Results by title

"Over the Rainbow is lively, engaging, and thoughtful. More to the point, the field of children's literature needs such a collection."
---Katherine Capshaw Smith, University of Connecticut

In spite of the growing critical interest concerning gender and sexual nonnormativity in and around narratives written for young readers, no book-length volume on the subject has yet appeared. Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature is the first collection of essays dedicated to LGBTQ issues in children's literature. Bringing together significant essays and introducing new work, Over the Rainbow is intended to serve both as a scholarly reference and as a textbook for students of children's studies; gender/queer studies; and related disciplines such as English, history, sociology, and education. Editors Michelle Ann Abate and Kenneth Kidd showcase important essays on the subject of LGBTQ children's and young adult literature ---including Harriet the Spy, Rainbow Boys, Little Women, the Harry Potter series, and A Separate Peace---while providing a provisional history of both the literature and the scholarship and examining the field's origins, current status, and possible future orientations.

Over the Rainbow collects essays by Jes Battis, Robin Bernstein, Thomas Crisp, June Cummins, Elizabeth A. Ford, Sherrie A. Inness, Christine A. Jenkins, Vanessa Wayne Lee, Biddy Martin, Robert McRuer, Claudia Nelson, Jody Norton, Tison Pugh, Catherine Tosenberger, Eric L. Tribunella, Roberta Seelinger Trites, and Andrea Wood. These pieces will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of children's literature, American Studies, LGBTQ and queer studies, cultural studies, and literary criticism.

Cover art: Original title page of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by Frank L. Baum, illustrated by W. W. Denslow. New York: George M. Hill, 1900.

Drawing from her own lived experience, in this guide Dorr shines a light on some of the cultural values that exist across both rural and urban poverty, inviting teachers, librarians, and others who work with children from low-income families to see them in their cultural context and appreciate the values they bring to the classroom or library. She spotlights a range of books for children and teens that offer literary mirrors to low-income children, as well as windows to more economically privileged readers, enabling all young readers to celebrate our common humanity. And she also shares the work of ten authors and illustrators familiar with poverty, offering insights into the sources of their stories and the ways storytellers’ lived experience can influence their creative works and make their characters more authentic. You will discover

• an introduction which explores what it’s like to grow up in generational poverty, including its long-term effects on children, the roles played by intersectional and institutional racism, the power of family, and how reading can act as powerful catalyst;
• biographical sketches of Elizabeth Acevedo, Jason Reynolds, Cynthia Rylant, Kelly Yang, and other authors and illustrators;
• inspiring profiles and books spanning age ranges, genres, and formats that chronicle the lives of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sonia Sotomayor, John Lewis, Wilma Mankiller, and other people who were raised in generational poverty; and
• four appendixes which spotlight even more stories of resilient individuals and fictional characters.

Editorial Advisory Board: Sarah Park Dahlen, Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Marianne Martens, Associate Professor, School of Information, Kent State University; Amy Pattee, Associate Professor and Co-coordinator of Dual-Degree MS LIS/MA Children’s Literature, School of Library and Information Science, Children’s Literature, Simmons University
 

“Comprehensive and substantial … a highly recommended resource," raved VOYA about the third edition. Now, to keep pace with changes in the field of publishing and realign itself to the newest generation of young adults, Cart returns with a sweeping update of his classic text.  Relied upon by educators, LIS instructors and students, and practitioners for its insight and thoroughness, his book

• surveys the landscape of YA lit both past and present, sketching out its origins and showing how it has evolved to deal with subjects every bit as complex as its audience;
• closely examines teen demographics, literacy, audiobooks, the future of print, the role of literary criticism, and other key topics;
• provides updated coverage of perennially popular genre fiction, including horror, sci fi, and dystopian fiction;
• delves deeply into multicultural and LGBTQIA+ literature, substantially updated in this edition;
• features expansive interviews with best-selling authors like Eric Shanower, Jackie Woodson, and Bill Konigsberg as well as several publishers and leaders in the field;
• discusses the impact of the Printz Award, ALAN’s Walden Award, the National Book Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Award, and other honors; and
• features abundant bibliographic material to aid in readers' advisory and collection development.