT NAZI GERMANY sign. But it was too late for a boycott now; the ship had already left the harbor.

1936 was a turbulent time in world history. Adolf Hitler had gained power in Germany three years earlier. Jewish people and political opponents of the Nazis were the targets of vicious mistreatment, yet were unaware of the horrors that awaited them in the coming years. But the Olympians on board the S.S. Manhattan and other international visitors wouldn't see any signs of trouble in Berlin. Streets were swept, storefronts were painted, and every German citizen greeted them with a smile. Like a movie set, it was all just a facade, meant to distract from the terrible things happening behind the scenes.

This is the incredible true story of basketball, from its invention by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, to the sport's Olympic debut in Berlin and the eclectic mix of people, events and propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic that made it all possible. Includes photos throughout, a Who's-Who of the 1936 Olympics, bibliography, and index.

Lei, the naive country girl who became a royal courtesan, is now known as the Moonchosen, the commoner who managed to do what no one else could. But slaying the cruel Demon King wasn't the end of the plan-it's just the beginning. Now Lei and her warrior love Wren must travel the kingdom to gain support from the far-flung rebel clans. The journey is made even more treacherous thanks to a heavy bounty on Lei's head, as well as insidious doubts that threaten to tear Lei and Wren apart from within.

Meanwhile, an evil plot to eliminate the rebel uprising is taking shape, fueled by dark magic and vengeance. Will Lei succeed in her quest to overthrow the monarchy and protect her love for Wren, or will she fall victim to the sinister magic that seeks to destroy her?

Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom's borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution-send in Guinevere to be Arthur's wife...and his protector from those who want to see the young king's idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere's real name-and her true identity-is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.

To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old-including Arthur's own family-demand things continue as they have been, and the new-those drawn by the dream of Camelot-fight for a better way to live. And always, in the green hearts of forests and the black depths of lakes, magic lies in wait to reclaim the land.

Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. Because when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

The How and The Why by Cynthia Hand

Cassandra McMurtrey has the best parents a girl could ask for; they've given Cass a life she wouldn't trade for the world. She has everything she needs-but she has questions, too. Like, to know who she is. Where she came from. Questions her adoptive parents can't answer, no matter how much they love her.

But eighteen years ago, someone wrote Cass a series of letters. And they may just hold the answers Cass has been searching for.

Alternating between Cass's search for answers and letters from the pregnant teen who placed her for adoption, this emotionally resonant narrative is the perfect read for fans of Nina LaCour and Jandy Nelson.

Refraction by Naomi Hughes

After an attack on earth, all reflective surfaces become weapons to release monsters, causing a planet-wide ban on mirrors. Despite the danger, the demand rises, and 17-year-old Marty Callahan becomes a distributor in an illegal mirror trade―until he's caught by the mayor's son, whose slate is far from clean. Both of them are exiled for their crimes to one of the many abandoned cities overrun by fog. But they soon realize their thoughts influence their surroundings and their deepest fears begin to manifest.

With fast pacing and riveting characters, this is a book that you'll finish in one sitting.
The night my sister was born, the stars died and were reborn in her eyes....
Zuhra and Inara have grown up in the Citadel of the Paladins, an abandoned fortress where legendary, magical warriors once lived before disappearing from the world―including their Paladin father the night Inara was born.

On that same night, a massive, magical hedge grew and imprisoned them within the citadel. Inara inherited their father's Paladin power; her eyes glow blue and she is able to make plants grow at unbelievable rates, but she has been trapped in her own mind because of a "roar" that drowns everything else out―leaving Zuhra virtually alone with their emotionally broken human mother.

For fifteen years they have lived, trapped in the citadel, with little contact from the outside world...until the day a stranger passes through the hedge, and everything changes.
A girl searches for a killer on an island where deadly sirens lurk just beneath the waves in this gripping, atmospheric debut novel. The sea holds many secrets.
Moira Alexander has always been fascinated by the deadly sirens who lurk along the shores of her island town. Even though their haunting songs can lure anyone to a swift and watery grave, she gets as close to them as she can, playing her violin on the edge of the enchanted sea. When a young boy is found dead on the beach, the islanders assume that he's one of the sirens' victims. Moira isn't so sure.

Certain that someone has framed the boy's death as a siren attack, Moira convinces her childhood friend, the lighthouse keeper Jude Osric, to help her find the real killer, rekindling their friendship in the process. With townspeople itching to hunt the sirens down, and their own secrets threatening to unravel their fragile new alliance, Moira and Jude must race against time to stop the killer before it's too late-for humans and sirens alike.

Will love break the spell? After cruelly rejecting Bao, the poor physician's apprentice who loves her, Lan, a wealthy nobleman's daughter, regrets her actions. So when she finds Bao's prized flute floating in his boat near her house, she takes it into her care, not knowing that his soul has been trapped inside it by an evil witch, who cursed Bao, telling him that only love will set him free. Though Bao now despises her, Lan vows to make amends and help break the spell.

Together, the two travel across the continent, finding themselves in the presence of greatness in the forms of the Great Forest's Empress Jade and Commander Wei. They journey with Wei, getting tangled in the webs of war, blood magic, and romance along the way. Will Lan and Bao begin to break the spell that's been placed upon them? Or will they be doomed to live out their lives with black magic running through their veins?

In this fantastical tale of darkness and love, some magical bonds are stronger than blood.

Mia Rose is back from the dead. Her memories are hazy, her body numb-but she won't stop searching. Her only hope to save the boy she loves and the sister who destroyed her is to find the mother she can never forgive.

After her mother's betrayal, Pilar is on a hunt of her own-to seek out the only person who can exact revenge. All goes according to plan until she collides with Prince Quin, the boy whose sister she killed.

As Mia, Pilar, and Quin forge dangerous new alliances, they are bewitched by the snow kingdom's promise of freedom...but nothing is as it seems under the kingdom's glimmering ice.
10 Years. 3 Gangs. 1 Girl's Epic Quest... In the highly anticipated finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy, dictators, prophets, and tensions rise. In a world that's conquered death, will humanity finally be torn asunder by the immortal beings it created?
Valerie Simons knows the Wars are dangerous―her little brother was killed by the Boars two years ago. But nothing will sway Valerie from joining the elite and beautiful Herons with her boyfriend Matthew to avenge her brother. But when Jax, the volatile and beyond charismatic leader of the Stags, promises her revenge, Valerie is torn between old love and new loyalty.

*The Toll by Neal Shusterman

Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world scythedom. With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him?

The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder.
Be careful of the dark, dark wood...
All's fair in love and anarchy...

Supernova, the epic conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer's thrilling Renegades Trilogy finds Nova and Adrian struggling to keep their secret identities concealed while the battle rages on between their alter egos, their allies, and their greatest fears come to life. Secrets, lies, and betrayals are revealed as anarchy once again threatens to reclaim Gatlon City.

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it's this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman-the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago-and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he'd been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver's presence. And it's not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn't know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own-secrets he'll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn't the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.

12
This modern, groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center.
Allie Abraham has it all going for her-she's a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family, and she's dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. One problem: Wells's father is Jack Henderson, America's most famous conservative shock jock...and Allie hasn't told Wells that her family is Muslim. It's not like Allie's religion is a secret, exactly. It's just that her parents don't practice and raised her to keep her Islamic heritage to herself. But as Allie witnesses ever-growing Islamophobia in her small town and across the nation, she begins to embrace her faith-studying it, practicing it, and facing hatred and misunderstanding for it. Who is Allie, if she sheds the façade of the "perfect" all-American girl? What does it mean to be a "Good Muslim?"And can a Muslim girl in America ever truly fit in?

ALL-AMERICAN MUSLIM GIRL is a relevant, relatable story of being caught between two worlds, and the struggles and hard-won joys of finding your place.

When people ask me what this anthology is about, I'm often tempted to give them the complicated answer: it's about race, and about how being different from the person you love can matter but how it can also not matter, and it's about Chinese pirate ghosts, black girl vigilantes, colonial India, a flower festival, a garden of poisons, and so, so much else. Honestly, though? I think the answer's much simpler than that. Color outside the Lines is a collection of stories about young, fierce, brilliantly hopeful people in love.

Ever since her troubled mother abandoned her, Trix McCabe has preferred to stay on the move.

But when she lands with her long-lost relatives, she finds out that the McCabe women have talents like her own that defy explanation: pies that cure all ills, palm-reading that never misses the mark, knowledge of secrets that have never been told.

Before long, Trix feels like she might finally have found somewhere she belongs. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she'll have to decide whether to take a chance on this new life . . . or keep running from the one she's always known.

In Lanoria, Outsiders, who don't have magic, are inferior to Enchanteds, who do. That's just a fact for Astrid, an Outsider who is indentured to pay off her family's debts. She serves as the surrogate for the princess-if Renya steps out of line, Astrid is the one who bears the punishment for it.

But there is a way out: the life-or-death Race of Oblivion. First, racers are dosed with the drug Oblivion, which wipes their memories. Then, when they awake in the middle of nowhere, only cryptic clues-and a sheer will to live-will lead them through treacherous terrain full of opponents who wouldn't think twice about killing each other to get ahead.

But what throws Astrid the most is what she never expected to encounter in this race. A familiar face she can't place. Secret powers she shouldn't have. And a confusing memory of the past that, if real, could mean the undoing of the entire social structure that has kept her a slave her entire life.

Competing could mean death...but it could also mean freedom.

Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she's hilarious.

It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie has kept her jokes to herself. Well, to herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration.

Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv troupe. Maybe he's even . . . flirting?

Just when Winnie's ready to say yes to comedy again, her father reveals that he's been diagnosed with ALS. That is . . . not funny. Her dad's still making jokes, though, which feels like a good thing. And Winnie's prepared to be his straight man if that's what he wants. But is it what he needs?

Caught up in a spiral of epically bad dates, bad news, and bad performances, Winnie's struggling to see the humor in it all. But finding a way to laugh is exactly what will see her through.

Seventeen-year-old coder Jinx Marshall grew up spending weekends drilling with her paranoid dad for a doomsday she's sure will never come. She's an expert on self-heating meal rations, Krav Maga and extracting water from a barrel cactus. Now that her parents are divorced, she's ready to relax. Her big plans include making it to level 99 in her favorite MMORPG and spending the weekend with her new hunky stepbrother, Toby.
Sev must decode her mother's last words to find the cure to Sleeping Sickness before Dr. Yang can use it to blackmail the world into submitting to his rule in this thrilling finale to the Last Star Burning trilogy.
But all that disaster training comes in handy when an explosion traps her in a burning building. Stuck leading her headstrong stepsister, MacKenna, and her precocious little brother, Charles, to safety, Jinx gets them out alive only to discover the explosion is part of a pattern of violence erupting all over the country. Even worse, Jinx's dad stands accused of triggering the chaos.

In a desperate attempt to evade paramilitary forces and vigilantes, Jinx and her siblings find Toby and make a break for Mexico. With seemingly the whole world working against them, they've got to get along and search for the truth about the attacks-and about each other. But if they can survive, will there be anything left worth surviving for?

Sev finally knows where to find the cure to Sleeping Sickness. The only problem is that she's trapped in an endless sleep herself after refusing to give up her secrets to Dr. Yang.

Howl is determined to save Sev, but he has no idea where Dr. Yang is keeping her. When he runs into a group fleeing Port North on a mission of their own, he has no choice but to follow and hope they can get him back to the mountains before it's too late.

June, infected with SS by the very people she calls family, has now become the one thing she most fears. She's supposed to be Port North's insurance that Howl and Sev return with the cure, but June has other ideas.

And Tai-ge, reunited with the Reds, is airlifted to the City now overrun by SS. He's charged with getting the factories running again by any means necessary-no matter how many Sephs stand in his way.

There's only one thing strong enough to unite people who have been fighting for years, and Sev holds the key to it inside her mind. If she can't reach the cure in time, there may not be anyone left to save.

Gravity by Sarah Deming

Gravity "Doomsday" Delgado is good at breaking things. Maybe she learned it from her broken home.

But since she started boxing with a legendary coach at a gym in Brooklyn, Gravity is finding her talent for breaking things has an upside. Lately, she's been breaking records, breaking her competitors, and breaking down the walls inside her. Boxing is taking her places, and if she just stays focused, she knows she'll have a shot at the Olympics.

Life outside the ring is heating up, too. Suddenly she's flirting (and more) with a cute boxer at her gym-much to her coach's disapproval. Meanwhile, things at home with Gravity's mom are reaching a tipping point, and Gravity has to look out for her little brother, Ty. With Olympic dreams, Gravity will have to decide what is worth fighting for.

*OtherLife by Jason Segel, Kirsten Miller

Simon, Kat, Busara, and Elvis are on the run with the tech super-villains at the Company hot on their heels. The new VR gaming experience the Company created, OtherEarth, will change how the world experiences video games. Paired with the hardware the Company developed, it has the potential to change the world as we know it, altering our reality forever.

The Company is on its way to becoming the world's newest superpower. And Simon is determined to shut them down forever. But to do that, he'll have to survive OtherLife-the next phase of gaming, and a complete reality reboot.

At the end of one world, there always lies another. Safire, a soldier, knows her role in this world is to serve the king of Firgaard-helping to maintain the peace in her oft-troubled nation.

Eris, a deadly pirate, has no such conviction. Known as the Death Dancer for her ability to evade even the most determined of pursuers, she possesses a superhuman power to move between worlds.

Now Safire and Eris-sworn enemies-find themselves on a common mission: to find Asha, the last Namsara. From the port city of Darmoor to the fabled faraway Star Isles, their search and their stories become woven ever more tightly together as they discover that the uncertain fate they're hurtling toward just may be a shared one. In this world-and the next.

