Closing Thoughts

Now that class has unofficially ended and only my final course proposal is due, I have some closing thoughts to wrap up on this class, and this blog. I have a much different perspective on young adult literature than when I entered the class, for which I am glad. It's not the class I signed up for at all, but I think I have a new venue for getting my students to open up and explore themselves in ways I really think they need in high school. Many young adult books may not be schools for style in the way that the classics are, but they can open students emotionally and create meaningful discussion among young people. Much of my educational philosophy is about helping students find their own voices, and much of that comes from exploring different perspectives, which I want to fuel through literature and reading. I will always be a strong defender of the classics--you could never take the Shakespeare nerd out of my soul--but I see where young adult literature can fit into the modern high school classroom, and plan on using it where I can in my own future career.

Final Final Project

I've worked through all of my previous ideas for a final project for my Adolescent in American Literature course for which this entire blog was created, and wanted to share with you my imagined course proposal.

I am writing a syllabus and narrative proposal for a high school course exploring Gender and Sexuality in Young Adult literature. We'll be reading a group of texts that explore the entire range of gender and sexual identities and the issues these variations raise. As an entire class, we'll be reading:
The Heart Has Its Reasons-Michael Cart
This book would serve as our text, tracing LGBT issues in YA novels from the beginning of the genre in 1964 with The Outsiders all the way through modern texts. There are many, many novels mentioned and analyzed here, and the students can use these references for future reading guides.

My Most Excellent Year-Steve Kluger
I want to start with a positive portrayal of what it means to be gay today. There are a saddening and staggering number of heartbreaking stories about the LGBT communities out there, both fact and fiction, so I want to give my students a hopeful note with their first class novel. I have already written a review of this book on this blog, but in particular want to give students a quote from the main gay character's father: "As I tucked him in, I realized we'd never had the 'I'm gay' conversation. Has this generation made it superfluous? If only."

The Perks of Being A Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky
This is an extremely popular novel with young people, but it is one of those aforementioned heartbreaking stories. There are two secondary characters dealing with different stages of coming out in their high school, while the primary character and narrator is dealing with questioning his budding sexuality. This is a great chance to encourage students to delve into more complex definitions of sexuality, and the levels of acceptance that they meet.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic-Alison Bechdel
To get students experimenting with genre a bit, this is a graphic novel dealing with a young girl realizing she is a lesbian, while also finding out that her father was having homosexual affairs for most of her childhood only weeks before he is killed. There are classic literary references left and right in this book which students might need help understanding, plus the unusual genre will make this a tough enough read to really pull apart.

Kissing the Witch-Emma Donoghue
This is a book I discovered just while researching for this project and ended up really enjoying. All of the short stories in this book are retellings of classic fairy tales from a lesbian or feminist perspective, creating some radically different imaginings of familiar stories. I would love to pair this with a multimedia project involving the early music video for the Sara Bareilles song "Fairy Tale," a song which includes the lyrics, "Tall blonde lets out a cry of despair/Says 'Would have cut it myself if I knew men could climb hair/I'll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows.'"

Girl Goddess #9-Francesca Lia Block
There is one short story in particular I want students to read from this book, dealing with a teenager realizing one of her lesbian moms was once her father. Much of the short story deals with a teenager coping with having two moms, but at the closing, deals very positively with transsexual identity issues. This would be a happy and easy note to end full-class reads with.

Then the class will be participating in literature circles reading the work of Julie Ann Peters, a leading author for LGBT YA novels, including:
Luna
Grl2Grl
Between Mom and Jo
Far from Xanadu
Keeping You A Secret

The class would then end with a multimedia project, very open-ended, about what they think gender and/or sexuality mean. They would have to illustrate the continuum of one or both of those societal constructs as they see it in the modern world using some sort of creative format. I'm imagining a range of photos, videos, paintings, poems, short stories, and nonfiction papers for each student to explain these complicated concepts to the best of their ability.

This would be a tough push to get into a high school, but one I know I can explain and justify as really necessary to students' complete development into adulthood. These are issues they should be able to explore in the safety of a classroom where they can be challenged and questioned and feel free to change their minds.

Musical Theatre and Reading--How could I NOT love it?!?

