Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres (Critical Literacy Teaching: Challenging Authors and Genre, 4)

Young Adult literature, from The Outsiders to Harry Potter, has helped shape the cultural landscape for adolescents perhaps more than any other form of consumable media in the twentieth and twenty-first century. With the rise of mega blockbuster films based on these books in recent years, the young adult genre is being co-opted by curious adult readers and by Hollywood producers. However, while the genre may be getting more readers than ever before, Young Adult literature remains exclusionary and problematic: few titles feature historically marginalized individuals, the books present heteronormative perspectives, and gender stereotypes continue to persist. Taking a critical approach, Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres offers educators, youth librarians, and students a set of strategies for unpacking, challenging, and transforming the assumptions of some of the genre's most popular titles. Pushing the genre forward, Antero Garcia builds on his experiences as a former high school teacher to offer strategies for integrating Young Adult literature in a contemporary critical pedagogy through the use of participatory media.--Back cover Young Adult literature, from The Outsiders to Harry Potter, has helped shape the cultural landscape for adolescents perhaps more than any other form of consumable media in the twentieth and twenty-first century. With the rise of mega blockbuster films based on these books in recent years, the young adult genre is being co-opted by curious adult readers and by Hollywood producers. However, while the genre may be getting more readers than ever before, Young Adult literature remains exclusionary and problematic: few titles feature historically marginalized individuals, the books present heteronormative perspectives, and gender stereotypes continue to persist. Taking a critical approach, Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres offers educators, youth librarians, and students a set of strategies for unpacking, challenging, and transforming the assumptions of some of the genre's most popular titles. Pushing the genre forward, Antero Garcia builds on his experiences as a former high school teacher to offer strategies for integrating Young Adult literature in a contemporary critical pedagogy through the use of participatory media. This description was taken from the book's amazon listing. Front Matter....Pages i-xx Reading Unease....Pages 1-12 Capitalism, Hollywood, and adult Appropriation of Young adult Literature....Pages 13-35 More Than Mango Street....Pages 37-57 Outsiders?....Pages 59-75 Gender and Sexuality and YA....Pages 77-93 Pedagogy of the Demonically Possessed....Pages 95-107 Grassroots YA....Pages 109-128 YA and the “Emerging Self”....Pages 129-134 Back Matter....Pages 135-142 Antero Garcia. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 135-139) And Index. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web.