This Is 18 by Jessica Bennett, New York Times

Featuring and photographed by young women, This Is 18 is an immersive look at what it means to be on the cusp of adulthood around the world and across cultures. Twenty-one empowering and uniquely personal profiles, expanded from the New York Times interactive feature and curated by Gender Editor Jessica Bennett, with Sandra Stevenson, Anya Strzemien, and Sharon Attia, give teen readers a rare glimpse at the realities and interests of their contemporaries. With stunning photography and a gifty design, This Is 18 is a perfect tribute to girlhood for readers of all ages.

Eighteen-year-old Devon longs for two things.

The stars.

And the boy she fell in love with last summer.

When Ashton breaks Devon's heart at the end of the most romantic and magical summer ever, she thinks her heart will never heal again. But over the course of the following year, Devon finds herself slowly putting the broken pieces back together.

Now it's senior year and she's determined to enjoy every moment of it, as she prepares for a future studying galaxies. That is, until Ashton shows up on the first day of school.

Can she forgive and open her heart to him again? Or are they doomed to repeat history?

19

How much does the internet know about YOU? A thought-provoking near future YA thriller that could not be more timely as it explores issues of online privacy, artificial intelligence, and the power and perils of social networks.

Because her mom is always on the move, Steph hasn't lived anyplace longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNet-a social media site where users upload cat pictures-a place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesn't know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I.
Two teens fight for their lives after an alien invasion in this heart-stopping follow-up to Zero Repeat Forever. Humans. Clones. Aliens. No one is safe anymore. It's the end of the world.
When a threat from Steph's past catches up to her and ChesireCat's existence is discovered by outsiders, it's up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her.

Catfishing on CatNet is a surprising, heartfelt near-future YA thriller by award-winning author Naomi Kritzer, whose short story "Cat Pictures Please" won the Hugo Award and Locus Award and was a finalist for the Nebula.

Xander Liu survived the alien invasion-just barely. For more than a year, he has outsmarted, hidden from, and otherwise avoided the ruthless intruders, the Nahx, dodging the deadly darts that have claimed so many. When the murder of his friend leaves him in the protective company of August, a rebellious Nahx soldier, Xander is finally able to make his way back to human controlled territory and relative safety. But safety among the humans is not what it seems.
He will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne
When Raven awakes on a wide expanse of snowy sand dunes, she has many questions. What has happened to her and the other reanimated humans gathered around her? What is the meaning of the Nahx ships that hover ominously above them? And most pressing of all, where is August, who promised to keep her safe?

In the shadow of an unforgiving Canadian winter, Xander and Raven find themselves on opposite sides of an alien war. Left with little choice about their roles in the looming battle, they search for answers and allies all while being drawn back to the place where their respective fates were determined, and to the one who determined them: August.

Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.

Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan's betrayal. She bides her time determined to reclaim everything he took from her. Opportunity arrives in the form of her deceptive twin sister, Taryn, whose mortal life is in peril.

Jude must risk venturing back into the treacherous Faerie Court, and confront her lingering feelings for Cardan, if she wishes to save her sister. But Elfhame is not as she left it. War is brewing. As Jude slips deep within enemy lines she becomes ensnared in the conflict's bloody politics.
Lovers of dark, high-octane adventure will be enthralled by Sarah Harian's Eight Will Fall, a genre-bending YA fantasy standalone, perfect for fans of Kendare Blake and Leigh Bardugo.
And, when a dormant yet powerful curse is unleashed, panic spreads throughout the land, forcing her to choose between her ambition and her humanity...

26

In a world where magic is illegal, eight criminals led by rebellious Larkin are sent on a mission to rid their realm of an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface. Descending into a world full of unspeakable horrors, Larkin and her crew must use their forbidden magic to survive.

As they fight in the shadows, Larkin finds a light in Amias, a fellow outlaw with a notorious past. Soon, Larkin and Amias realize that their destinies are intertwined. The eight of them were chosen for a reason.

But as the beasts grow in number and her band is picked off one by one, Larkin is forced to confront a terrible truth: They were never meant to return.

*Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she's a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. The rumors of his cowardice are true-he deserted his flight during battle against the Krell. Worse, though, he turned against his team and attacked them.

Spensa is sure there's more to the story. And she's sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars-and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie.

But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself-and she'll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.

It's been two months since Zara's sister Laila was found lifeless on the village green of the small Irish town Kilshamble, not a mark on her. Vicious rumors circle that she died of an overdose or committed suicide-but an autopsy finds no evidence.

Zara believes somebody must know what happened, and she throws herself headfirst into an investigation. But retracing her sister's footsteps takes her to David, a member of an ancient magical faction called the judges. The judges are in the midst of an ancient feud with another faction called the augurs, and Zara quickly finds herself embroiled in a dangerous, twisted game. And if she isn't careful on the path she's treading, she could end up with the same fate as Laila.

Riveting, atmospheric, and full of dangerous magic, this lyrical novel set in the world of The Wren Hunt is perfect for readers of Maggie Stiefvater and Melissa Albert.

December

3

After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could've imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi's New York Times bestselling debut Children of Blood and Bone, the first title in her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy.

Lady Victoria Aston has everything she could want: an older sister happily wed, the future of her family estate secure, and ample opportunity to while her time away in the fields around her home.

But now Vicky must marry-or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, she enters society's treacherous season.

Sadly, Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky's exact circumstances: whether the roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend, Tom Sherborne, is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the unfortunate fashion sensibility.

Most unfortunately of all, Vicky's books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her...ones that could prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.

Mirage, triumphant in her coup of the Amber Empire, returns to the palais prepared to take her place as empress. With the support of her friends and a tentative, blossoming romance with Sunder, Mirage is on the cusp of taking hold of everything she has ever wanted.
The end is here.
However, her place in the sun is not as sure as she expected, nor is it quite as bright as she imagined.

When the Empress Severine's body was recovered from the battle, Mirage discovered she was not dead after all. Rather, Severine is in a coma, her every breath a threat to Mirage's newfound power. Worse, a distant cousin, Gavin d'Ars, appears at court with the challenge of his blood claim. As Mirage uncovers more secrets from her family's past, she proposes a series of ancient, grueling trials to determine the most deserving heir. But in Mirage's fight to defend her vision for the empire, she begins to splinter all of her alliances. Will the battle for control leave anyone untainted?

Tenn thought the spirits wanted him to find his fellow Hunter, Aidan, to win the war against the undead. But with Aidan on the brink of self-destruction and Tenn reeling from his lover's spite, their fated convergence seems far from promising.

Especially because Aidan no longer appears to be fighting for the living.
Every time a lad went fowling on the stacs, he came home less of a boy and more of a man. If he went home at all, that is.
With the Dark Lady whispering commands and Tom‡s guiding his hand, Aidan slips deeper into darkness. And while the world rallies for its final battle against the Dark Lady's minions, Tenn finds himself torn between saving the boy who's slipping away and fulfilling a prophecy he can't understand-one that will require him to harness the most powerful magic the world has ever seen: the Sphere of Maya.

And depending on who unleashes its power, that magic could either save humanity...or erase it.

Every summer Quill and his friends are put ashore on a remote sea stac to hunt birds. But this summer, no one arrives to take them home. Surely nothing but the end of the world can explain why they've been abandoned―cold, starving and clinging to life, in the grip of a murderous ocean. How will they survive such a forsaken place of stone and sea?

This is an extraordinary story of fortitude, endurance, tragedy and survival, set against an unforgettable backdrop of savage beauty.

10

Point of View by Patrick Bard

The first time a link to a porn video pops up on his computer screen, Lucas is startled. He was simply trying to stream a superhero movie. Transfixed by the scene that unfolds, he experiences his first stirrings of arousal. Lucas soon realizes that he wants to recapture that same excitement, and it's not long before he starts down a path that takes hold of his every thought-day and night.

Only when his secret is revealed and everything comes crashing down around him can Lucas confront his compulsions. But even as feelings of shame overwhelm him, his urges seem impossible to ignore, and interacting with real people is difficult. As Lucas gets help, it becomes clear to him and those around him that he can recover and find a new direction for his life despite this addiction.

With a naive and confused protagonist and multilayered storytelling, this is a no-holds-barred look at a teenage boy falling prey to the world of cybersex, the perils of porn addiction, and the difficult road to recovery for addicts and their loved ones.

17

Mansfield, Massachusetts, is the last place seventeen-year-old Edie Price wants to spend her final summer before college. It's the home of wealthy suburban mothers and prima donnas like Edie's cousins, who are determined to distract her from her mother's death with cute boys and Cinderella-style makeovers. She's got her own plans, and they don't include any prince charming.

But as she dives into schoolwork and getting a scholarship for college, Edie finds herself drawn to two Mansfield boys strumming for her attention: First, there's Sebastian, Edie's childhood friend and first love, who's sweet and smart and...already has a girlfriend. Then there's Henry, the local bad boy and all-around player who's totally off limits-even if his kisses are chemically addictive.

Both boys are trouble. Edie can't help herself from being caught between them. Now, she just has to make sure it isn't her heart that breaks in the process.

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Fall 2019 YA Books: 90+ October-December New Releases

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There are so many exciting YA books still to come to get excited for, and we've rounded up more than 90 October-December 2019 YA releases.

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Learning for Justice is a community education program of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that centers civic and political action education for everyone.

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This statement was originally developed in 1981, revised April 2009 to adhere to NCTE's Policy on Involvement of People of Color, and revised again in September 2018. The Right to Read and the Teacher of English
Overview: The Students' Right to Read provides resources that can be used to help discuss and ensure students' free access to all texts. The genesis of the Students' Right to Read was an original Council statement, "Request for Reconsideration of a Work," prepared by the Committee on the Right to Read of the National Council of Teachers of English and revised by Ken Donelson. The current Students' Right to Read statement represents an updated second edition that builds on the work of Council members dedicated to ensuring students the freedom to choose to read any text and opposing "efforts of individuals or groups to limit the freedom of choice of others." Supported through references from text challenges and links to resources, this statement discusses the history and dangers of text censorship which highlight the breadth and significance of the Students' Right to Read. The statement then culminates in processes that can be followed with different stakeholders when students' reading rights are infringed.

For many years, American schools have been pressured to restrict or deny students access to texts deemed objectionable by some individual or group. These pressures have mounted in recent years, and English teachers have no reason to believe they will diminish. The fight against censorship is a continuing series of skirmishes, not a pitched battle leading to a final victory over censorship.

We can safely make two statements about censorship: first, any text is potentially open to attack by someone, somewhere, sometime, for some reason; second, censorship is often arbitrary and irrational. For example, classics traditionally used in English classrooms have been accused of containing obscene, heretical, or subversive elements such as the following:

Plato's Republic: "the book is un-Christian"

Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days: "very unfavorable to Mormons"

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter: "a filthy book"

Shakespeare's Macbeth: "too violent for children today"

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment: "a poor model for young people"

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: "contains homosexuality"

Modern works, even more than the classics, are criticized with terms such as "filthy," "un-American," "overly realistic," and "anti-war." Some books have been attacked merely for being "controversial," suggesting that for some people the purpose of education is not the investigation of ideas but rather the indoctrination of a certain set of beliefs and standards. Referencing multiple years of research completed by the American Library Association (ALA), the following statements represent complaints typical of those made against modern works of literature:

D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye: "profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled"

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: "uses the name of God and Jesus in a vain and profane manner"

Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson's And Tango Makes Three: "anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group"

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: "promotes racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy"

Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia: "occult/Satanism, offensive language, violence"

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: "offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group"

Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings's I Am Jazz: "inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group"

Some groups and individuals have also raised objections to literature written specifically for young people. As long as novels intended for young people stayed at the intellectual and emotional level of A Date for Marcy or A Touchdown for Thunderbird High, censors could forego criticism. But many contemporary novels for adolescents focus on the real world of young people-drugs, premarital sex, alcoholism, divorce, gangs, school dropouts, racism, violence, and sensuality. English teachers willing to defend classics and modern literature must be prepared to give equally spirited defense to serious and worthwhile children's and young adult novels.

Literature about minoritized ethnic or racial groups remains "controversial" or "objectionable" to many adults. As long as groups such as African Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latinxs "kept their proper place"-awarded them by a White society-censors rarely raised their voices. But attacks have increased in frequency as minoritized groups have refused to observe their assigned "place." Though nominally, the criticisms of literature about minoritized racial or ethnic groups have usually been directed at "bad language," "suggestive situations," "questionable literary merit," or "ungrammatical English" (usually oblique complaints about the different dialect or culture of a group), the underlying motive for some attacks has unquestionably been discriminatory. Typical of censors' criticisms of ethnic works are the following comments:

Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: "homosexuality, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group"

Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima: "occult/Satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, violence"

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner: "sexual violence, religious themes, 'may lead to terrorism'"

Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: "anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence, depictions of bullying"

Books are not alone in being subject to censorship. Magazines or newspapers used, recommended, or referred to in English classes have increasingly drawn the censor's fire. Few libraries would regard their periodical collection as worthwhile or representative without some or all of the following publications, but all of them have been the target of censors on occasion:

National Geographic: "Nudity and sensationalism, especially in stories on barbaric foreign people."

Scholastic Magazine: "Doctrines opposing the beliefs of the majority, socialistic programs; promotes racial unrest and contains very detailed geography of foreign countries, especially those inhabited by dark people."

National Observer: "Right-wing trash with badly reported news."

New York Times: "That thing should be outlawed after printing the Pentagon Papers and helping our country's enemies."