Another must-read book I have gleaned from this class: My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger! Focusing on multigenre novels, this particular story is told through journal entries, English assignment, text conversations, instant message conversations, memos, and transcripts of meetings. This massive collection of forms creates a really intense sense of community as these characters deal with coming of age in many different ways. The three main perspectives of T.C., Alé, and Augie each have to come to terms with their pasts and becoming stronger adults. T.C. has been dealing with the death of his mother since he was only six and is now acting as a hero figure to a boy living in a foster home for deaf children, Alé is expected to join the family "business" of foreign diplomacy while also being the new girl in school, and Augie seems to be the only one who doesn't realize he's gay. Even with all of these huge issues, this story at its essence is about how much love can save us. The voices are strong, real, and bring so much youthful hope (even from the adults' eyes). The ending includes a great surprise that I won’t give away here, but definitely made me smile from ear to ear!

I loved this book for its humor, adept weaving of so many genres into one seamless story, and hopeful message, but above all, this novel handled minority perspectives in the most effective way I could imagine. The minority perspectives in this novel aren’t treated with gloves on, nor are they defined by that one aspect that makes them a minority. T.C. has two aunts married to each other, but it is never questioned or forced; it simply is. At one point, Augie’s father ruminates, “And while I was tucking him in, I realized that we’d never had the ‘I’m gay’ conversation. Has this generation finally made it superfluous? If only.” The big surprise ending has nothing to do with race, sexuality, gender, or ability; it is simply about these characters’ interests and personalities. If we expect prejudice to fade, we should be able to recognize differences without making them someone’s defining characteristic. This really was a magnificent book that I can imagine in my future classroom.

Suggested Grade Level: 9th grade

Appropriateness: emotional issues, length (400+ pages)

Classroom use: discussion of sexuality and minority perspectives, and/or multigenre writing

Race and Relatability

We Were Here by Matt de la Peña brought up some really harsh feelings in my Adolescent Literature class, it was pretty shocking. The story itself deals with Miguel, a young boy of mixed Mexican heritage, living in juvenile hall after committing a mysterious crime. This mystery drove the story for me, so I won't give any spoilers here, but it definitely contained the emotional heart of the story in my opinion (not so for my classmates, apparently...). The judge demanded that Miguel keep a journal during his time in the boys' home, so the entire story is taught in a very personal strong voice in the form of journal entries. Miguel, stuck in juvi, tries to better himself by working through the library, making for some really great text pairing options with its mention of several really great classics. Making friends with Rondell and Mong, each with some obvious severe problems of their own, Miguel decides to run away to Mexico, hoping with his new friends to escape to a better life. The journey, however, is one more about self-discovery than it is about a physical destination, so it should come as no surprise that the boys never make it to Mexico; life very rarely turns out as we plan as teenagers.

I am frustrated by how much race played into the development of these characters--there were some really strong voices and interesting story elements, but almost every discussion about Miguel, Mong, and Rondell starts with their racial status. Our classroom discussion this week got very heated because of this, I feel, when I wish we had focused on the mystery of Miguel's crime even though the perspective is so directly first-person in this journal format. I didn't think about it until I read one other blogger's point, but the issue of race with Rondell is really handled poorly--he is obviously mentally challenged, a sort of modern day George from Of Mice and Men, with a slow wit but loving affability. His particular strengths include basketball and strong loyalty. Combine all of these traits, and you have an African American character nearing caricature status and tiptoeing into very offensive territory. From what I've seen of Matt de la Peña's other two novels, he tends to focus on race in young adults in a way I think has been done more effectively by other YA authors. There are some really compelling elements to this story, but it definitely pushes some buttons that I'm not sure it means to push. I'd recommend it outside of class to boys looking for a more rough-around-the-edges narrator, but otherwise I'd stay away.

