Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature [Paperback]

This text offers 6th - 12th grade educators guided instructional approaches for including diverse young adult (YA) literature in the classroom as a form of social justice teaching and learning. Through the YA books spotlighted in this text, educators are provided pre-, during-, and after reading activities that guide students to a deeper understanding of topics that are often considered taboo in the classroom - race, racism, mental health, immigration, gender, sexuality, sexual assault - while increasing their literacy practices.

Victor Malo-Juvera is a former middle school teacher and current associate professor of English Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he teaches courses in young adult literature and multicultural young adult literature.



Paula Greathouse is associate professor of secondary English Education at Tennessee Tech where she teaches English methods and literacy courses. She was a secondary English and Reading teacher for sixteen years.

Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature offers practical suggestions for teachers wanting to bring demanding topics into their classrooms. The strength of the text resides in its presentation of varied instructional approaches that invite students and their teachers to learn and think critically about topics that defy easy understanding. Across the volume, contributors share ideas for incorporating explorations of genre and authors craft, connections to historical events and moments, analyses of legal precedents and policies, classroom research into local and global communities, theories of intersectionality that invite examination of oppression and privilege, and student-led advocacy and action research projects, each of which creates space for complex learning and engagement. Wendy Glenn, Fulbright Scholar; professor, Literacy Studies and Teacher Learning, Research, and Practice; co-director, Teacher Education; chair, Secondary Humanities in the School of l&