The immediate results of demands to censor books or periodicals vary. At times, school boards and administrators have supported and defended their teachers, their use of materials under fire, and the student's right of access to the materials. At other times, however, special committees have been formed to cull out "objectionable works" or "modern trash" or "controversial literature." Some teachers have been summarily reprimanded for assigning certain works, even to mature students. Others have been able to retain their positions only after initiating court action.

Not as sensational, but perhaps more important, are the long range effects of censoring the rights of educators and students to self-select what they read and engage with. Schools have removed texts from libraries and classrooms and curricula have been changed when English teachers have avoided using or recommending works which might make some members of the community uncomfortable or angry. Over the course of their schooling, many students are consequently "educated" in a system that is hostile to critical inquiry and dialogue. And many teachers and other school staff learn to emphasize their own sense of comfort and safety rather than their students' needs.

The problem of censorship does not derive solely from the small anti-intellectual, ultra-moral, or ultra-patriotic groups which will typically function in a society that guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The present concern is rather with the frequency and force of attacks by others, often people of good will and the best intentions, some from within the teaching profession. The National Council of Teachers of English, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the American Library Association, as well as the publishing industry and writers themselves agree: pressures for censorship are great throughout our society.
Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. . . . A problem can no longer be pursued with impunity to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she [sic] becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin.
The material that follows is divided into two sections. The first on "The Right to Read" is addressed to parents and the community at large. The other section, "A Program of Action," lists Council recommendations for establishing professional committees in every school to set up procedures for book selection, to work for community support, and to review complaints against texts.
The Right to Read
-Justice William O. Douglas, United States Supreme Court: Adler v. Board of Education, 1951

An open letter to our country from the National Council of Teachers of English:

The right to read, like all rights guaranteed or implied within our constitutional tradition, can be used wisely or foolishly. In many ways, education is an effort to improve the quality of choices open to all students. But to deny the freedom of choice in fear that it may be unwisely used is to destroy the freedom itself. For this reason, we respect the right of individuals to be selective in their own reading. But for the same reason, we oppose efforts of individuals or groups to limit the freedom of choice of others or to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large.

One of the foundations of a democratic society is the individual's right to read, and also the individual's right to freely choose what they would like to read. This right is based on an assumption that the educated possess judgment and understanding and can be trusted with the determination of their own actions. In effect, the reader is freed from the bonds of chance. The reader is not limited by birth, geographic location, or time, since reading allows meeting people, debating philosophies, and experiencing events far beyond the narrow confines of an individual's own existence.

In selecting texts to read by young people, English teachers consider the contribution each work may make to the education of the reader, its aesthetic value, its honesty, its readability for a particular group of students, and its appeal to young children and adolescents. English teachers, however, may use different texts for different purposes. The criteria for choosing a text to be read by an entire class are somewhat different from the criteria for choosing texts to be read by small groups.

For example, a teacher might select John Knowles's A Separate Peace for reading by an entire class, partly because the book has received wide critical recognition, partly because it is relatively short and will keep the attention of many slower readers, and partly because it has proved popular with many students of widely differing skill sets. The same teacher, faced with the responsibility of choosing or recommending books for several small groups of students, might select or recommend books as different as Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Malcolm X's The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, Carlos Bulosan's America Is in the Heart, or Paul Zindel's The Pigman, depending upon the skills and interests of the students in each group.

And the criteria for suggesting books to individuals or for recommending something worth reading for a student who casually stops by after class are different from selecting material for a class or group. As opposed to censoring, the teacher selects texts, and also helps guide students to self-select them. Selection implies that one is free to choose a text, depending upon the purpose to be achieved and the students or class in question, but a book selected this year may be ignored next year, and the reverse. Censorship implies that certain works are not open to selection, this year or any year.

Wallace Stevens once wrote, "Literature is the better part of life. To this it seems inevitably necessary to add / provided life is the better part of literature" (1957). Students and parents have the right to demand that education today keep students in touch with the reality of the world outside the classroom. Many of our best literary works ask questions as valid and significant today as when the literature first appeared, questions like "What is the nature of humanity?" "Why do people praise individuality and practice conformity?" "What do people need for a good life?" and "What is the nature of a good person?" English teachers must be free to employ books, classic or contemporary, which do not hide, or lie to the young, about the perilous but wondrous times we live in, books which talk of the fears, hopes, joys, and frustrations people experience, books about people not only as they are but as they can be. English teachers forced through the pressures of censorship to use only safe or antiseptic works are placed in the morally and intellectually untenable position of lying to their students about the nature and condition of humanity.
The Threat to Education
The teacher must exercise care to select or recommend works for class reading and group discussion. One of the most important responsibilities of the English teacher is developing rapport and respect among students. Respect for the uniqueness and potential of the individual, an important facet of the study of literature, should be emphasized in the English class. One way rapport and respect can be developed is through encouraging the students themselves to explore and engage with texts of their own selection. Also, English classes should reflect the cultural contributions of minoritized groups in the United States, just as they should acquaint students with diverse contributions by the many peoples of the world. Finally, the teacher should be prepared to support and defend their classroom and students' process in selecting and engaging with diverse texts against potential censorship and controversy.

Censorship leaves students with an inadequate and distorted picture of the ideals, values, and problems of their culture. Writers may often represent their culture, or they may stand to the side and describe and evaluate that culture. Yet partly because of censorship or the fear of censorship, many writers are ignored or inadequately represented in the public schools, and many are represented in anthologies not by their best work but by their "safest" or "least offensive" work.

The censorship pressures receiving the greatest publicity are those of small groups who protest the use of a limited number of books with some "objectionable" realistic elements, such as Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, George, The Joy Luck Club, Catch-22, Their Eyes Were Watching God, or A Day No Pigs Would Die. The most obvious and immediate victims are often found among our best and most creative English teachers, those who have ventured outside the narrow boundaries of conventional texts. Ultimately, however, the real victims are the students, denied the freedom to explore ideas and pursue truth wherever and however they wish.
The Community's Responsibility
Great damage may be done by book committees appointed by national or local organizations to pore over anthologies, texts, library books, and paperbacks to find passages which advocate, or seem to advocate, causes or concepts or practices these organizations condemn. As a result, some publishers, sensitive to possible objections, carefully exclude sentences or selections that might conceivably offend some group, somehow, sometime, somewhere.

Individuals who care about the improvement of education are urged to join students, teachers, librarians, administrators, boards of education, and professional and scholarly organizations in support of the students' right to read. Widespread and informed support in and across communities can assure that
A Program of Action

enough residents are interested in the development and maintenance of a rigorous school system to guarantee its achievement;

malicious gossip, ignorant rumors, internet posts, and deceptive letters to the editor will not be circulated without challenge and correction;

news media will observe that the public sincerely desires objective reporting about education, free from slanting or editorial comment which destroys confidence in and support for schools;

the community will not permit its resources and energies to be dissipated in conflicts created by special interest groups striving to advance their ideologies or biases; and

faith in democratic processes will be promoted and maintained.

Censorship in schools is a widespread problem. Teachers of English, librarians, and school administrators can best serve students, literature, and the profession today if they prepare now to face pressures sensibly, demonstrating on the one hand a willingness to consider the merits of any complaint and on the other the courage to defend their literacy program with intelligence and vigor. The Council therefore recommends that schools undertake the following two-step program to protect the students' right to read:
Procedures for Text Selection

establish a diverse committee that is representative of the local school community to consider book selection procedures and to screen complaints; and

promote a community atmosphere in which local residents may be enlisted to support the freedom to read.

Although one may defend the freedom to read without reservation as one of the hallmarks of a free society, there is no substitute for informed, professional, and qualified book selection. English teachers are typically better qualified to choose and recommend texts for their classes than persons not prepared in the field. Nevertheless, administrators have certain legal and professional responsibilities. For these reasons and as a matter of professional courtesy, they should be kept informed about the criteria and the procedures used by English teachers in selecting books and the titles of the texts used.

In each school, the English department should develop its own statement explaining why literature is taught and how books are chosen for each class. This statement should be on file with the administration before any complaints are received. The statement should also support the teacher's right to choose supplementary materials, to build a diverse classroom library, and to discuss controversial issues insofar as they are relevant. In addition, students should be allowed the right to self-select books to read from classroom and school library shelves.

Operating within such a policy, the English department should take the following steps:

1. Establish a committee to support English teachers in finding exciting and challenging texts of potential value to students at a specific school. Schools without departments or small schools with a few English teachers should organize a permanent committee charged with the responsibility of alerting other teachers to new texts just published, or old texts now forgotten which might prove valuable in the literacy program. Students should be encouraged to participate in the greatest degree that their development and skill sets allow.

2. Devote time at each department or grade-level meeting to reviews and comments by the above committee or plan special meetings for this purpose. Free and open discussions on texts of potential value to students would seem both reasonable and normal for any English department. Teachers should be encouraged to challenge any texts recommended or to suggest titles hitherto ignored. Require that each English teacher give a rationale for any text to be read by an entire class. Written rationales for all texts read by an entire class would serve the department well if censorship should strike. A file of rationales should serve as impressive evidence to the administration and the community that English teachers have not chosen their texts lightly or haphazardly.

3. Report to the administration the texts that will be used for class reading by each English teacher.

The Legal Problem
A procedure such as this gives each teacher the right to expect support from fellow teachers and administrators whenever someone objects to a text.

Apart from the professional and moral issues involved in censorship, there are legal matters about which NCTE cannot give advice. The Council is not a legal authority. Across the nation, moreover, conditions vary so much that no one general principle applies. In some states, for example, textbooks are purchased from public funds and supplied free to students; in others, students must rent or buy their own texts.

The legal status of textbook adoption lists also varies. Some lists include only those books which must be taught and allow teachers and sometimes students the freedom to select additional titles; other lists are restrictive, containing the only books which may be required for all students.
Preparing the Community
As a part of sensible preparations for handling attacks on books, each school should ascertain what laws apply to it.

To respond to complaints about texts, every school should have a committee of teachers (and possibly students, parents, and other representatives from the local community) organized to
Defending the Texts

1. inform the community about text selection procedures;

2. enlist the support of residents, possibly by explaining the place of literacy and relevant texts in the educational process or by discussing at meetings of parents and other community groups the texts used at that school; and

3. consider any complaints against any work. No community is so small that it lacks concerned people who care about their children and the educational program of the schools, and will support English teachers in defending books when complaints are received. Unfortunately, English teachers too often are unaware or do not seek out these people and cultivate their goodwill and support before censorship strikes.

Despite the care taken to select worthwhile texts for student reading and the qualifications of teachers selecting and recommending books, occasional objections to a work will undoubtedly be made. All texts are potentially open to criticism in one or more general areas: the treatment of ideologies, of minorities, of gender identities, of love and sex; the use of language not acceptable to some people; the type of illustrations; the private life or political affiliations of the author or the illustrator.

Some attacks are made by groups or individuals frankly hostile to free inquiry and open discussion; others are made by misinformed or misguided people who, acting on emotion or rumor, simply do not understand how the texts are to be used. Others are also made by well-intentioned and conscientious people who fear that harm will come to some segment of the community if a particular text is read or recommended.

What should be done upon receipt of a complaint?

If the complainant telephones, listen courteously and refer them to the teacher involved. That teacher should be the first person to discuss the text with the person objecting to its use.

If the complainant is not satisfied, invite them to file the complaint in writing, but make no commitments, admissions of guilt, or threats.

If the complainant writes, contact the teacher involved and have the teacher call the complainant.

For any of the situations above, the teacher is advised to be aware of local contractual and policy stipulations regarding such situations, and keep a written record of what transpired during the complaint process.

Request for Reconsideration of a Text
An additional option is to contact the NCTE Intellectual Freedom Center to report incidents and seek further resources ( https://www2.ncte.org/resources/ncte-intellectual-freedom-center/).

Author ____________________________________________

Paperback_____ Hardcover _____ Online _____

Title ______________________________________________

Publisher (if known) __________________________________

Website URL (if applicable) ___________________________

Request initiated by __________________________________

Telephone _________________________________________

Address ___________________________________________

City / State / Zip _______________________________________________

Complainant represents
____ (Name of individual) ___________________________
____ (Name of organization) ___________________________

1. Have you been able to discuss this work with the teacher or librarian who ordered it or who used it?
____ Yes ____ No

2. What do you understand to be the general purpose for using this work?

Provide support for a unit in the curriculum?
___ Yes ___ No

Provide a learning experience for the reader in one kind of literature?
___ Yes ___ No

Provide opportunities for students self-selected reading experiences?

___ Yes ___ No

Did the general purpose for the use of the work, as described by the teacher or librarian, seem a suitable one to you?
____Yes ____ No

1. What do you think is the author's general purpose for this book?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

2. In what ways do you think a work of this nature is not suitable for the use the teacher or librarian wishes to carry out?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

3. What have been students' responses to this work?
____ Yes ____ No

If yes, what responses did the students make?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

Have you been able to learn what qualified reviewers or other students have written about this work?
____ Yes ____ No

If yes, what are those responses?
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

1. Would you like the teacher or librarian to give you a written summary of what qualified reviewers and other students have written about this book or film?
____ Yes ____ No

2. Do you have negative reviews of the book?
____ Yes ____ No

3. Where were they published?
__________________________________________________________

4. Would you be willing to provide summaries of their views you have collected?
____ Yes ____ No

5. How would you like your library/school to respond to this request for reconsideration?
____ Do not assign/lend it to my child.
____ Return it to the staff selection committee/department for reevaluation.
____ Other-Please explain
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

6. In its place, what work would you recommend that would convey as valuable a perspective as presented in the challenged text?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Signature __________________________________________

Date______________________________________________

At first, the English teacher should politely acknowledge the complaint and explain the established procedures. The success of much censorship depends upon frightening an unprepared school or English department into some precipitous action. A standardized procedure will take the sting from the first outburst of criticism and place the burden of proof on the objector. When the reasonable objector learns that they will be given a fair hearing through following the proper channels, they are more likely to be satisfied. The idle censor, on the other hand, may well be discouraged from taking further action. A number of advantages will be provided by the form, which will

formalize the complaint,

indicate specifically the work in question,

identify the complainant,

suggest how many others support the complaint,

require the complainant to think through objections in order to make an intelligent statement on the text and complaint (1, 2, and 3),

cause the complainant to evaluate the work for other groups than merely the one they first had in mind (4),

establish the familiarity of the complainant with the work (5),

give the complainant an opportunity to consider the criticism about the work and the teacher's purpose in using the work (6, 7, and 8), and

give the complainant an opportunity to suggest alternative actions to be taken on the work (9 and 10).

