With a focus on fostering democratic, equitable education for young people, Ginsberg and Glenn’s engaging text showcases a wide variety of innovative, critical classroom approaches that extend beyond traditional literary theories commonly used in K-12 and higher education classrooms and provides opportunities to explore young adult (YA) texts in new and essential ways. The chapters pair YA texts with critical practices and perspectives for culturally affirming and sustaining teaching and include resources, suggested titles, and classroom strategies. Following a consistent structure, each chapter provides foundational background on a key critical approach, applies the approach to a focal YA text, and connects the approach to classroom strategies designed to encourage students to think deeply and critically about texts, themselves, and the world. Offering a wealth of innovative pedagogical tools, this comprehensive volume offers opportunities for students and their teachers to explore key and emerging topics, including culture, (dis)ability, ethnicity, gender, immigration, race, sexual orientation, and social class.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Critical Power and Potential of Multicultural Young Adult Literature
Ricki Ginsberg and Wendy J. Glenn
Chapter 1: Positioning Theory
Exploring Power, Social Location, and Moral Choices of the American Dream in American Street
Jennifer Buehler
Chapter 2: The Social Mind
Using Drama to Walk through Racism in Out of Darkness
Patricia Enciso, Nithya Sivashankar, and Sarah Fletcher
Chapter 3: Neoliberalism
A Framework for Critiquing Representations of the "Superspecial" Individual in Marcelo in the Real World
Sean P. Connors and Roberta Seelinger Trites
Chapter 4: The Dominant/Oppositional Gaze
The Power of Looking in Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
Emily Wender
Chapter 5: Multiethnic/Multicultural/Multiracial Alloys
Reading the "Mixed" Experience in Little and Lion
Cammie Kim Lin
Chapter 6: Borders and Borderlands
Interrogating Real and Imagined Third Spaces using If I Ever Get Out of Here
Ricki Ginsberg
Chapter 7: Understanding Racial Melancholia
Analyzing Race-Related Losses and Opportunities for Mourning through American Born Chinese
Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides
Chapter 8: Interrogating Happiness
Unraveling Homophobia in the Lives of Queer Youth of Color with More Happy than Not
Alyssa Chrisman and Mollie V. Blackburn
Chapter 9: Queer Reading Practices and Ideologies
Questioning and (Not) Knowing with Brooklyn, Burning
Ryan Schey
Chapter 10: Complicating the Coming Out Story
Unpacking Queer and (Anti)Normative Thinking in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Angel Daniel Matos
Chapter 0.11: Theories of Space, Place, and Navigational Identity
Turning Inside Out and Back Again in the Exploration of Immigration
Wendy J. Glenn
Chapter 12: Teaching #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName
Interrogating Historical Violence Against Black Women in Copper Sun
Chonika Coleman-King and Susan L. Groenke
Chapter 13: Critical Race English Education
Engaging with Hip Hop, Resistance, and Remix in All American Boys and Viral YouTube Videos
Rachel L. Rickard Rebellino, Karly Marie Grice, and Caitlin E. Murphy
Chapter 14: Critical Language Awareness
Unpacking Linguistic and Racial Ideologies in The Hate U Give
Christina Marie Ashwin and Sara Studebaker
Chapter 15: Critical Comparative Content Analysis
Examining Violence, Politics, and Culture in Two Versions of I Am Malala
Amanda Haertling Thein, Mark A. Sulzer, and Renita R. Schmidt
Chapter 16: Deconstructing the Superhero
Interrogating the Racialization of Bodies using All-New, All-Different Avengers Vol. I
Francisco L. Torres
Chapter 17: Arts-Based Approaches to Social Justice in Literature
Exploring the Intersections of Magical Realism and Identities in When the Moon Was Ours
Christine N. Stamper and Mary Catherine Miller
Chapter 18: Afrofuturist Reading
Exploring Non-Western Depictions of Magical Worlds in Akata Witch
Rebecca G. Kaplan and Antero Garcia
Conclusion: Recognizing and Speaking to the Challenges that Come with Courageous Teaching
Wendy J. Glenn and Ricki Ginsberg
Acknowledgments
About the Author :
Ricki Ginsberg is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Colorado State University, USA.
Wendy J. Glenn is Professor and Chair of Secondary Humanities at University of Colorado Boulder, USA.
