Video: NYPL Panel on YA Lit

The New York Public Library recently hosted a panel on the state of Young Adult Literature. Panelists include educators and librarians; as well as editors from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Atheneum Books for Young Readers; and the Penguin Book Group.

Student Review: THE MAZE RUNNER | James Dashner

Many thanks to Reilly, a 5th grade student in Texas, who submitted this review. We appreciate his input (and, by the way, are quite impressed with his writing ability). If you or someone you know would like to submit a guest review, please email us at info@teachyalit.com.

Title: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Date of Publication: 2009

Pages: 374

What Grade Are You In?: 5th, age 10

How did you learn about this book?  

My mom found it online and she said that a whole bunch of people liked it. Then I read the description and the part about The Maze sounded cool and the part about the main character waking up in the lift made me curious, so I checked it out from the library and read it in two days. 

Had you already read any books by this author before you started this one? If so, which one(s)? If not, what made you think this would be a good choice for you?

No, I haven't read any books by this author, but it sounded like a good book and it's description reminded me of the Maximum Ride books, which I really liked. 

What were the two or three things you liked most about this book?

A few things I liked were the Maze, a giant labyrinth surrounding the home of the characters, and the Runners, the people who try to solve The Maze, and the part where Teresa figured out she was telepathic.  I also liked it when the walls moved to close The Maze at night. 

What do you wish had been different about this book?

There's not really anything I would change about this book. People should know that some parts of the book are a little bit scary, and once the characters start to figure out things, the book is very tense.  

Overall, on a scale of 1-5, what score would you give this book?

I would totally give it a 5! It was awesome!

Who do you think would like this book? (Even if you didn't like it, might someone else?)

I think that anyone who likes the Maximum Ride books would totally love this book. This book is probably best for kids at least ten and higher, not younger than ten. For class reading, it might be better for older kids because of some violent and tense situations, and maybe for some mild language. It would be interesting to see other people's reactions to the book, and to compare what other people notice and how they react to different parts. 

Is there anything else you would like to say about this book?

The only other thing I would like to say is that Chapter 59 is really sad. 

If You're Looking For A Lesson Plan For Little Brother by Cory Doctorow...

We will have (at least) one ready for you soon soon soon. In response to a fairly heavy amount of traffic the past few days looking for Little Brother lesson plans, We've set a goal to have at least one plan completed and posted by 8pm Eastern Time on Sunday, October 17.

Meanwhile, you can read the review here, and please comment on this post or email us with ideas/suggestions/requests for the Little Brother plan. The review includes a few ideas for bridge texts, and recommended grade levels for reading the book. Unless we're told otherwise, we will assume that our recommendations are good for you. But if you'd like to teach this book to a younger audience, or you have some specific goals in mind for teaching this book and you want some help in getting started--let us know.

Thanks for visiting, and stay tuned.

Re: Teaching Poetry in Middle and High School

Here are a couple of poem-novels I've loved and used in classrooms, probably best for 5th or 6th grade, but also could be all be used creatively with older students in a two- or three-lesson mini-unit.

• Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech
• Locomotion, by Jacqueline Woodson
• Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The poetry is extremely teachable, and the stories are extremely compelling.

Dialog: Poets and Teachers on Teaching Poetry in Middle and High School

Here's a wonderful exchange--beginning with an email from a high school English teacher--on the poet John Gallaher's blog. Questions/discussion topics include:

• elements of poetry that should be included in middle and high school classrooms; 
• successful poetry lessons/activities from middle/high school classrooms; and
•  how to get beyond the need to decode poetry in order for teachers to teach it and students to appreciate it.

It's an important pedagogical issue, and a there is a fascinating discussion about it unfolding in the comments section of the post. To my mind, the most essential elements of poetry to teach in secondary schools are word play and word choice. 

• Word Play: There are so many poems from so many eras that demonstrate just how much fun the English language can be. From Catullus to Shakespeare to William Carlos Williams to Billy Collins, poetry can teach students to enjoy words in a way that no other use of the English language can.
• Word Choice: The words in a poem do more work than the words in any other subset of literature. Diction is, of course, critical to all good writing, but the importance that each word carries its weight is especially evident when seen in the context of a poem's structure and rhythm.