The committee reviewing complaints should be available on short notice to consider the completed "Request for Reconsideration of a Work" and to call in the complainant and the teacher involved for a conference. Members of the committee should have reevaluated the work in advance of the meeting, and the group should be prepared to explain its findings. Membership of the committee should ordinarily include an administrator, the English department chair, and at least two classroom teachers of English. But the department might consider the advisability of including members from the community and the local or state NCTE affiliate. As a matter of course, recommendations from the committee would be forwarded to the superintendent, who would in turn submit them to the board of education, the legally constituted authority in the school.

Teachers and administrators should recognize that the responsibility for selecting texts for class study lies with classroom teachers and students, and that the responsibility for reevaluating any text begins with the review committee. Both teachers and administrators should refrain from discussing the objection with the complainant, the press, or community groups. Once the complaint has been filed, the authority for handling the situation must ultimately rest with the administration and school board.
References
Freedom of inquiry is essential to education in a democracy. To establish conditions essential for freedom, teachers and administrators need to follow procedures similar to those recommended here. Where schools resist unreasonable pressures, the cases are seldom publicized and students continue to read works as they wish. The community that entrusts students to the care of an English teacher should also trust that teacher to exercise professional judgment in selecting or recommending texts. The English teacher can be free to teach literacy, and students can be free to read whatever they wish only if informed and vigilant groups, within the profession and without, unite in resisting unfair pressures.

Stevens, W. (1957, April). Adagia Part One. Poetry, 41-44.

American Library Association. (2018). Top Ten Most Challenged Books Lists. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10#Before%201990 (Accessed July 15, 2018)

American Library Association. (2018). Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2017: Resources & Graphics. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/NLW-Top10 (Accessed July 15, 2018)

American Library Association (2013, March). Banned & Challenged Classics. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics (Accessed June 15, 2018).

The Committee on the Right to Read of the National Council of Teachers of English:
Statement Authors

Edward R. Gordon, Yale University, New Jersey, Chair

Martin Steinmann, University of Minnesota, Associate Chair

Harold B. Allen, University of Minnesota

Frank A. Doggett, D. U. Fletcher High School, Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Jack Fields, Great Neck South High School, New York

Graham S. Frear, St. Olaf College, Minnesota

Robert Gard, Camelback High School, Phoenix, Arizona

Frank Ross, Detroit Public Schools, Michigan

Warren Taylor, Oberlin College, Ohio

This document was revised by an NCTE working committee comprising the following:

Benjamin "Benji" Chang, Education University of Hong Kong, Chair

Anna Lavergne, Houston Independent School District, Texas

Kim Pinkerton, Texas A&M University, Commerce

Pernille Ripp, Oregon School District, Oregon, Wisconsin

Gabe Silveri, Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District, Houston, Texas

Permission is granted to reproduce in whole or in part the material in this publication, with proper credit to the National Council of Teachers of English. Some schools may wish to modify the statements and arrange separately for printing or duplication. In such cases, of course, it should be made clear that revised statements appear under the authorization and sponsorship of the local school or association, not NCTE.

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It's no mystery that certain books are challenged more often than others. But what's interesting to contemplate is why. Are ...

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This blog was written by Benji Chang, Kim Pinkerton, and Pernille Ripp, who were members of the working committee that produced the new NCTE "Students' Right To Read" position statement in 2018.
If one stands on the precipice of a certain scratched piece of plexiglass in the Bebelplatz in Berlin, one can see the empty, white shelves which remind us that 20,000 books were destroyed there in 1933. They were enthusiastically burned by professors and students who followed a list provided to them by a librarian. How librarians, professors, and students led this travesty may be unfathomable to most, but without vigilance about the right to read - the right to read texts of our choosing - this could rather easily happen again.

It is this reality, and rather haunting reminder, that pushes the continual revision of " The Students' Right to Read," a position statement from NCTE. As educators, we have a responsibility to fully support this right, and that responsibility was certainly in the forefront of our minds in 2018 as we worked to reaffirm and revise this important statement.

The original statement was written in 1981 and revised in 2009. The statement was well crafted and responsive to NCTE's stance on reading rights and the inclusion of literature reflective of people of color. It delivered background on the challenging and banning of some classic pieces of literature, elevated the importance of allowing students to read all books (no matter the challenge or ban history), assisted teachers in text selection and preparation for use of a book that may be deemed controversial, provided community members with a "Request for Reconsideration of a Text" form which prompted structure and professionalism to pending challenges, and guided teachers on how to effectively combat challenges. Those key elements of the position statement remain.

As almost a decade has passed since the last revision of this statement, we did feel that we wanted to balance the example challenges and bans from classic, secondary-level literature with some examples that include picture books, children's literature, and contemporary young adult texts. In addition, social issues related to sexual preference and gender identity are now more commonly represented in what children and young adults read in schools, which prompted us to include additional examples.

Furthermore, we attempted to pull the central focus from only literature to include a broader definition of texts, as nonfiction texts and online sources can face the same scrutiny that could impede a student's right to read.

Finally, as much of the original statement pivoted on whole-class readings of texts, we felt a need to note that self-selection of texts may also draw criticism and inhibit a student's right to choose.

Recently, teachers and librarians in the Katy Independent School District (ISD) in Texas fought to keep Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give on shelves so that students could have the choice of reading it. The best-selling young adult novel is about an African American teenage girl who witnesses the death of her friend at the hands of the police, and is moved to activism. After The Hate U Give received a parent complaint in the Katy ISD, the superintendent required the "temporary" removal of it from all shelves in the district. The book was villainized for its inappropriate language. Ultimately, the book was returned to shelves and could be checked out with parent permission.

Aside from the fact that an attempt to silence an author was made, two things are especially troubling about this story. First is that a superintendent subverted policy and "temporarily" removed the book: an educator led this charge. Second is that children can now only read it with parent permission, showing that a student's right to read is still being stifled. And this is in 2019.

Some who faced the challenge in Katy ISD turned to " The Student's Right To Read," looking for guidance about how to combat the "temporary" removal. In these types of instances and related others, this NCTE position statement is still quite pertinent. It is our hope that we have added another layer of relevance and utility for NCTE members and the greater community concerned about the rights of readers within the broader contexts of educational equity and social justice.
Benjamin "Benji" Chang is an Assistant Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. A former elementary teacher in California, his research focuses on teacher education, community engagement, and issues of language, literacy, and culture. Kim Pinkerton is a literacy consultant who has served as a teacher educator, developmental literacy education instructor, and classroom teacher. An advocate for teachers, her research focuses on literacy lives of preservice and inservice teachers, early literacy teaching and learning, and reading comprehension. Pernille Ripp is a seventh-grade English teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin. She is also the founder of the Global Read Aloud, as well as an author, speaker, and passionate student advocate.

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Controversy, Censorship, and Navigating the Students' Right To Read

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This blog was written by Benji Chang, Kim Pinkerton, and Pernille Ripp, who were members of the working committee that ...

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The committee for Build Your Stack will work to further develop this initiative launched in 2018. Creating and curating content will be part of this charge. As the Build Your Stack (BYS) initiative gets off the ground, other potential programmatic efforts will support the connection between NCTE, teachers, and books.

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Banned Books Week 2019 will be held September 22-28. The theme of this year's event is "Censorship Leaves Us in the Dark," urging everyone to "Keep the Light On."

As we kickoff Banned Books Week 2019, let's take a look at some of the Top 11 Challenged Books of 2018. Since it's important that we keep these books in the classroom and on the bookshelves, we're paired each title with a teaching idea from NCTE and ReadWriteThink.org.

George written by Alex Gino

Written for elementary-age children, this Lambda Literary Award winner was challenged and banned because it includes a transgender child.

George is a Charlotte Huck Honor Book from 2016. Read more about it in " Transitioning Teens: Why We Can't Forget the T in the LGBTQ Spectrum."

The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas

Despite winning multiple awards and being the most-searched-for book on Goodreads during its debut year, this YA novel was challenged and banned in school libraries and curricula because it was considered "pervasively vulgar" and because of drug use, profanity, and offensive language.

As part of their study of The Hate U Give, students learn about the Black Lives Matter movement and in small groups conduct/share research about social issues key to the plot, characters, and themes of the book in this lesson plan. They then read and discuss nonfiction excerpts by James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates before synthesizing their understanding of all the texts under study through a communal idea poster and an individual synthesis and reflection project.

Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier

This Stonewall Honor Award-winning 2012 graphic novel from an acclaimed cartoonist was challenged and banned in school libraries because it includes LGBT characters and was considered "confusing."

Learn more about Drama and other texts with " Finding Just the Right Story: Motivating Readers with Middle Level LGBTQ-Themed Literature."

Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher

Originally published in 2007, this New York Times bestseller has resurfaced as a controversial book after Netflix aired a TV series by the same name. This YA novel was challenged and banned in multiple school districts because it discusses suicide.

13+ Answers to 13 Reasons Why shares reasons why the issues in the book are issues are worth talking about so we can do something about them.

This One Summer written by Mariko Tamaki

This One Summer has only been on the list once before: in 2016, two years after its 2014 release. It is cited for profanity and sexual references.

" Words Have Power " written by Kristin Pekoll, Assistant Director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, encourages us to highlight the value of free and open access to information and shed a light on censorship.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie

Consistently challenged since its publication in 2007 for acknowledging issues such as poverty, alcoholism, and sexuality, this National Book Award winner was challenged in school curricula because of profanity and situations that were deemed sexually explicit.

Millie Davis, former director of NCTE's Intellectual Freedom Center, shared with us Why Students Should Read This Book. Be sure to listen as Alexie talks about this title being banned.

NCTE's Intellectual Freedom Center offers advice, helpful documents, and other support to teachers and schools faced with challenges to texts or teaching methods used in their classrooms and schools.

How do you support the students' right to read?

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This is an excerpt from "Critical Literacy as a Way of Being and Doing," a Research and Policy column written by Vivian Maria Vasquez, Hilary Janks, and Barbara Comber, from the May 2019 Language Arts. This article focuses on critical literacy as a way of being and doing around the globe. Orientations to critical literacy, models for instruction, key aspects, and new directions are shared.

In spite of the fact that critical literacy does not have a set definition or a normative history, the following key tenets have been described in the literature. It should be noted that such key tenets would likely take on a different shape depending on one's orientation to critical literacy, the level at which one is working, and one's social context.

Critical literacy should be viewed as a lens, frame, or perspective for teaching throughout the day, across the curriculum, and perhaps beyond, rather than as a topic to be covered or unit to be studied. What this means is that critical literacy involves having an ingrained critical perspective or way of being that provides us with an ongoing critical orientation to texts and practices. Inviting students to write down the messages that they see in public transport, to take photographs of graffiti or billboards, to cut out advertisements from magazines, or to collect sweet wrappers to bring to class helps them to read the everyday texts they encounter critically. Do it often enough and they will learn to "read" their worlds with a critical eye.

Diverse students' cultural knowledge (drawn from inside the classroom and the children's everyday worlds [homes and communities]), their funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2006), and multimodal and multilingual practices (Lau, 2012) should be used to build curriculum across the content areas and across space and place. Inviting children to bring culturally meaningful artifacts to school enables meaningful discussions about and understanding of things that matter to different communities.

Students learn best when what they are learning has importance in their lives; as such, using the topics, issues, and questions that they raise should be central to creating an inclusive critical curriculum. Listening to students' concerns or their responses to picturebooks enables teachers to know how they are reading and problematizing their worlds. It is our job to show them how to assume agency and act to make a difference, however small.

Texts are socially constructed from particular perspectives; they are never neutral. All texts are created from a particular perspective with the intention of conveying particular messages. Texts work to have us think about and believe certain things in specific ways, and as such they work to position readers in certain ways. We therefore need to question the perspectives conveyed by the writer. Even maps are social constructions based on selections of what to include and exclude, and whether to put north at the top and Europe at the center.

The ways we read text are never neutral. Each time we read, write, or create, we draw from our past experiences and understanding about how the world works. We therefore should also analyze our own readings of text and unpack the position(s) from which we engage in literacy work. If you agree with a text, it is easy to read it sympathetically and hard to read it critically. However, if you find a text offensive, it is hard to engage with it. But we have to do both; we have to engage with texts on their own terms-both to learn from them and to critique them-and we have to recognize that our identities shape how we consume and produce texts. For example, engaging with colonial texts helps us to understand colonialism and prepares us to produce texts that argue for decoloniality.

From a critical literacy perspective, the world is seen as a socially constructed text that can be read. The earlier students are introduced to this idea, the sooner they are able to understand what it means to be researchers of language, image, gesture, spaces, and objects, exploring such issues as what counts as language, whose language counts, and who decides, as well as exploring ways texts can be revised, rewritten, or reconstructed to shift or reframe the message(s) conveyed. Classroom work (Vasquez, 2014b; Vasquez & Felderman, 2012) has included the social construction of maps, language policies, construction of the child, classroom spaces, and how the furniture in them is arranged.