Suggested grade level: 10th grade
Appropriateness: racial issues to be handled sensitively, violence
Classroom use: outside of class only

Graceling--Delving in the Science Fiction World

Kristen Cashore's Graceling is the first true-blooded fantasy novel I've really worked through. I just can't get into them, but I toughed it out for our class discussion. This story deals with the world of Seven Kingdoms and the special power, or "grace," of Katsa--the power to fight and kill with her bare hands. Katsa's uncle, King Randa, keeps her employed doing his dirty work, a graceling himself able to manipulate others' thoughts. One of her missions, however, introduces her to Prince Po, with whom she falls deeply in love, a particularly difficult situation when she has trained herself not to feel too much when she must work as a killer. Po, graced himself, is able to meet Katsa fairly in battle, using her talent for fighting to grow close to her and make her more human. Po and Katsa bond over their suspicion of the current power structure, and go on a sort of adventure to turn the established order upside down. This book expresses well the awkwardness of being a teenager, of feeling like being different, even if it is a gift, is mostly a burden.

I've never been a sci-fi/fantasy type of reader. A fervent supporter of the classics in most genres, I have yet to get through a single J.R.R. Tolkein novel. I've always felt that sci-fi writers get to break the rules in whatever way they want, they get to "cheat" so to speak, in the way they explore the problems of our current world. In addition to my resentment of the sci-fi genre in general, I also had some problems with repetition of other novels' major themes. If you've read some of my previous posts, you'll see how much I enjoyed Looking for Alaska, and my analysis of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. This novel also presents a strong female character searching for self and truth, but whereas those two titles deal with a figurative "fighting the man," Graceling gets to present that same struggle literally. That sort of translation into a literal battle just feels like a cop-out to me. Katsa does take a uniquely strong anti-marriage stance, saying that giving herself to Po in marriage would be taking away her freedom. I can't quite figure out how it would be much different than the current relationship she has with him, but the assertion was a pleasantly bold one. Overall, I would recommend this book to a student needing that strong female experience but looking for something more in the fantasty realm; it just isn't my personal cup of tea.

Suggested Grade Level: 10th grade
Appropriateness: some violence, some sexuality
Classroom use: literature circles dealing with strong female narrators

Final Project

I'm beginning to consider my final project options for my Young Adult Literature course, and want to put them out there for future editing and revision. Choosing between a unit plan, a course proposal, and a course video is going to be pretty difficult. So far, here are my ideas:
Lit circles-Banned books
Catcher in the Rye
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Looking for Alaska
The Lovely Bones
Go Ask Alice

Lit circles-Gender identity and sexuality (LGBT issues)
Stone Butch Blues
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead
My Brother Has AIDS
The Laramie Project

Course proposal-LGBT Young Adult Literature
Above texts

Text Pairing unit plan and/or video-
The Book Thief
The Diary of Anne Frank

Dating, Love, and Sex

In discussing YA novels that focus on dating, love, and sexuality, we read and discussed The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. This novel is the story of a teen girl at an upper class boarding school, who grows from awkward gawky girl into a stunning young woman over one summer. Coming back to school the next year, Frankie gets used to the new attention, and begins dating cool senior Matt. However, Frankie's new boyfriend is a member of the school's all-male secret society, The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. Feeling a victim of her circumstances, being female and judged on her looks by the "cool crowd," Frankie covertly tries to take over this secret society by coordinating pranks through manipulative emails. When Frankie must face the consequences of her actions, she brings the reader to strong criticism of gender double-standards in a way students haven't considered before. It is a fun story for teens in its sense of secrecy and danger while exploring gender issues in a world fairly close to their own.

This novel is a tough one for me to place in a classroom. There are definitely some interesting aspects of the novel I would want to explore with students, including some fun with wordplay, a couple really great metaphors, and an interesting narrator perspective. However, this is a novel that deals, on the plot level, mostly with dating. There is some room for teaching Marxist and feminist criticism out of this book, and while I do like the idea of using easier material to teach difficult concepts like literary criticism, there is no getting around the pretty simple plot line of this book. I'm so torn, because it would be nice to see kids working on literary criticism without spending class time summarizing plot because of difficult language. Still, I think there are better books to do so with, including earlier review book Looking for Alaska. In many ways, I see The Disreputable History as the poor man's Looking for Alaska--a strong female narrator that boys swoon for, finding a way to subvert the power stuck in upper-class patriarchal society, but without the stunning style and greater life lessons of John Green's novel.

Suggested Grade Level: 9th-10th grade
Appropriateness: Some language and sexuality, subversion of authority