A side benefit of focusing on these aspects of poetry is that this kind of approach gives us another way into the poem. Job one does not have to be to decode the poem, but in exploring the way the words work and play together, some meaning is more likely to come organically from it.

For anyone interested in finding lesson plans for poetry for all grade levels and content areas, I highly recommend the Louisiana Poetry Project (for which I periodically contribute lesson plans). As the name suggests, the organization is focused on poets and poetry from Louisiana, but of course the poems are relevant anywhere. There is a poem and at least one lesson plan for every school day of the year, and some of the plans could be adapted to fit other poems as well. It's a great place to start if you want help and ideas for teaching poetry.

And don't forget to check out the exchange on Gallaher's blog, and to share your thoughts both here and there!

HT: Thanks to The Rumpus for publicizing the question.

Why YA

I’ve always been a big reader. My mom took us to storytime at the library and made sure that we got library cards and could check out our own books. She likes to read and I would see her with huge books and I think that passed on to me. I remember going to the library as a child and the teen section was a single cart of books. Luckily, by the time I was a teen the library had a brand new building with a separate teen section. Libraries on Long Island were generally well supported and the teen section was a decent size with its very own librarian.

Nancy Gorman was the YA librarian at the Longwood Public Library and responsible for stocking those shelves. Back then we didn’t have the internet, let alone book blogs and twitter, so teen access to books was limited to those at the library or the bookstore. We relied on the librarians to buy good books because we weren’t hearing about them any other way. Mrs. Gorman did a good job of selecting books and having fun programs for teens to get us in the library so we could find those books. When I eventually started working at the library (at 16) I knew that I wanted to be Mrs. Gorman—I wanted to be a YA librarian and bring teens and books together.

I’ve read mostly YA books ever since. The few grownup books I read as a teen/young adult were all cross-over books—adult books that have large teen appeal. Anne Rice’s vampire series and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were the extent of my adult book reading experience. I went to library school, got a job as a YA librarian and did that for seven years, reading YA as part of the job to better serve my population. I started my book blog in 2004 and at the time there were only a handful of other blogs about YA books. When my second child was born I switched to part time work and believing that teens deserved a full time librarian, I gave up that aspect of my job.

But I never stopped reading YA.

I’ve read a few grown up books since then as part of a book club with my friends, but I still focus on YA. I could have stopped since it was no longer part of my job, but I noticed something interesting after I became a parent, I could easily read a teen book about horrifying topics—rape, murder, abuse, etc—and while it wasn’t a great pick-me-up, it was okay. But if I read a grown up book on those same topics, I instantly had the point of view of the parent in the story and I couldn’t read it. I would much rather read the teen’s point of view than the parent’s. When I read a YA book I’m just a reader, but when I read a grownup book I can’t help but bring myself and my children into it. If Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) had been an adult book told from the point of view of the mother in the story there is no way I could have read and enjoyed it. But luckily it’s a teen book.

I also happen to think that most grown up books are a bit boring. YA books—even the bleakest ones—are generally full of hope. Teens have their futures ahead of them. I like the stories they have to tell. YA books are exciting and adventurous, dramatic and emotional. Most of them are well-written and engaging in ways that grownup books just aren’t for me. Like the teens they are written for, YA books are full of potential and promise. They stay with you long after you’ve read them.

After the birth of my third child I stopped working at the library completely. But I still keep my hand in YA literature. I review all the books I read on my book blog (http://goddesslibrarian.blogspot.com) and I also write about YA fiction for the examiner (http://www.examiner.com/young-adult-fiction-in-albany/jennifer-mcintosh). When I’m done having children and they’ve all found their way to school I hope to find other ways to bring teens and books together.

- Jennifer McIntosh

Review: WHEN YOU REACH ME | Rebecca Stead

TITLE: When You Reach Me
AUTHOR: Rebecca Stead
PUBLISHER: Wally Lamb Books
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2009
PAGES: 208
GRADE LEVEL(S): 5-7
RELEVANT CURRICULA: English
CLASSROOM USES: Required reading, Summer/Independent reading, Literature Circles
BRIDGE TEXTS: A Wrinkle In Time


The first time I wrote anything--in fact, the only time I wrote anything--about When You Reach Me, I could hardly think of words to do the book justice. I quoted from commentary from Nancy Pearl on NPR (which was how I first learned about the book), and then wrote:

When You Reach Me is a wonderful descendant of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time; it never once even comes close to imitation, or cheap knock-offery.  No, it's the classiest of descendants--it's an evolution.