Critical literacy involves making sense of the sociopolitical systems through which we live our lives and questioning these systems. This means critical literacy work needs to focus on social issues, including inequities of race, class, gender, or disability and the ways in which we use language and other semiotic resources to shape our understanding of these issues. The discourses we use to take up such issues work to shape how people are able to-or not able to-live their lives in more or less powerful ways. For instance, in O'Brien's (2001) study, children worked with a catalogue promoting Mother's Day and discovered that the mothers in the photographs were all youthful (age), White (race), well-dressed and wearing makeup (class), good looking (gender), and able bodied. In addition, the goods advertised were normatively gendered (washing machines, perfume, jewelry) and often pricey (class).

Critical literacy practices can be transformative. They can contribute to changing inequitable ways of being and problematic social practices. This means students who engage in critical literacy from a young age are prepared 1) to make informed decisions regarding issues such as power and control, 2) to engage in the practice of democratic citizenship, and 3) to develop an ability to think and act ethically. As such, they would be better able to contribute to making the world a more equitable and socially just place.

Text design and production, which are essential to critical literacy work, can provide opportunities for transformation. Text design and production refer to the creation or construction of multimodal texts and the decisions that are part of that process, including the notion that it is not sufficient to simply create texts for the sake of "practicing a skill." If students are to create texts, they should be able to let those texts do the work intended; for instance, if students are creating petitions, they should address an existing issue rather than an imagined one, and if they are writing surveys, they should conduct them and analyze the data.

Finally, "critical literacy is about imagining thoughtful ways of thinking about reconstructing and redesigning texts, images, and practices to convey different and more socially just and equitable messages and ways of being that have real-life effects and real-world impact" (Vasquez, 2017b, para. 19). For example, critically reading a bottle of water as a text could include examining the practice of drinking bottled water and changing that practice in support of creating a more sustainable world.
Vivian Maria Vasquez, NCTE member since 2000, is a professor of education at American University whose research interests include critical literacy, early literacy and information communication technologies, and teacher education. She can be contacted at clippodcast@gmail.com. Hilary Janks is professor emerita in the school of education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her teaching and research are committed to a search for equity and social justice in contexts of poverty. She can be contacted at hilary.janks@wits.ac.za. Barbara Comber is a research professor in the school of education at the University of South Australia. She can be contacted at Barbara.Comber@unisa.edu.au.

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Key Aspects of Critical Literacy: An Excerpt

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This is an excerpt from "Critical Literacy as a Way of Being and Doing," a Research and Policy column written ...

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Using Young Adult (YA) Literature in a Classroom: How Does YA Literature Impact Writing Literacies

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Alsup, J. (2013). Teaching literature in an age of text complexity. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 57(November), 181-184. https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.239 Alvermann, D. (2007). Multiliterate youth in the time of scientific reading instruction. In K. Beers, R. Probst, & L. Rief (Eds.), Adolescent literacy turning promise into practice (pp. 19-26). Portsmouth: Heinemann.

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The Youth Lens: Analyzing Adolescence/ts in Literary Texts

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The Youth Lens: Analyzing Adolescence/ts in Literary Texts

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Literacy Daily is a space to connect educators, students, and leaders with the latest news, ideas, tools, strategies, and research in literacy instruction.

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Managing book clubs can be hard, but authors Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen say that when they work, they create a culture of reading unlike anything else, and have the power to bring out the very best in our students. With their newest book, Breathing New Life into Book Clubs: A Practical Guide for Teachers, Sonja and Dana provide dozens of mini sessions that address common roadblocks and strategies to make book clubs work.

We started our conversation with identifying some of the hiccups that book clubs face...
Below is a full transcript of this episode.
Sonja: I think we've had years where our book clubs just weren't as successful as we hoped they would be, causing us to just reflect and take pause to try to figure out exactly what makes book clubs tick. This is a conversation that Dana and I've had for a long time. There could be hiccups in terms of grouping students, acquiring the books...

Dana: Acquiring the books.

Sonja: ...helping students make selections that they will stick with, and helping kids just figure out how to engage in dialogue around a text.

Dana: Yeah, and I think one of the big hiccups too in the past has been what happens when the club fizzles and falls apart, and that definitely happens. So what are we going to do when kids aren't working together well or the discussions aren't going well? So we've talked a lot about that, and we really wanted to create a resource where those answers and things that we had found in the classroom were put out there for other teachers, so that they could address their hiccups that they were saying.

Sonja: Yeah, and I think that our work is really a conversation that Dana and I have been having for a long time as educators. And we hope that we are providing some practical tips for teachers that really come from our actual experiences in the classroom, working with students across grade levels.

Brett: Sometimes there can be a little bit of fear of letting go with the book club. How do we manage that?

Dana: I think there's an inherent fear of letting go in all things. When you're a teacher, you're trying to manage a lot of different personalities, a lot of different learning styles. Just your day-to-day routines. And so with book clubs, you know, this is one area where teachers say, "I don't want another area or layer of chaos in my classroom, potentially." So making sure that students buy in to book clubs is huge when letting go of that fear. Giving students choice to select the books that they want to choose and read for sure. And saying to yourself every day, "This is what's best for my students. I know that I'm giving them great opportunities because they are choosing their books, and they are running their own conversations." And I think that that's how you ultimately let go.

Sonja: And I remember us just having conversations about book clubs, and we really came to this sort of pivotal moment where for us it was that book clubs really is a vehicle to disrupt norms around how we teach reading.

Dana: Exactly.

Sonja: And that often when you think about the teaching of reading, some kids are having the experience where books have been chosen before they even enter our doors. The decision has been made. What they are going to read, the types of activities and assignments that they will navigate. These decisions have been made before teachers have even gotten to know their students to have an understanding of who they are as readers. And so for us, book clubs is a way to relinquish that control over reading, to really be more of a facilitator, a coach, a cheerleader for kids as they're reading. And kids are taking fully autonomy over what they read and how they read. And for us that was really exciting. Yeah.

Brett: Well, and sometimes with that choice and sometimes with that autonomy, there's another fear behind that of "Do I have to know every book? Do I have to of read every book?"

Dana: Yes.

Brett: How do we manage that? Do we?

Dana: Oh my gosh. That was definitely one of our biggest fears.

Sonja: Yes.

Dana: And a lot of teachers that we talk to, they say, "But I haven't read all of these book club books and I don't have any time to read all of the ..." And we know. I mean, who has all of this time? And you don't need to know every single book, and you don't have to of read every single book. Every single year I buy some new book club books that for sure I've never read, and put them out there for my students. But I trust that my students can navigate these books and talk to me, and educate me about hey, this is what's going on in these books, which is exciting.

Sonja: And I think, you know, we have to reassure teachers that even though they may not have read every single story that their students will read, that's not a reason to deny kids the opportunity to make individual book choices, and choices that they want to read as clubs. Reading teachers are also teachers of genre. So you may not have read that fantasy book, but you do know how that genre works. And so you are able to go into a club and coach around what students are reading about, and what they will encounter, and what they can anticipate as readers. Same with historical fiction, with realistic fiction, with sci-fi. You understand how genres work and you can rely on that when you encounter a club that's reading a book that you haven't read.

Brett: Well, in one of the things, Sonja, that I love that you mentioned in the book, is that you do have genre specific book clubs. You have identity specific book clubs. Why is it so important and helpful, really, to sort of have book clubs under those types of themes and those types of genres, even?

Sonja: I think it really helps us to think about kids and engagement. And if we want kids to be engaged readers, then we need to have more flexible ideas about what book clubs can be. And certainly there have been years where every club in my classroom was reading the same genre, and that's okay. If that's the access you have to the books in order to make the clubs go, you have historical fiction books so this is the sort of club you're going to be doing with your students, that's fine. But we also want to push teachers to think about book clubs in lots of different ways. That you can organize students around interest. You can have students that are organized around identity. You can have students reading different genres in the classroom at the same time. If we want our kids to be lifelong readers, then we have to relinquish control around normative practices even related to book clubs.

Dana: In my classroom, some students really wanted to dive deep into graphic novels. So to have graphic novel book clubs, where they could compare different styles of graphic novels across three or four different books was really cool and exciting to them. I've also had students who have done author studies, where they've read two or three books by the same author, and then they could compare across that author the different literary practices that that author used. Similarities and differences, which was really cool.

Brett: In the book you mentioned there are six ways that students can benefit from book clubs. Can you kind of walk through some of them?

Dana: Sure. The first one and the biggest one is engagement. It's that joy of reading and engagement in terms of choice because the students have bought in. They've chosen their book. They're excited. So engagement is definitely number one. The second that we talk about a lot is discussion, and ways that discussion can be enhanced and strengthened through book clubs. We call it the hub of everything in our book because that's where the joy is, that's where the discovery is. Also technology is a big piece. We love to use blogs and various forms of digital tools, in order to enhance their conversation and stretch it.

Brett: Tell me about how reading skills is one of the ways that really helped with book club?

Sonja: So I think book clubs really helps students develop their reading skills in a variety of different ways. They have the ability to transform readers who may have been resistant or reluctant into ravenous readers. They begin to see that they can move through pages more quickly, that reading a book doesn't have to take a month or two months, or three months. That they can actually finish a book in a week and they're motivated to do it because it's a book that they've chosen, and because they have the ability to have this social experience with their peers. They can't wait to get back to the classroom and talk about the books. And also to read together. And also book clubs really help students develop critical literacy skills. We want to see students not just reading passively, but reading actively and being able to push back on ideas, to critique them and to also think about how the ideas that they're reading about can change the way that they are interpreting the world around them.

Brett: Discovery is another important thing that comes out of book clubs. Talk a little bit about the importance of discovery.

Sonja: So what's really interesting is when you conference with students and you conference with clubs, and you get to see students, what they've been reading in their clubs, it's interesting that you start having conversations where you're able to help your students realize, "Oh, you really like to read about characters who are strong women." Or "You seem to be drawn to books that really deal with some aspect of social justice." There are these patterns that you begin to see very clearly with your students as they read through book clubs. You begin to see them discovery what they like to read and why they like to read the things that they're reading.

Dana: Yes. Discovery is so wonderful because as a teacher you get to see patterns that emerge with each of your readers, and it's so exciting to see students connect with a series or an author, or a topic, and then they just become ravenous. They want to know more and it just spreads like wildfire. They tell their friends. They rush home and tell their family members. They're rushing into school the next day to find out more, and to seek more books about these topics.

Brett: Why is it important to broaden our definition of book club?

Dana: This is a topic that we talked a lot about. We've been teaching for many years now, and I've taught book clubs in second through eighth grade, and it's amazing to see how the concept of book clubs has developed over the years. What I really, really love about it is it's not just, "Well, here are four options and here are the things you have to write about, and here are the questions you have to answer. If you stray off topic, this is how I'm going to lead you back." There's just more ownership on the student's part now, and that's how we've expanded and broadened the definition of book clubs. That book clubs can be different genres, they can be different types of book clubs, and students can have more ownership so it's not as controlled as it has been in the past. That's something that I've just seen really works with kids.

Sonja: And I think we also want educators to understand that book clubs of today look different. So this notion of kids sitting in a circle and one child speaking at a time, and perhaps there's little assignments that each child has done, and they're taking turns talking about that, certainly is one way that book clubs can go. But kids today are multitaskers, and so in a club you may have two students having a conversation, one student reading, another student on a Chromebook searching up a topic that was just discussed. And I think that it's very easy for us as educators, and I'm guilty of this, to interpret that as chaos, and that learning isn't happening. And what we've discovered, which has been exciting, is that there's a lot of learning happening there.

Dana: A lot.

Sonja: And while it might make us feel a little bit uncomfortable, we are urging educators to sort of lean into that discomfort, and to trust that the kids are really listening to each other, even if it doesn't look the way that we've been taught to teach children, how it's supposed to look when they're listening and talking to one another. So in that regard, we want to expand this idea of what book clubs look like and what book clubs can be because technology is a big piece of book clubs in our classrooms because it allows kids to connect ideas that they're reading about in a text to the broader world, and it allows them to connect with their peers next door, and it allows them to connect with authors who are across states or even in different countries.

The role of technology in book clubs, I think, is a bit different than it was in the past when that was really just emerging. We were talking recently about technology and the way in which kids are engaged when they get to engage in technology. We were just saying that the platforms that kids are drawn to, whether it is Twitter or whether it is Instagram, or-

Dana: Snapchat.

Sonja: Snapchat.

Dana: Right, Facebook.

Sonja: Whenever we can bring that into the classroom in a meaningful way, not just in add on way, kids are being able to experience school in ways that mirror their lives outside of school. And so we want book clubs to be an experience that goes beyond the four walls of a classroom and out into the world, and technology is a big piece of that.

Dana: And there are so many different digital tools that teachers can use now that mimic other tools, such as Instagram and Twitter without actually being those tools. So we love using Padlet, we love using Kidblog because these are safe educator friendly, student friendly digital tools that everybody can use and incorporate into their book clubs, which is so great because like Sonja said, you can connect with not just within your own class, but now your students can leave the four walls of your classroom and connect with other sections, other classes in other schools, even in different countries. So it's exciting.

Brett: As we redefine what book clubs mean in the classroom, what is your vision for book clubs?

Dana: Oh, joy.

Sonja: Yeah.

Dana: That's our overarching goal. We want joy. We want our students to become lifelong readers and we want them to have that feeling of selecting a book and finishing it, and talking about it with other people, so that they understand that this is what reading is all about. This is the enjoyment of reading, right here in this moment. And that when they grow older, hopefully as they go through middle school, as they go through high school, hopefully they will connect with others in meaningful ways over texts. That's our dream.

