Using Literature to Help Troubled Teenagers Cope with Societal Issues

(Hardback)

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Teachers, media specialists, parents, and other adults who work with adolescents must recognize that our society influences who teenagers are and how they develop as language users. This unique resource provides guidance to these professionals by pairing literacy specialists with counselors who introduce information about social issues important to today's adolescents. These experts then explore literature in which issues such as: body image, sexuality, and leaving home are addressed in ways likely to interest teens. By examining fictional characters, these experts provide guidance to those working with teenagers, so they can encourage adolescents to deal with the conflicts and issues imposed upon them by our society while improving their reading and writing skills. Eight important social issues are explored each in a separate chapter. While providing in-depth exploration of fictional characters grappling with these societal issues, each chapter also provides a question and answer section in which specialists answer questions many adults have raised regarding social influences on teenagers. Readers are given insight into how they can help teenagers with similar problems, and extensive annotated bibliographies recommend appropriate books to get teenagers reading and addressing these problems. This collaboration across academic specialties provides an innovative approach to attaining the goal of helping adults and adolescents in gaining a better understanding of each other.

Reviews

.,."offers a psycholigical perspective into the lives of teenagers today and is a resource filled with a broard range of contemporary literature to use with middle and high school teachers."-Alternative Network Journal
"This book will be an excellent addition to a professional library....[It] should have broad appeal because all teenagers could experience at one time or another many of the problems described in this book, yet not be labeled as "troubled teens..,."an outstanding addition to the Greenwood Press series."-English Journal
This book will be an excellent addition to a professional library....[It] should have broad appeal because all teenagers could experience at one time or another many of the problems described in this book, yet not be labeled as "troubled teens..,."an outstanding addition to the Greenwood Press series.-English Journal
...offers a psycholigical perspective into the lives of teenagers today and is a resource filled with a broard range of contemporary literature to use with middle and high school teachers.-Alternative Network Journal
[W]ill be popular with teachers, library media specialists and public librarians....Recommended as excellent background reading for persons entering the field who want to try to understand the teenage animal.-Reference for Students -- GaleGroup.com Reviews
Provides excellent recommendations of young adult titles for each of the societal issues presented.... The editor has pulled together a fine collection of essays recognizing some of the best literature written for today's teens.-VOYA
This compelling, scholarly, and rich analysis encourages the use of both fiction and nonfiction to help students understand issues they, or their peers, may be facing. The introduction is a powerful, well-documented profile of today's teen.... The extensive literary analyses, which cover classic titles but more frequently contemporary ones, are effectively presented and well supported by a question-and-answer section addressing how the literature can help a struggling teen. Librarians, classroom teachers, and counselors will find elements of this book helpful in reaching at-risk youth when direct personal intervention is simply not enough.-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
"Will be popular with teachers, library media specialists and public librarians....Recommended as excellent background reading for persons entering the field who want to try to understand the teenage animal."-Reference for Students -- GaleGroup.com Reviews
..."offers a psycholigical perspective into the lives of teenagers today and is a resource filled with a broard range of contemporary literature to use with middle and high school teachers."-Alternative Network Journal
"[W]ill be popular with teachers, library media specialists and public librarians....Recommended as excellent background reading for persons entering the field who want to try to understand the teenage animal."-Reference for Students -- GaleGroup.com Reviews
"Provides excellent recommendations of young adult titles for each of the societal issues presented.... The editor has pulled together a fine collection of essays recognizing some of the best literature written for today's teens."-VOYA
"This compelling, scholarly, and rich analysis encourages the use of both fiction and nonfiction to help students understand issues they, or their peers, may be facing. The introduction is a powerful, well-documented profile of today's teen.... The extensive literary analyses, which cover classic titles but more frequently contemporary ones, are effectively presented and well supported by a question-and-answer section addressing how the literature can help a struggling teen. Librarians, classroom teachers, and counselors will find elements of this book helpful in reaching at-risk youth when direct personal intervention is simply not enough."-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

Author Bio

PAMELA S. CARROLL is Associate Professor and Coordinator of English Education at Florida State University. She is the editor of The ALAN Review and co-editor of Books and Beyond: Thematic Approaches for Teaching Literature in High School (1998).