Red's Journey Through Bookland

Chapter 13: Fantasy & Science Fiction Fantasy is another subgenre of fiction. Something many people do not put together is that Science fiction is actual a subgenre of Fantasy. This always brings up one of the only things I remember from math in high school, “Every square is a rectangle, but not every rectangle is a square.” This is the same phenomenon as every science fiction book is a fantasy but not all fantasy will fall under science fiction. Nonetheless, there is specific criteria when it comes to evaluating fantasy (and science fiction) for young people. First, despite whatever world, setting or fantastical place the story is set, the characters need to behave in a consistent and believable manner. This is crucial for the suspension of disbelief and the readers to buy into the fantasy of the story. Next, there must always be rules to the fantasy world. For example, Dystopian texts are considered science fiction- as we as humans have advanced or some catastrophic event...

Alexie, S., & Forney, E. (2009).  The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian . New York: Little, Brown. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian  is a semi-autobiographical story of Sherman Alexie's life growing up on a reservation. Junior (also known as Arnold) has had a lot of struggles growing up- poverty, being scrawny, and being born with 'water on the brain' as a baby. All of these things over the years leads to his decision to leave the 'rez' and go to school 22 miles away at an all white farming town school called Reardan.  Junior on the rez and Arnold in Reardan- the main character has a hard time feeling like he belongs anywhere. He is too white when he is at home on the reservation, and too Indian when at his white school. But Junior will not let anything get in his way- not even his (ex)best friend, Rowdy. This story follows the story of so many people who struggle with their identity and coming home. He wants so much more than his ...

Harris, R. H., & Emberley, M. (2014).  Its perfectly normal: Changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health . Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. It's Perfectly Normal is the perfect name for this book. the main character's bird and bee are learning everything about sex and what it means. This book is a wonderful depiction of what being normal is all about and when you are growing up and when you are an adult it includes talking about sex. This book explores the topics or gender, sex, sexuality, sex organs, anatomy, puberty and much more. These are topics that nearly every young adult is interested in learning about, but have a very difficult time getting direct answers or answers at all. This book has the answers!- written in a way that is assuring to the reader that everything and everyone is "perfectly normal." When evaluating nonfiction we have 5 essential questions we must answer to properly evaluate if the text is quality information and appro...

Chapter 12: Nonfiction Nonfiction is a large genre which covers a multitude of subgenres and spans many different forms/formats. The paramount importance when evaluating nonfiction is the accuracy and currency of the works. This is a huge reason that librarians have to reevaluate and weed their nonfiction collections frequently. The first question that you should ask when evaluating nonfiction is what are the qualifications of the author? This is important because the author’s knowledge of the subject matter they are reporting on is first to look at. There are authors that have background in the subject or content area that they write about, while there are other nonfiction authors that are well known for writing on many different subjects through rigorous research. Some of the ways to evaluate what type of author and qualifications they have is looking at the book jacket, author’s notes included in the back, and the author’s website. You can also see what other text features inc...

Chapter 11: Realistic Fiction Realistic Fiction is the larges subgenre of Fiction as it encompasses historical fiction, contemporary, and some of the subjects that people like to generify libraries by like sports, mystery, etc. The realistic fiction that we are specifically talking about in this chapter is also known as contemporary realistic fiction (as historical fiction was covered in the previous chapter). These stories are most often set during modern time and they are considered believable- consistent with the real world and use characters, settings, and events from the real world. The contemporary/modern aspect is what best separated this subgenre from historical fiction. It is also important to know the criteria to consider when evaluating this type of fiction. Some questions you might ask yourself while reading Realistic fiction are: Is everything consistent with the real world that contemporary kids live in now? – ask yourself does the speech, behavior and other ele...

Chapter 10: Historical fiction Historical fiction is any fictional story set in the past. I typically like to add the caveat that typically historical fiction is based on significant events or historical period in the past. While it is difficult to pin point at what point historical fiction ends and contemporary fiction begins- most students define it as being before they were born or if it is in a history text book. One important aspect of historical fiction is that it gives the reader “the opportunity to vicariously experience what it might have been like to live in a previous time and place.” Some criteria to help you and your student evaluate Historical fiction is: Does the book tell a good story that blends the history in the story itself?; Are the facts if the historical period accurate?; How are the values of the time brought to life?; Is everything consistent with the social environment or culture?; and Does the theme of the story relate to contemporary readers? I fee...

Chapter 9: Poetry This chapter discusses the format of poetry and how to evaluate it in conjunction with YA literature. There are 5 main questions that are outlined in the chapter to ask yourself for evaluating Poetry for children: Is the subject of the poem something with which children would be familiar?; Does the poem use imagery?; Does the poem rhyme?; How is the rhythm used?; and what role does sound play? Another important aspect of this chapter discusses the findings of studies surrounding poetry for children. For example, they found that most children prefer narrative style poetry. This study focused on elementary schools, but you can also tell that this is still prevalent in YA literature. Some very popular YA literature that is written in this format- Kwame Alexander’s Crossover series, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, and Ellen Hopkin’s Crank series. When evaluating these books, it is important to look not only at the content of the book like themes,...

Chapter 8: Awards Knowing awards is paramount to reading selection and collection development for both the classroom teacher and the school librarian. The following is a list of some of the most important awards that pertain to YA literature and collections. 1.        Printz - The Printz award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in YA literature. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the ALA. This award is given during the Annual conference each year in June. o    You can access the criteria and winners via the official website : www.ala.org/yalsa/printz-award o    To be eligible for the Printz award, the book must meet the following criteria: §   May be fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or an anthology §   The book must be published between January 1 st and December 31 st of the year preceding announcement of the award. §   The book must be designated by its publisher a...