Sonja: And I think it's an exciting time to be a teacher of reading, where the authors that our students are reading, and the authors whose written books that our students are reading, have really become rock stars to them. And that is so super exciting, and it has-

Dana: And to us, and to us. We're like, "Yay!"

Sonja: Right. And the enthusiasm for reading because of that has just been infectious in the classroom. And then there are these movements that are really all about reading. We need diverse books and own voices books, and I just think it's an exciting time where we're all just thinking about the importance of reading. We're all thinking about reading identities, we're all thinking about how do we help kids really match to books, connect to books, see themselves in books, get to see the world through books. And so we just feel that book clubs is a space where we can capitalize on all of that great energy, and transform the reading lives of our students.
...
Learn more about Breathing New Life into Book Clubs at Heinemann.com

Follow us on Instagram @heinemannpub to stay up to date on the latest books, your favorite authors, and upcoming events!

Sonja Cherry-Paul, EdD, has taught middle school English for twenty years. She is a literacy consultant who served on the Jane Addams Children's Book Award committee for ten years. Sonja leads presentations about literacy at national conferences and provides professional development for educators on reading and writing instruction and racial literacy.

She is the coauthor, with Dana Johansen, of the titles Teaching Interpretationand Flip Your Writing Workshop.

Follow Sonja on Twitter @LitLearnAct

Dana Johansenhas taught elementary and middle school for more than fifteen years. Dedicated to the ever-expanding applications of technology in the classroom, she presents at national conferences on the use of blogs, digital texts, and flipped learning in literacy instruction.

She is the coauthor, with Sonja Cherry-Paul, of the titles Teaching Interpretationand Flip Your Writing Workshop.

Follow Dana on Twitter @LitLearnAct

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On the Podcast: Breathing New Life into Book Clubs with Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen

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How do we breathe new life into book clubs?

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How the #DisruptTexts Movement Can Help English Teachers Be More Inclusive | KQED

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The dominance of white-authored texts in school curriculum makes it hard for students of color and those in underrepresented groups to connect with the stories. The #DisruptTexts movement seeks to guide educators to develop a more inclusive and relevant canon.

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Why comics belong in schools…and more ideas from graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang

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Gene Luen Yang taught high school science for 17 years while moonlighting as a graphic novelist. Today, both art and education get celebrated in his work. Ten years after his book American Born Chi…

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We live in a visual world where content, including educational content, is often consumed visually in the form of infographics, short videos, and yes, comics. It's no secret that graphic novels and comics are increasingly popular among young readers. Many readers step from "I Can Read" chapter books that include pictures to popular diary fiction and more complex graphic novels. Graphic novels fill the gap that leads to the unillustrated chapter books that students will study throughout their education.

Discounting these types of literature can be dangerous, especially since students are reading them by choice. Consider drawing from graphic novels to enhance the stories/topics you are teaching to create more room for growth. By engaging students with more relatable material, you will see better results and give students a boost in confidence. Graphic novels in the classroom serve two primary purposes, and sometimes those can be intertwined. The first tackles reluctant readers, the second, reluctant writers.

Three ways to incorporate graphic novels

1. Read Graphic Novels for Independent Reading

Graphic novels provide students with visual context. The visuals break down information for students; they don't have to parse through long walls of text in order to understand what's going on. When a student reads a sentence or paragraph in a chapter book, it creates an image in their mind. Understanding what that passage means makes the image clearer. Adding the visual component helps clarify for students who may struggle to grasp the meaning on their own. The combination of short text and images also gives students the ability to develop their vocabulary because they see the words in context, like they might in a visual vocabulary board.

2. Graphic Novels in Creative Writing

Graphic novels also provide a great outlet for creative writing. Creating stories digitally removes any insecurities or fears about being able to draw and gives that time to actual creation. Plus, creating a comic or graphic novel gives different constraints than traditional prose. Students will have to think critically about what information they want to show and can convey emotion with different facial expressions or poses. It takes the concept of show, don't tell to another level, and students might not even consider it writing!

3. Make Graphic Novels to Show Comprehension

A student-made graphic novel can showcase what they understood or took away from the story or topic. Students develop critical thinking skills that allow them to hone in on important details. Teachers can see what important plot points the students picked up on, what characters they understood, and whether their adaptation or interpretation make sense within the story. Teaching with graphic novels still allows students to practice vocabulary, sequencing, and crafting arguments. If any of those elements are lacking in the final product, it's easy to readjust and scaffold for future assignments.

The creation of graphic novels in response to a reading can be used to explore semiotics, or the study of signs and symbols and their usage, meaning, or interpretation. While most commonly studied in reference to advertising, it can extend into any form of media. Students who take a text and visually interpret it will pull important information and make decisions that inform the overall meaning of the story itself, whether they know it or not.

When students are creators, they must think critically about ways to show things that are equally as important as the action and dialogue they choose. Internal character musings are often stripped out in visual mediums, which is something that can be detrimental to the story. Color choices, posing and emotion, and settings are all things that can be expressed visually, and can give hints to internal struggles. Students can also use thought bubbles if they have enough real estate in their panels.

Teachers can spark a discussion based around the creation itself once the project is completed. Students, who might otherwise feel uncomfortable voicing their opinions on an analysis or story, have the opportunity to participate in the discussion on a more personal level. Why did the student choose to incorporate or leave out certain details? What did they pick up on that you as the teacher may not have? Students can explain why they made a decision to do something in their interpretation (personal) rather than explain why the author made the curtains blue (impersonal).

Creating a graphic novel can also help students take ownership of their learning and creativity. Plot diagrams and papers are often ways to grade a student's understanding of a text, so why not combine those? Put paragraphs and short essays aside and offer fun options for students to select as projects. Students can create modern day adaptations if the book is set in the past or reinterpret the story in a different setting. Shakespeare in high school? Easy. Holes in space? Out of this world.

Student choice is a powerful tool, so providing all levels of students the ability to engage with text or create visually can yield incredible results. Creating graphic novels as part of a final project or while the student is still reading a novel makes for a great way to see how creative students are. Let them think outside of the box and become the owners of their own education.

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Bridging the Gap: Graphic Novels and Reluctant Readers - Emerging Education Technologies

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We live in a visual world where content, including educational content, is often consumed visually in the form of infographics, short videos, and yes, comics. It's no secret that graphic novels and comics are increasingly popular among young readers. Many readers step from "I Can Read" chapter books that include pictures to popular diary fiction [...]

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Many teachers use graphic novels and comics in the classroom. There are amazing books on the subject that include useful tools on how to effectively implement these resources for learning.

The main thing teachers need to consider is purpose. I know, we love books and tools, but as with technology, sometimes we get wrapped up in the tool instead of first thinking about the purpose. Here are some reasons why you might select a graphic novel or comic to read, or why you might have students create their own. Thinking about these reasons will help you focus on your purpose in your instruction.

Reasons to Work With Graphic Novels and Comics

Differentiating instruction: Graphic novels and comics can be a great way to differentiate instruction for learners in terms of reading and also in terms of assessment. Perhaps you want to offer your students a graphic novel to support their reading of a chapter in a rigorous text. There are many graphic novel adaptations of classics out there.

Maybe you're doing a project-based learning (PBL) unit in which you want to provide voice and choice for the student assessment. Students might be choosing between a letter, a comic, or a podcast to answer a driving question such as: How can we debunk myths and stereotypes about world religions?

Building critical reading skills: Reading standards around higher order thinking skills can be met through complex analysis and evaluation of graphic novels and comics. Have students look at how the authors and illustrators use colors, textures, words, text boxes, frames, and camera angles, and then make connections between these elements and evaluate their effectiveness.

Assessing student learning: PBL calls for the creation of authentic products that are useful and credible to the group. You can have students create comics or graphic novels, or components of them, as a useful formative assessment to check for understanding of important content.

A comic made to combat bullying can be used as a summative assessment, as Suzie Boss has suggested. Make the graphic novel or comic a product that students create to meet a need. Don't just make it a regurgitation of knowledge-give it an authentic purpose.

Studying the genre itself: In his book Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud asserts the legitimacy and complexity of comics and graphic novels as a genre. Pairing selections from his work with a graphic novel or comic can generate interesting discussion and inquiry into the elements of the genre itself. Genre study is an easy way to utilize literature circle groups and instructional lessons, where students get to pick from a variety of options.

Examining literary elements: Graphic novels take traditional literary elements like symbol, character, and plot, and modify them-characters may become heroes and villains, and visual symbols that would be described in a novel are actually drawn and created.

There are many other purposes for graphic novels in the classroom, from looking at different cultures and backgrounds to utilizing technology in authentic ways. Just make sure you select the graphic novel or comic with a clear purpose in mind.

I'll leave you with some favorite graphic novels and comics that I've used in my classroom.

Persepolis, a memoir of a girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, was recently made into a motion picture.

Maus, a top favorite for many, explores themes of the Holocaust through a memoir populated by mice and cats.

American Born Chinese is the tale of three characters: Jin Wang, the only Chinese-American in the neighborhood; Chin-Kee, the ultimate Chinese stereotype; and the Monkey King, a character from ancient fables.

Uncanny X-Men Volume 3 In this issue, the X-Men travel into Dante's Inferno.

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Using Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom

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Many teachers use graphic novels and comics in the classroom. There are amazing books on the subject that include useful tools on how to effectively implement these resources for learning. The main thing teachers need to consider is purpose.

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Graphic novels can give middle school readers rich opportunities to explore literary themes and conventions.

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5 Helpful Tips for Teaching With Graphic Novels - It’s Lit Teaching

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Teaching with graphic novels is the perfect strategy for engaging reluctant readers. Use these tips to get started today!

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Graphic novels are an increasingly popular format for stories told in a range of genres. While learning to read graphic novels takes practice, their artistic and literary merit makes the effort more than worthwhile. Tune in to hear some background about graphic novels as well as specific recommendations of fantasy epics, memoirs, biographies, and adventure thriller stories, all presented in the form of a graphic novel.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.
Recommendations in this episode include

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis (Bloomsbury, 2009)

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury, 2008)

Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi (Scholastic, 2008)

Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventures in Japan by Aimee Major Steinberger (Go!Comi, 2007)

Freddie and Me: A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody by Mike Dawson
(Bloomsbury, 2008)

Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography by Sabrina Jones (Hill and Wang, 2008)

Cairo by G. Willow Wilson and M. K. Perker (DC Comics, 2007)

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books, 2008)

Pitch Black by Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton (Cinco Puntos Press, 2008)

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Graphic novels are an increasingly popular format for stories told in a range of genres. While learning to read graphic novels takes practice, their artistic and literary merit makes the effort more than worthwhile. Tune in to hear some background about graphic novels as well as specific recommendations of fantasy epics, memoirs, biographies, and adventure thriller stories, all presented in the form of a graphic novel.

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This post was written by NCTE member Kasey Short. It's part of Build Your Stack®, an NCTE initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries. Build Your Stack® provides a forum for contributors to share books from their classroom experience; inclusion in a blog post does not imply endorsement or promotion of specific books by NCTE.
Often students are drawn to graphic novels because they think of them as more enjoyable and quicker to read than traditional texts. Nonfiction graphic novels engage readers and provide opportunities to teach students how to read nonfiction texts. When reading traditional nonfiction, students often skim or bypass the images and graphic representations entirely. Nonfiction graphic novels provide a unique way to teach students the value of reading images and combining what they learn through the words and pictures to develop a complete understanding of the topic. Additionally, graphic nonfiction helps to counter the idea that nonfiction is boring and inspires curiosity that encourages students to explore additional sources to deepen their knowledge about a topic or person.
Almost American Girl by Robin Ha
In this honest memoir, Robin shares her experience growing up in Korea and then unexpectedly moving to Alabama with a new stepfamily. In her memoir Robin gives insight into her immigrant experience as she navigates learning a new language, experiencing new cultures, meeting new people, and ultimately discovering how creating comics helps her express herself.

This book uses vibrant illustrations to tell Omar's story of growing up as a Somali refugee in a refugee camp. It details his experiences in the camp, the sacrifices he made to get an education, and the time he spent waiting for an opportunity to come to America. The book shows the heartbreak and dire conditions of Omar's time in the camp but leaves the reader with hope as they learn that he made it to America.

In his new graphic memoir Jarrett shares his experience as a high school student working at a summer camp for students who are experiencing serious illness. Through his experience the reader sees the value of human connection and finding hope in what seems like a hopeless situation. Also, check out his previous graphic memoir Hey, Kiddo.

This powerful graphic novel tells the story of Rebecca Hall's experience researching slave revolts led by women and then how she works to share their untold story with others. It also showcases what she learned in her research combined with fiction to construct what she thinks might have happened to these women.

This book tells Brian's firsthand account of the 2017 wildfire in California. He reveals his own experiences during the wildfire and throughout the aftermath, while also weaving in other stories of members of his community and how they were impacted by the wildfire.
March Series by John Lewis and Nate Powell
This powerful and important trilogy recounts John Lewis's personal experiences fighting for civil rights and many important moments of the civil rights movement. The books include moments such as John Lewis meeting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his participation in nonviolent protest, and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

This book tells Anne Frank's well-known story with beautiful artwork that captures the emotion of Anne's story. The images in this book help readers visualize her living quarters in the annex. The author also includes some full diary entries to showcase Anne's authentic voice from her diary.

This beautifully illustrated book highlights women throughout history and across the world who rebelled against society's expectations of them and who inspire today's youth with their "brazen" approach toward life. This book can be read cover to cover or as individual snapshots of specific women.

