Expanding the Foundation: African American Authors of Young Adult Literature, 19802000

(Paperback)

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Description

This volume focuses on a group of authors who began writing in the late 1980s. This group consists of eight authors who expanded the foundation and built a critical reputation that garnered a variety of nominations and awards. These authors are: Rita Williams-Garcia, Jacqueline Woodson, Angela Johnson, Nikki Grimes, Sharon Draper, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Sharon G. Flake, and Jewel Parker Rhodes. This volume has a chapter for each of these eight authors that focuses on their critical reception as authors, then discusses in some detail a single representative work, and, finally offers classroom activities for individual, small group, and whole class activities that will engage students in the work discussed.

Reviews

Joining the editors' On the Shoulders of Giants (2019), this second volume in what will be a three-volume set explores eight authors writing between 1980 and 2000: Rita Williams-Garcia, Jacqueline Woodson, Angela Johnson, Nikki Grimes, Sharon Draper, Christopher Paul Curtis, Sharon G. Flake, and Jewel Parker Rhodes (Woodson, Grimes, and Draper get two essays each; the others get one). Each essay begins with a brief backstory on the author; goes on to provide a critical discussion of the author's work and instructional activities for individual, small group, and whole group settings; and concludes with a select bibliography, awards, scholarly works, and references on the author. The book's greatest strength is the contributors' skill at tailoring the instructional activities for application with other works of the author as well as other authors' works. Chapter 2, "Coming of Age and Confronting Sexual Identity is outstanding with its suggestions for before, during, and after reading, as it offers practicing teachers wishing to include diverse authors in their classrooms unique ideas for classroom practice. This book will be invaluable, particularly for teachers with limited knowledge of African American authors of the period. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, professionals. * Choice Reviews *
Expanding the Foundation; African American Authors of Young Adult Literature, 1980-2000 edited by Bickmore and Clark is a perfectly timed and carefully edited follow-up to On the Shoulders of Giants: Celebrating African American Authors of Young Adult Literature. The selections give readers an inside look into the fascinating lives of some of the most talented literary geniuses of our time, while including instructional strategies for educators and students to think critically and deeply. The book combines a perfect blend of history, research, theory, and practice about African American literature and provides us all--publishers, teachers, librarians, parents and students-- direction for examining African American literature. -- Susan Densmore-James, PhD, Associate Professor; Director of the Emerald Coast National Writing Project; The Book Dealer

Author Bio

Steven T. Bickmore is an Associate professor of English Education at UNLV and maintains a weekly academic blog on YA literature (http://www.yawednesday.com/). He is a past editor of The ALAN Review (2009-2014) and a founding editor of Study and Scrutiny: Research in Young Adult Literature.

Shanetia P. Clark, PhD is an associate professor of literacy in the Department of Early and Elementary Education at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. Her interests include young adult and children's literature, the exploration of aesthetic experiences within reading and writing classrooms, and writing pedagogy.