Spring semester begins in less than a week. Much to my delight, I will be teaching an undergraduate course at UW-Madison called Young Adult Literature for Schools. In creating the syllabus, I was eager to draw on books that I have taught and to explore more recently published works.
Throughout the course of the semester, we’ll be reading 20 young adult lit titles. Fifteen of those are required, and the other five are self-selected. In addition, we will read 30+ journal articles, book chapters, and essays that focus on genres, themes, teaching strategies, and literacy theories. Our class will visit the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, which is a phenomenal resource on our campus, and meet several of their (also phenomenal) librarians.
We will also have several guest lectures. This includes visits from Simone Schweber, a professor of education and Jewish studies, who will talk about teaching historical fiction, nonfiction, and autobiography that focuses on the Holocaust; a local middle school teacher who will share her experience dealing the censorship of Terry Trueman’s Stuck in Neutral; and other local middle school teachers who will discuss their positive experiences with literature circles.
Looking over the titles below, I can’t wait to get started!
Required Young Adult Literature (Read all 15):
Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown.
Anderson, M.T. (2002). Feed. Cambridge: Candlewick.
Card, O.S. (2002). Ender’s game. New York: Starscape.
Chbosky, Stephen. (1999). Perks of being a wallflower. New York: MTV.
Flinn, A. (2001). Breathing underwater. New York: Harper Collins.
Hesse, K. (1997). Out of the dust. New York: Scholastic.
Hinton, S.E. (1967). The outsiders. New York: Penguin.
Martinez, V. and Scott, S. (2004). Parrot in the oven: Mi vida. New York: Rayo.
McCormick, P. (2008). Sold. New York: Hyperion.
Peters, J.A. (2006). Luna. New York: Little, Brown.
Satrapi, M. (2004). Persepolis: The story of a childhood. New York: Pantheon.
Sis, P. (2007). The wall: Growing up behind the iron curtain. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus I. New York: Pantheon.
Woodson, J. (2000). If you come softly. New York: Putnam.
Trueman, T. (2001). Stuck in neutral. New York: Harper.
Literature Circles (Choose 1):
Bitton-Jackson, L. (1999). I have lived a thousand years. New York: Simon Pulse.
Wiesel, E. (1982). Night. New York: Bantam.
Yolen, J. (2004). The devil’s arithmetic. New York: Puffin
Zusak, M. (2005). The book thief. New York: Knopf.
Optional Young Adult Literature (Choose 3):
Chambers, A. (2007). Postcards from no man’s land. New York: Red Fox.
Cormier, R. (2004). Chocolate war. New York: Knopf.
Farmer, N. (2004). The house of the scorpion. New York: Simon Pulse.
Fleischman, P. (1999). Whirligig. New York: Laurel Leaf..
Gaiman, N. and McKean, D. (2008). The graveyard book. New York: Harper Collins.
Garden, N. (2007). Annie on my mind. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Ihimaera, W. (1987). The whale rider. Auckland: Reed Publishing.
Johnson, A. (2003). First part last. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Myers, W.D. (1998). Fallen angels. New York: Scholastic.
Myers, W.D. and Myers, C. (2001). Monster. New York: Amistad.
Salinger, J.D. (2001). The catcher in the rye. New York: Bay Books.
Wakatsuki Houston, J. and Houston, J.D. (1983). Farewell to Manzanar. New York: Bantam.
Winick, J. (2000). Pedro and me. New York: Henry Holt.
Yang, G.L. (2006). American-born Chinese. New York: First Second.
Book Talk (Choose 1 from the Award Lists Below):
Michael L. Printz Award
National Book Award – Young People’s Literature
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