Interested in learning more about the role of nonfiction in the classroom? In this new position statement, NCTE encourages educators to create space for nonfiction literature within curricula. Not meant to replace fiction or poetry, nonfiction should live and breathe alongside those genres in reading and writing instruction, literary analysis, critical literacy explorations, and more.
NCTE and independent bookstores will receive a small commission from purchases made using the links above. Kasey Short earned a BA in middle school education from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a concentration in English and history. She earned a Master's of Education in curriculum and instruction from Winthrop University. She is the Middle School Director of Studies and an 8th grade English teacher at Charlotte Country Day School, North Carolina. It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.

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Build Your Stack: Graphic Novel Nonfiction

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The Learning Continues Well After the Convention!

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Special thanks to member Laura M. Jiménez for her time and expertise in reviewing and adding additional resources for this blog post.
This summer members highlighted the need for more diversity in graphic novels. We've looked around the internet and compiled a list of suggested resources to check out. You will find some overlap between the titles suggested within these resources, but we've tried to find various lists that offer characters, authors, and illustrators from many places, with varied backgrounds, identities, and abilities.

At the end of this post, you will also find some research and additional reading on diversity and representation in graphic novels.

Book Lists

Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators as part of their Social Justice Books project. This graphic novel booklist is just one example of the lists available.

Each year, the Young Adult Library Services Association branch of the American Library Association announces their top graphic novels list. Check out the 2018 Top 10 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens. You can find nominees for the 2019 list here and previous years' lists here.

From Electric Literature's list of 14 Diverse Graphic Novels About Coming of Age: "From an Iranian girl rebelling against the oppression of post-revolution Iran to a 'tomboy' refusing to conform to gender norms, these 14 graphic bildungsromans blend gorgeous artwork with the written word to create a diverse multiplicity of narratives telling of the confusion, joy, and hardship of growing up."

On her website American Indians in Children's Literature, NCTE member Debbie Reese compiles a list of Best Graphic Novels by Native Writers, which includes reviews that she's published, articles about graphic novels, and links to author sites and Native bookstores.

NCTE member and graphic novel scholar Laura M. Jiménez uses critical race theory in reading and evaluating graphic novels. She shares a list of keepers on her blog.

In honor of Will Eisner Week (March 1-7), which is held to "celebrate graphic novels, sequential art, free speech, and the amazing legacy of Will Eisner, one of the most innovative figures in the history of comics and graphic novels," the Teen Library Toolbox from School Library Journal put together a list of graphic novel titles featuring characters, authors, and illustrators from many places, with varied backgrounds, identities, and abilities.

Diversity in YA was founded in 2011 by authors Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo and celebrates young adult books about all kinds of diversity, from race to sexual orientation to gender identity and disability. These blog posts feature diverse graphic novels, including posts by the novel authors themselves.

While a bit older, this podcast from ReadWriteThink is still relevant and offers an introduction to graphic novels and some suggested titles to check out.

In this post, blogger Meet the World compiles a list of 30 diverse graphic novels that prioritize #ownvoices.

In this list from School Library Journal 's Good Comics 4 Kids, the compilers share comics and graphic novels that reflect America's cultural diversity. Some titles address issues such as race, religion, and discrimination, while others present "diversity as a simple fact of American life."

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has compiled lists of graphic novels to bring racial diversity to classrooms and libraries. Many recommendations also include suggestions on how to use the graphic novel in the classroom.

This list from the Virginia Library Association includes winners and honor books for their 2017 Graphic Novel Diversity Award.

This article from Teaching Tolerance shares recommendations for bringing Native cultures, stories, and perspectives out of the margins of your curriculum with comics by and about Native people.

Although not restricted to graphic novels, We're the People Summer Booklist 2018 features graphic novels by #ownvoices authors that span ages and reading levels.

Research and Additional Reading

In light of the recent focus on diversity in books for youth as exemplified by movements such as "We Need Diverse Books" and "Reading Without Walls," in "Drawing Diversity: Representations of Race in Graphic Novels for Young Adults" from School Library Research, the authors sought to understand how race is depicted in graphic novels for teens.

In this article from English Journal, Kate E. Kedley and Jenna Spiering argue that the format and content of LGBTQ graphic novels make them effective pedagogical tools for engaging students in critical discussions about gender and sexuality. By using two exemplar texts, the authors offer teachers a vocabulary and method for engaging in these conversations

In "Perspectives on Practice: Alfonso Jones Matters," Tony Medina shares a personal narrative detailing his construction of a protagonist for a graphic novel that encapsulates the quest for justice at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement.

To better understand the creation and philosophy behind the #ownvoices movement in children's and young adult literature, you should read Corinne Duyvis's blog post about how and why she proposed the hashtag.

Ellen Oh, one of the founders of We Need Diverse Books, has an interview on the Reading While White blog on the creation and ongoing work of the organization. They are truly trying to change the face of publishing.

Research by Laura M. Jiménez found that comprehending graphic novels requires some unique reading skills. Just as with other forms and genres, graphic novel reading comprehension should be taught in order for students to have access to all that this complex form has to offer. This Reading Teacher article shows teaching and learning with graphic novels in a classroom.

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This summer members highlighted the need for more diversity in graphic novels. We've compiled a list of suggested resources to check out.

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Struggling and reluctant readers

Graphic novels in the classroom

Recommended graphic novels for kids

Gene Luen Yang: Reading Without Walls

Interviews with graphic novel writers and illustrators

Tips on motivating reluctant readers

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact info@readingrockets.org.

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Graphic Novels for Kids: Classroom Ideas, Booklists, and More

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Graphic novels for elementary and middle grade children have become enormously popular and widely accepted by parents, teachers, and librarians. In this resource section, learn more about this highly visual form of storytelling and how it can be used in the classroom, meet some writers and illustrators of graphic novels, and browse the "best of" booklists.

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Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

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Members of the 2022 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Blogging Team are: Crystal Chen, coordinator, The New York Public Library, New York, NY; Kathleen Barker, History UnErased, Plymouth, MI; Kelley Blue, Portland Public Library, Portland, ME; Denise Farley, Dekalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA; Dakota Hall, Bartholomew County Public Library, Columbus, IN; Cyndi Hamann, Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Arlington Heights, IL; Kacy Helwick, New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, LA; Rachel Johannigmeier, Kirkwood Public Library, St.

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Ernest Morrell noted that critical English education should support students in developing "skills that allow them to create their own critical texts that can be used in the struggle for social justice" by drawing on the "everyday language and literacy practices of adolescents to make connections with academic literacies and to work toward empowered identity development and social transformation" (p. 313).

Morrell's conceptualization foregrounds the way I develop my de-tracked English I Honors course. Last year, I sought to expand the incorporation of graphic novels into my classroom. American Born Chinese was the premier text we read as a class for years, but reading a graphic novel was mostly siloed to the first few weeks of school. Inspired by the work of David Low (2017), I sought to strengthen the positioning of graphic novels as texts that can support the development of critical literacies.

I assembled a collection of graphic novels (see list at end) addressing socio-political events that I found many of my students were unaware of or had an incomplete view of. The socio-political events in the graphic novel selection span time and geography. However, I was still missing the second element of Morrell's writing-connecting students' literacy practices with academic content. Fortunately, a conversation with my friend and literacy professor Dr. Jeanne Dyches led me to consider how to make writing video essays part of my curriculum.

The goals of a unit on graphic novels began to enter focus:

Students deepen their understanding of major socio-political events by engaging in video essays and reading graphic novels.

Next students demonstrate their understanding of the major socio-political issues by creating their own video essays that synthesize ideas from the graphic novels and video essays.

Finally students craft thesis statements, curate images, and develop ideas with textual evidence in creating their own video essays.

In other words, they fulfill the mandates of the Common Core writing, reading, and speaking/listening standards while developing literacy practices that reflect the reality of our current digital landscape.

We started by refamiliarizing ourselves with the genres of graphic novels and video essays. I brought in several video essays from sources like Buzzfeed to use as a mentor text. We discussed how to identify the thesis statement and purpose of video essays without written text. The video essays students engage in provide contextualizing background knowledge about the socio-political event that is addressed in the graphic novels. Meanwhile, the graphic novels provide the human face and experience of the socio-political events.

It is my goal as a teacher to always foreground the experiences of humans in discussing any socio-political event.

I want students not to think of these socio-political events as a list of facts and dates, but rather as a narrative constructed of multiple people's experiences, as they try to make meaning around a shared event. Power dynamics and systemic oppression shape how individuals experience those events and whose stories are privileged and centered in the retelling of such events, which is why I selected graphic novels that speak against dominant narratives found in many classroom history books.

Students selected video essays to watch that aligned with the graphic novel they were reading. After collecting examples and making connections from across the texts, students outlined and recorded their own video essays, in which they articulated their understanding of the socio-political event being studied.

Although there are several ways to create video essays, it was easiest for my students to create Google Slides/PowerPoint presentations and use Screencastify to record themselves speaking over their presentation. Students' presentations required textual evidence from the graphic novel and video essays.

After watching and discussing video essays, students and I created guidelines for high-quality videos. Such guidelines included: engaging pictures, minimal written text on the presentations, and effective use of voice to emphasize key points.

Graphic novels and video essays are two texts that can be used to deepen students' understanding of major socio-political events. Songs, art, and film are other mediums that can be incorporated into the curriculum I outlined above. Regardless of the type(s) of texts, students are encouraged to consider how multiple types of writing construct our understanding of socio-political events.

Furthermore, students must consider the hierarchies of texts that schools perpetuate by adhering to only textbooks and written text, and how those hierarchies privilege certain narratives of socio-political events over other ones. The historical insight provided by the graphic novels listed are critical counters to what is published in many textbooks. Finally, in creating video essays, students construct their own understandings of socio-political events that can counter dominant, oppressive textbook narratives using digital literacy practices that are part of their daily lives.

Graphic Novel Titles

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White by Lila Quintero Weaver

Escape from Syria by Samya Kullab, Jackie Roche, and Mike Freiheit

Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale by Belle Yang

Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece

by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by GB Tran

Works Cited

Low, D. E. (2017). Students contesting "colormuteness" through critical inquiries into comics. English Journal, 106(4), 19-28.

Morrell, E. (2005). Critical English education. English Education, 37(4), 312-321.

Cody Miller teaches ninth-grade English language arts at P. K. Yonge Developmental Research School, the University of Florida's affiliated K-12 laborator y school. He can be reached at cmiller@pky.ufl.edu or on Twitter @CodyMillerELA. He is also a PhD candidate in English education at the University of Florida.

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Using Graphic Novels and Video Essays to Critically Understand Socio-Political Events

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Cody Miller. Ernest Morrell noted that critical English education should support ...

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Comics and Graphic Novel Basics: Panel, Frame, Gutter, Bleed

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Students absolutely love graphic novels, which makes it all the more important to incorporate them into your current curriculum. With graphic novels, you'll not only engage your reluctant readers and help build important reading skills, but you'll provide advanced readers with a wonderful opportunity to think critically about a new form of storytelling-one that combines the most important elements of traditional novels, picture books, poetry, and even film in new and captivating ways!

When building graphic novels into your current curriculum, there are a few things you should keep in mind. This guide to teaching graphic novels is a wonderful resource if you're just getting started and will help you choose the best titles to introduce in your classroom. Whether you're hoping to improve your students' reading development, build vocabulary, or use graphic novels across subjects, here are four tips to make adding graphic novels to your teaching toolbox even more effective.

When introducing graphic novels to your students for the first time, encourage readers to focus on the format and how all the visual elements come together to help tell the story. They should consider the size and shape of the panels and how they fit together; how dialogue is used and shared; sound effects and how they're layered through the story; and of course, the overall visual style of the graphic novel. Is the art realistic? How does the illustrator use color to show emotion?

Just like their literary cousins, graphic novels often feature the same important themes other traditional works of literature employ. Graphic novels are also a great lead-in or follow-up to teaching classics and contemporary novels, especially for students who have trouble engaging with more traditional forms of literature. For example, I Survived and The Baby-Sitters Club series are available in graphic novel format as a compliment to their longform editions. Other titles like by Raina Telgemeier captivate young readers by exploring themes of belonging and fitting in.

The old writing adage, "Show, don't tell," is definitely on display in graphic novels-that's why series like Dog Man and The Bad Guys are such great books to read before students dive into creative writing projects. Whether you ask students to craft new endings for their favorite graphic novels or develop new characters or dialogue for existing stories they love, graphic novels are a great way to fuel your students' creative writing instincts.

For younger readers, graphic novels are perfect for helping students transition from picture books to chapter books. They teach important reading skills and give students a wonderful opportunity to reflect on common literary themes and empathize with characters. Graphic novels also shouldn't be limited to English and language arts. Science, social studies, and art instruction are areas where graphic novels can help introduce students to new subject matter and provide an introduction to important lessons from history, STEM, and more!

Adored by students of all ages, graphic novels are a tool every teacher should use to help develop the next generation of readers. They not only motivate students to read, they support learning in your classroom and help your students develop the skills they need to read and comprehend even more challenging works of literature.

Shop the best graphic novels for your classroom library below! You can shop all graphic novels and much more at The Teacher Store.

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How to Use Graphic Novels In Your Curriculum | Scholastic

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By adding graphic novels to your teaching toolbox, youÃ¢ ll help your students develop important reading and critical-thinking skills.

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Many of the texts we encounter in daily life are in fact multimodal ensembles. These texts combine written language, elements of graphic design and visual images. Comics, picture books and graphic novels all incorporate these elements. Graphic novels lend themselves to being used: to launch a

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reading strategies for graphic novels - Google Search

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Why Graphic Novels? · #1: Use Graphic Novels as a Stepping Stone · #2: Don't Assume Students Know How to Read a Graphic Novel · #3: Give Students Opportunities to ...