One of the most beautiful aspects of fantasy is how completely it takes the reader from her/his own world into that of the novel. What better way for students to learn first-hand of the magic of literature than by being transported to the planet Uriel? Or to Narnia? Or Middle-earth? Or Oz?


But Stead's novel takes place in New York City. (No doubt, NYC can be magical and unreal, but it's no outer space...) Miranda, Stead's protagonist, is a relatively normal girl, living in a relatively normal world, with the everyday drama that inhabits the world of every 11 year-old. 


The fantastical elements of When You Reach Me are subtler than magic or space travel. Stead's fantasy world is more mysterious than magical, as Miranda receives unexplained notes about events yet-to-happen in her life. Miranda is understandably skeptical; this could as easily be a prank as it is magic, and neither Miranda nor the reader has to take a huge leap of faith to feel that life is carrying on more or less as usual.


This fantasy-based-in-realism approach is sheer brilliance. By staying firmly rooted in real-world places and problems, Stead's novel will appeal to students who may already possess a bit of world-weary reluctance to get fully sucked into a novel. Any reader unwilling to blast into outer space will slowly but surely get sucked in by the bully on the block or the struggles of growing up with a single parent. But magic will just seep in, slowly but surely--and before long, When You Reach Me will make readers out of kids today in the same way that A Wrinkle In Time made readers of them in 1962.

Review: LITTLE BROTHER | Cory Doctorow

TITLE: Little Brother
AUTHOR: Cory Doctorow
PUBLISHER: Tor (Tom Doherty Associates, LLC)
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2008
PAGES: 365
GRADE LEVEL(S): 9-10
RELEVANT CURRICULA: English, American History, Contemporary Affairs, Ethics
CLASSROOM USES: Required reading, Summer/Independent reading, Literature Circles
BRIDGE TEXTS: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The 9/11 Commission Report

Why do we ban books in our schools and libraries? To protect our students, right? They are young and impressionable, and we must protect their fragile minds. So we block off books that contain profanity, references to sex, or drugs and alcohol, or subversive ideas.

So, let’s give Little Brother the test. Profanity? Check. Sex, drugs, alcohol? Check, check, check. Subversive ideas? Double check.

Doctorow’s main character and narrator is a 17 year-old high school student with a penchant for using technology to scare up excitement. He starts innocently enough, hacking his school-owned laptop so that he can IM friends during classes or putting rocks in his shoes to fool the gait-recognition technology in the school’s security cameras. When Marcus’s hacking exploits make him a terrorism suspect in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security, his world changes in nearly every possible way. His friendships are pushed to the limit, he wonders why his parents can’t see his point of view, and he loses faith in his government as an advocate for the innocent and guarantor of freedom.

Most high school students will never be terror suspects, or even much more adept with computers than to load basic software and create powerpoint presentations for class projects. But they can all relate to friendships on the skids, feeling estranged from parents, or worrying that the system has somehow abandoned them. Students will relate to Marcus Yallow’s story.

While students will find an ally in Marcus, teachers will find an excellent vehicle for a variety of lessons and units. Coming of age. Loss of innocence. Personal privacy versus national security. To what extent does the government’s responsibility lie more in protecting its citizens’ constitutional rights, and to what extent are those rights expendable in the interest of public safety?

There is no end to fodder for discussion and debate in this novel; creative teachers will see opportunities for all manner of classroom activities and cross-curricular assignments. But before throwing this book into the syllabus, teachers are going to have to answer questions about the profanity, the sex, drugs, and alcohol, and (perhaps most of all) the subversive ideas. Doctorow’s position in this novel is not, shall we say, “fair and balanced.” Detractors will point to the book’s overt liberalism and anti-government sentiments. Any of these fears can be allayed easily enough with a well-written rationale and some ancillary reading material that presents a more conservative viewpoint.

The alternative is to leave this book out of classrooms and libraries altogether, to add it to another list of banned books. Over the years, we’ve banned William Chaucer, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, and the Bible. Among such company, it could be a real honor for Doctorow were his book to be banned—but to keep this book from kids would be a real miscarriage of justice.