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The Young Adult Writing Project (YAWP)
Fees Middle School Writing Center
Information for Student Teachers
ASU English Education
PO Box 870302
Tempe, AZ 85287-0302
Phone: 480.965.3224
Fax: 480.965.0605
Language & Literature Building Rm 215
Photo Above Right: The ASU English Education Young Adult Literature Class proudly announces its presence at the April 5, 2003 Arizona Book Festival. Photos (above right & below right): Alleen Nilsen
Young
Adult Literature
- About the ASU Young Adult Literature Program
- *New* YA Lit WebQuests
- YA Lit Special Events
- YA Lit Recommended Links
- YA Lit Honor Lists
- YA Lit Syllabi
The
Arizona State University Young Adult Literature program is nationally
known. Professor Emeritus Ken
Donelson and Professor Alleen
Pace Nilsen are authors of the leading textbook in the field,
Literature
for Today's Young Adult.
It is now in its 7th edition, and is used throughout the
country in Schools of Library Science, Colleges of Education, and
Departments of English.
James Blasingame,
Jr. is coeditor of The
ALAN Review, a journal devoted entirely to young adult
literature and sponsored by the National
Council of Teachers of English. He is also the Young Adult
Book Review Editor for JAAL,
the Journal
of Adult and Adolescent Literacy.
We put together an annual Honor List of best books, which is published in the English Journal. Click on the above Honor List link for abbreviated reviews of selections for the past five years.
YOUNG
ADULT LITERATURE SPECIAL EVENTS
On a fairly regular basis, we are able to get authors of young adult books to visit with our students. Right Top: Students pose with author Christopher Paul Curtis, who visited ASU in December 2002.
RECOMMENDED
LINKS Top
Ten YA Web Resources
(Thanks to Marie Hardenbrook, former Librarian at
McClintock High School in Tempe and now a faculty member at Vanderbilt
University, for helping find some of these sources.)
1.
ALAN: The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents
ALAN is a special interest group of the National
Council of Teachers of English founded in 1973. It sponsors The
ALAN Review and an annual two-day workshop featuring YA authors
and their books, along with presentations by editors, teachers,
and librarians. The ALAN workshops are held in conjunction with
National Council of Teachers of English annual conferences which
meet in different parts of the country every November. http://www.alan-ya.org/
2.
The ALAN Review
The Digital Library and Archives: Formerly the Scholarly
Communications Project at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, sponsors this site, which includes reprints of complete
articles from The ALAN Review since 1994. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/
3.
Amazon.com
This commercial site is the most useful source I’ve
found for knowing what books are currently in print and available.
It also provides space for reader comments so that it’s a good
place for teenagers to recommend books to each other. http://www.amazon.com
4.
The Children’s Literature Web Guide
David K. Brown from the University of Calgary manages
this helpful site, which offers links to book news including the
winners of awards and news about upcoming conferences; children’s
and YA literature discussion groups; professional organizations;
book reviews, and other educational resources. Especially useful
is his “Best Books of the Year: A Roundup of Annual Book Lists
Published on the Web.” http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/
5.
Free Expression Clearinghouse—A Guide to Free Speech and the
First Amendment
This
is an efficient way to keep up on censorship news. Headlines and
summaries are given with many news items printed in full. http://www.freeexpression.org/
6.
The International Reading Association
IRA’s website presents information about the
organization’s goals, activities, publications, and book lists.
The organization’s focus used to be on the teaching of reading
in elementary schools, but members’ interests have extended
upwards now that reading is being taught more in junior and senior
high schools high schools. http://www.reading.org/
7.
The Internet Public Library: Teenspace
Links are provided to nearly 20 recommended resources,
some aimed at adults but most aimed directly at teenagers. Topics
include drug and health education, conflict resolution, youth advocacy,
political involvement, emotional health, and current news of interest
to young people. http://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/teen/teen.db.out.pl?id+ic0000
8.
Multnomah County Library Outernet for Young Adults
While some of the links on this site go to information
about local library events, most of them are of national interest.
It is especially good at providing information to aspiring writers
and presenting such “offbrand” reading recommendations
as “Reader’s Robot,” which promises to search a database
of 2000 titles to find the one that fits the user’s profile;
“Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists,” and
Cathy Young’s irreverent reviews of “Favorite Teenage
Angst Books.” http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/outer/books.html
9.
New York Public Library Teen Link
A standard reference for young adult librarians
has been the New York Public Library’s annual Books for the
Teen Age. Excerpts are now available immediately, as well as information
about the Teen Age Cover Contest, and links to Internet sites for
fun, sports, homework help, hotlines, media news, teen writings,
and information on colleges. http://www2.nypl.org/home/branch/teen/index.cfm
10.
Teen Hoopla: An Internet Guide for Teens
The parent organization for this website is YALSA
(Young Adult Library Service Association) of the American Library
Association. Links invite readers to submit book reviews, nominate
books for YALSA’s booklists, get information on Teen Read Week,
see what books were voted as Teens Top Ten, and visit other sites
which review books for young readers. http://www.ala.org/teenhoopla/reviews
Other Recommended Links
Arizona
Book Festival 2003
Official
site for the 2003 book fair gathering at the Phoenix Carnegie Library. http://www.azbookfestival.org/index.html
Arizona
Reads
Website provides Arizona secondary students with
an opportunity to cast their votes for what they like to read and
help build a database English language arts and reading teachers
can use to inform their instruction. http://www.west.asu.edu/coe/ratings/
One Book Arizona
What if everyone in Arizona read the same book
at the same time? http://www.onebookaz.org/index.html
One
Book Arizona for Kids
What
if every kid in Arizona read the same book at the same time?
http://www.onebookaz.org/kids/index.html
Poetry
Zone
This
link contains renowned author and poet Nikki Grimes' suggestions
for teachers, including student writing prompts, recommended lists
of poetry for grades K-12 (one for elementary schools, and a second
list of YA titles), and ideas for presenting poetry to students.
The list changes from time to time. http://nikkigrimes.com/teacher.html
For
the past twenty years, Ken Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen have
gathered all the “best book” lists they could find and
have put together what they call their “Honor List.” Each
year's list includes the ten to twelve books that have appeared
on the most lists and won the most prizes. They use the Honor List
in the introductory chapter to their textbook Literature for
Today’s Young Adults, and also with their own students
to help focus these students' reading on books that are likely to
last.
For the last several years, this Honor List has also been printed each year in the English Journal. Here are the 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 winners accompanied by a few sentences excerpted from the fuller reviews. Jim Blasingame, Jr. has helped write the reviews for books since 2000.
2004 Honor List
2003 Honor List
2002
Honor List
2001 Honor List
2000 Honor List
1999 Honor List
1. Course: "Literature for Adolescents" (ENG 471/540)
Professor: James Blasingame, Jr.
Term: Spring 2004
Click below for a syllabus:
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Page Contact: Alleen.Nilsen@asu.edu updated: October 10, 2008 |