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This blog post was written by NCTE member Jen Vincent, chair of the Build Your Stack® Committee. This post is part of Build Your Stack,® an NCTE initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries. Build Your Stack® provides a forum for contributors to share books from their classroom experience; inclusion in a blog post does not imply endorsement or promotion of specific books by NCTE.
I love to read and write and learn so it has been important for me to share that with my two sons. Being a mom has stretched me out of my comfort zone in so many ways and definitely when it comes to how I think about reading and writing. My older son is a big fan of graphic novels and my younger son devoured every Dav Pilkey book he could get his hands on. I was a Garfield fan myself growing up and I love to draw and doodle, but my sons' reading interests impacted me and how I think about the power of drawing and books with drawings in them.

We enjoy visiting comic book shops and meeting creators, like Raúl the Third and Dav Pilkey, who write and illustrate the books my sons love. In our excitement, we started to doodle and draw more ourselves and it helped me explore sketchnoting with students. I've been amazed at how much thinking goes into sketchnoting and the deep thinking my students do when they sketchnote. Here are four people whose books have given me ideas and empowered me to sketchnote with students.

Raúl the Third: Raúl the Third's Lowrider books are all drawn with Bic pens because he wanted to show kids that the resources don't matter. Just make art. I love looking at his art and learning from him. His books StuntBoy in the Meantime written by Jason Reynolds, and the Vamos! series, along with the books, are full of great details to study and explore.

Carrie Baughcum: Carrie Baughcum and her daughter Annabeth started a YouTube event called Doodle and Chat and gave us an easy entry into sketchnoting. It especially helped us during the pandemic but she continues to create and offer ideas to help kids explore sketchnoting. Her two books are awesome resources: My Pencil Made Me Do It is a resource written with ideas and activities to try and Stanley and The Very Messy Desk is a picture book that features her learning mascot, Stanley, while teaching kids about the basics of sketchnoting

Lynda Barry: Lynda Barry is a genius when it comes to combining words and images. She shares her stories and offers ideas for you to try in her books. My favorite strategy is to have students make an X across their whole page to remind them that it's not precious. I recommend: Syllabus , What It Is , and

Sunni Brown: Doodle Revolution helped me look at shapes in the world and offered me a visual alphabet that made sketchnoting feel possible. Now when I introduce sketchnoting to students, I always show them the visual alphabet and remind them that if they can make those shapes, they can sketchnote.

Anyone can sketchnote! I love exploring opportunities to take my thinking deeper and I recommend this stack to anyone who is diving into sketchnoting for themselves or with students or who wants to take their practice deeper.
NCTE and independent bookstores will receive a small commission from purchases made using the links above. Jen Vincent (she/her/ella) is a writer, blogger, and educator. She is a Middle School Language Arts Teacher for Bannockburn School, a K-8 district in a northern suburb of Chicago. She hosts Sunday Check-Ins for Teachers Write, co-hosts kidlit It's Monday! What Are You Reading?, and blogs at teachmentortexts.com. As the founder of Story Exploratory, she helps writers face their self doubt, tackle their inner critic, and brave the blank page so they can set their story free. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @jvincentwrites. It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.

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Build Your Stack®: Doodling as Deep Thinking: Texts to Explore Sketchnoting with Students

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Build Your Stack®: Doodling as Deep Thinking: Texts to Explore Sketchnoting with Students

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The Ultimate Guide to Sketchnotes in the ELA Classroom - Spark Creativity

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If you haven't heard of sketchnotes yet, I'm SO EXCITED to be the one to share it with you in this post. When you teach your students to take sketchnotes, you give them a method for listening to a lecture that will allow them to process and remember it better, while being creative.

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Alternative note-taking practices like mind-mapping and sketchnoting prompt students to organize their thoughts visually, boosting comprehension and retention.

kategisme/Twenty20; AJ_Watt/iStock; sydneyskye/Twenty20;

Unlike conventional note-taking, which can "border on the edge of transcription," allowing students to try more visual, interpretive methods of processing materials helps them "identify connections between topics and themes," writes Nimah Gobir for KQED.

One technique known as sketchnoting-simple, hand-drawn renderings of things like facts, dates, or abstract concepts-allows students to respond to complex new ideas by engaging multiple parts of the brain simultaneously to deepen learning and retention, says Gobir. Instead of passively writing down everything a speaker is saying, the practice pushes students to actively process and make sense of what they're learning.

"Sketchnoting doesn't just lead to gains in keeping students' attention, it's a useful way for learners to organize and retain information," she writes. "They're actively listening and creating a visual representation of what they're learning while continuing to stay engaged in class."

Findings from a 2018 study back that up: Students who were asked to draw what they'd learned were nearly twice as likely to remember information than students who wrote the same information down. Drawing wins out because it allows information to be processed in multiple ways, explained Edutopia's research editor Youki Terada: "When we draw, we encode the memory in a very rich way, layering together the visual memory of the image, the kinesthetic memory of our hand drawing the image, and the semantic memory that is invoked when we engage in meaning-making."

Here are some ways to introduce visual note-taking to your students:

Rethink Your Paper: Note-taking doesn't need to happen between the lines and within the margins of a sheet of notebook paper. The "more rigid structure of lines and lines of text" can bind the minds of some students, while the freedom to reimagine the space can free them, writes Gobir. Encourage students to play with spacing, vary text sizes, and add symbols anywhere on the page "to create a hierarchy of information that might be harder to capture in linear text."

Start With a Little Practice: Not all students will welcome the idea of sketchnoting and other visual note-taking methods at first, so encourage them to start off just scribbling. Artist and educator Todd Berman has students "scribble for the duration of a song," Gobir explains, which gets the creative juices flowing and creates a comfortable setting for the introduction of the concept. Berman then invites students to share what they've created with the class.

Develop a Symbolic Language: Educator Wendi Pillars has students "identify 10 key words or concepts" from the current learning materials and begin developing a visual library of shorthand-like an icon or character-to represent them, shares Gobir. Get students' input for the library too, recommends Pillars, so "you have a co-created visual vocabulary that everybody can refer to when they take their own notes." In time, students will develop their own vocabularies and visual note-taking styles independently.

Keep It Low-Fidelity: Communicate to your students that they don't have to be accomplished artists to use visual note-taking techniques: The process isn't about ensuring that the sketches and drawings look good, but that students find a way to tease out the relationships between topics and concepts. "It's giving them permission to say, 'You know what? Here's the key concept. Here's the key information," explains Pillars, who says she emphasizes to students that there is no right or wrong way to take visual notes.

Skip the Grading: Sketchnoting, diagrams, freehand drawing, mind-mapping, and similar techniques are vehicles to get student thoughts down on paper-not practices meant to demonstrate their mastery of subject material. Educator Sarah Schroeder suggests focusing on grading what is "construct relevant," or "avoiding measuring what is irrelevant or can't be measured," like creativity. Attaching a grade to visual note-taking might inhibit the student as they struggle to make sense of complex material, make them feel self-conscious, or simply be so subjective as to be meaningless-so provide feedback rather than a grade.

Join In: Modeling visual note-taking techniques for your students can be a great way to inspire them to try something new. Pillars uses her whiteboard and paper to show students how she visualizes her thoughts. "As we take the notes together, I will ask students, 'How would you represent it?'" she shared with Gobir. "And they'll shout out ideas like, 'You could draw this or this!' And sometimes I tell them 'I can't draw that! You want to come on up here and show [the class]?'"

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How-and Why-to Introduce Visual Note-Taking to Your Students

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Visual note-taking allows information to be processed by the brain in three different ways.

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Sponsored by Chill Expeditions and Kiddom

Have you heard the whispers about one-pagers in the online teacher hallways? The concept of a one-pager, in which students share their most important takeaways on a single piece of blank paper, has really taken off recently.

The one-pagers I see on Instagram draw me in like a slice of double chocolate mousse cake. The artistry students bring to representing their texts on a single piece of paper, blending images and ideas in creative color, is almost hypnotizing for me. Perhaps you've had the same experience.

But it's the very beauty of the models that get posted that can drive students and teachers away from the one-pager activity. Sure, it's great for super artistic students, we tend to think, but what about everyone else?

Turns out it CAN be great for everyone. As long as you know how to structure it.

What Is a One-Pager?

Let's backtrack a bit and talk more about what a one-pager is. It's pretty simple, really. Students take what they've learned-from a history textbook, a novel, a poem, a podcast, a Ted Talk, a guest speaker, a film-and put the highlights onto a single piece of paper. AVID first developed this strategy, but now it's widely used in and out of AVID classrooms.

But why is this seemingly simple assignment so powerful?

As students create one-pagers, the information they put down becomes more memorable to them as they mix images and information. According to Allan Paivio's dual coding theory, the brain has two ways of processing: the visual and the verbal. The combination of the two leads to the most powerful results. Students will remember more when they've mixed language and imagery.

Plus, one-pagers provide variety, a way for them to share what they've learned that goes beyond the usual written options. Students tend to surprise themselves with what they come up with, and their work makes for powerful displays of learning. Plus, they're fun to make. Let's not pretend that doesn't matter.

So, assuming you're sold on trying this out, you're probably wondering what exactly goes into a one-pager?

Students might include quotations, ideas, images, analysis, key names and dates, and more. They might use their one-pagers to make connections to their own lives, to art or films, to pop culture, to what they're learning in their other classes. They might even do it all. You'd be amazed at how much can fit on a single piece of paper.

Many teachers create lists of what students should put inside their one-pagers. Knowing they need two quotations, several symbolic images, one key theme, etc., helps guide students in their work.

The Art Problem

When creating one-pagers, artistic students tend to feature more sketches, doodles, icons and lettering. Students wary of art tend to feature more text, and can be reluctant to engage with the visual part of the assignment at all.

It was this issue-the issue of the art-haters-that first drew me into one-pagers two years ago. I had seen some stunning one-pagers posted in my Facebook group, Creative High School English. But the comments that followed were always the same. "That's amazing work! But so many of my students don't like art...."

Those comments struck a chord with me. For years I had dealt with comments from some of my own students about their distaste for artistic materials when I would introduce creative projects. No matter how much I explained that it was the intention behind their choices that mattered, I always got some pushback if there were any artistic elements involved in a project.

Was there a way to tweak the one-pager assignment so every student would feel confident in their success?

Another problem was one of overall design: Though they knew they needed to hit all the requirements their teachers listed, students still seemed to be overwhelmed by that huge blank page. What should go where? Did colored pencils really have to be involved?

A Simple Solution: Templates

As I thought about the problem, I wondered if students would feel less overwhelmed if they knew what needed to go where. If the quotations had to be in the middle, the themes in the upper left, the images across the bottom, etc. I began to play around with the shapes tool in PowerPoint, creating different one-pager templates.

Then I began shaping my requirements, correlating each element with a space on the paper. Maybe the border could be the key quotations. The center would feature an important symbol. The themes could go in circles around the center. I developed a bunch of different templates for varied ways to respond to novels. Then I tried podcasts. Films. Poetry.

As I shared these templates with other teachers, I kept getting the same feedback: "It's working!"

That little bit of creative constraint actually frees students to use their imagination to represent what they have learned on the page without fear. They know what they need to put down, and where, but they are also free to expand and add to the template. To choose their own colors. To bring out what is most important to them through their creativity and artistry. And those super artistic students? They can just flip the template over and use the blank page on the back.

Beyond Novels

There are so many ways to integrate this creative strategy into your classroom. While one-pagers lend themselves beautifully to final assessments after reading independent novels, literature circle selections, or whole class novels, that's really just the beginning.

You can use them to get to know students better, as with a name tent or "about me" one-pager at the beginning of the year. One school used templates to have every student create a one-pager about their own lives, collecting them all into hallway displays as part of a project they called "Tell your Story."

You can also use them to help students focus in on the most important information in nonfiction articles and books. One EFL teacher in Croatia used the templates to have students share key takeaways from articles they read about social media. Not only did students have to analyze the text deeply to figure out what was most important, but the dual-coding theory suggests the process of creating the one-pagers will help them remember the information better.

Another great use for one-pagers is to keep students focused while absorbing media. When students are watching a film, listening to a podcast, or even attending an assembly with a guest speaker, they can be creating one-pagers as they listen, a kind of formalized version of sketchnotes.

Simple Steps for One-Pager Success

Whenever you're considering your options for assessment, throw one-pagers into the mix. The steps below should help you in creating an assignment for which every student has a roadmap to success.

1. Choose the elements you want your students to put onto their one-pagers. For example, quotations, key themes, literary elements, discussion of style, important characters or dates, connections to other disciplines, connections to their lives, connections to modern culture.

2. Create a layout using the shapes tool in PowerPoint or something similar (or grab a free set of templates here or here).

3. Connect your instructions to your layout. Make it clear which elements should go in which area of your template.

4. Create a simple rubric with the key categories you want your students to succeed with. With literary one-pagers, I use "Textual Analysis," "Required Elements," and "Thoroughness."

5. As you introduce the assignment, show students some examples of one-pagers to give them a sense for how they might proceed.

6. Give students time to work on their one-pagers in class so they can ask you questions. Consider providing some artistic materials if you can, or inviting students to bring them in. You can always let them complete the work at home if necessary.

7. Do a gallery walk of the one-pagers before you collect them, or have them present to each other in small groups. The students will learn a lot from seeing each other's representations.

8. Create a display after you grade the one-pagers with your rubric.

You can find more of Betsy's great ideas on her website, Spark Creativity.

Come back for more.
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A Simple Trick for Success with One-Pagers

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These visual tools allow students to synthesize learning, but some kids don't think they're talented enough to make them. A bit of creative constraint helps.