|
ALAN Online News April 2016
|
S.E. Hinton To Headline 2016 ALAN Breakfast
|
|
Breaking news: Author Susan Eloise Hinton will speak at the ALAN Breakfast on Saturday, November 19th, in Atlanta. S.E. Hinton's debut novel,
The Outsiders, written when she was a teenager, changed the course of young adult literature and remains a favorite with students almost five decades later.
"Given the theme of this year’s
workshop,
Innovators, Visionaries, and Rebels: Celebrating Risk Takers in Young Adult Literature, we could not be more honored to host S.E. Hinton, one of the original innovators in our field," said ALAN President Jennifer Buehler. "As many others have said for many years, Hinton’s vision for a new realistic fiction changed the course of literature for teens. As we look ahead to the 50th anniversary of
The Outsiders, the ALAN Breakfast will be an occasion to hear from one of our most respected and revered YA authors. We can't wait."
Don't miss this opportunity to hear from the author of this classic YA novel. The ALAN Breakfast is an add-on registration that is open to all attendees at NCTE, not just ALAN members, so be sure to watch the NCTE website for registration information later this year and sign up as soon as possible.
Books save lives, as many ALAN members including past president Joan Kaywell, can tell you. This month's newsletter is
all about the books - reviews, challenges, and access to new books that will make a difference in the lives of young people today and in the future. Shout out to Emily Pendergrass for the link to the delightful Youtube video featuring Nashville librarians. And thanks to all the authors whose words have saved us, challenged us, and opened our eyes to new possibilities.
Happy reading!
Anne McLeod, Editor
|
|
ALAN Elections Committee:
Get Out the Vote This Fall!
|
|
Every election cycle, the problem is the same: Only a small percentage of eligible voters actually cast ballots. How can we increase the number of voters to ensure that those elected represent the stakeholders? How do we make sure the process is easy and transparent?
I’m not talking about the presidential election here, but ALAN’s annual election for Board members and President-elect.
|
|
ALAN Grant Applications are due in September. In addition to the Gallo Grants for first-time workshop registrants and ALAN Foundation grants for research, this year we have two new grants: The Smith/Carlsen for full-time graduate students and the Cart/Campbell Grant for a librarian. See the ALAN website for more information.
|
|
NetGalley: The Professional Reader's Friend
|
|
Do you know someone who always seems able to recommend the perfect young adult title for a student looking for something new? Maybe it’s the guy who sat in front of you at the ALAN Workshop. You watched as he unpacked his box of books, which included several advanced reader’s copies (ARCs), and you overheard him say, “This one’s awesome! Now I have a copy to give away! “Maybe you’ve stood beside a teacher friend at a bookshop, poring over recently published titles together, and you notice SHE HAS ALREADY READ ALL OF THEM.
How do they do it? How do they get there first? Are they time travelers? Are they somehow managing to bribe galley editors on a teacher’s salary? And can you do it too?
Read more
|
|
Speak Loudly: THIS ONE SUMMER Challenged
|
|
As long as there are books and other means of creative expression, there will always be those who
think they know best what others should read—or how they should express themselves.
Because our nation is founded on certain inalienable rights, it would be impossible to insure that the tastes and moral concerns of every citizen were addressed in every book that comes off the printing press. What offends one person liberates another. What excites one person may disgust or disturb another. So it goes in a democracy.
I recently read a report from the National Coalition against Censorship discussing the recent case of This One Summer, which was a Caldecott Honor Medalist and a Printz Honor Medalist in 2015. The controversy occurred in February in a Florida school district where parental complaints resulted in its being pulled from three elementary schools and three high schools. The graphic novel by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki is a coming of age story in which two friends learn truths about one another, their families, and those around them. Sadly, the book’s being pulled by one school district in Florida had repercussions for other nearby school districts, which followed suit, also removing the book from their library. Apparently, the districts have decided to examine their book adoption policies as well as how to handle book challenges from the community.
|
|
We have a lot of Real Quick Picks this month, some from new authors, others from longtime favorites. Get your new book Real Quick Picks fix at the link below. If you would like to contribute to Real Quick Picks, send your 3 sentence book recommendations to
ALAN Online News.
|
|
The ALAN Review
Volume 44: Issue 2 (Winter 2017)
Story and the Development of Moral Character and Integrity
As lovers of literature, we want to believe that, through books, adolescent readers may gather insights and knowledge that support their efforts to make sense of themselves and others. That while accessing worlds they might never know, they broaden their perspectives and experience vicariously decision-making processes that parallel those encountered in their lived realities. And yet, if fiction has the power to achieve this good, might it also have the capacity to engender the bad? We invite contributors to consider the complex moral interactions that might occur when adolescent readers enter a text, particularly one intended for them as young adults. Can young adult literature (YAL) foster opportunities for readers to assess what might be might and what might be wrong—and who decides? Can YAL provide avenues for exploring dark, forbidden paths? Can YAL reinforce or challenge belief systems contradictory to those grounded in democratic values of equity and social justice? Can YAL foster more empathetic and nurturing dispositions and behaviors among young people? Or are we overestimating the power of story? As always, we also welcome submissions focused on any aspect of young adult literature not directly connected to this theme. All submissions may be sent to
the editors of TAR prior to
July 1, 2016. Please see the ALAN website
The ALAN Review
The World of Young Adult Literature Volume 44: Issue 3 (Summer 2017)
The world of young adult literature extends beyond the United States. And yet, readers in our nation are not often invited to consider stories published in or written about other lands, cultures, and communities. While the US is rich in diversity, and the field is increasingly recognizing the need to share stories for and about all readers, we are a single nation on a globe inhabited by many. We wonder what might be gained from increased exposure to a wider array of young adult literature that lies beyond our national borders. We wonder, too, what challenges exist in finding, publishing, and teaching such titles and how we might address these with care and humanity. We invite contributors to consider the stories of adolescence that are written around the globe and to tackle questions related to international literature, broadly and narrowly defined. What common experiences, realities, and ways of knowing, doing, and being exist across cultures? What differences might reveal our biases—and enhance our understandings? Are cultural differences ever too big to bridge? Whose stories get published—and whose remain untold to a larger community? What role do translators play in telling stories to new audiences? Can literature unite people across distant places? As always, we also welcome submissions focused on any aspect of young adult literature not directly connected to this theme. All submissions may be sent to the editors of TAR prior to November 1, 2016. Please see the ALAN website for submission guidelines.
|
|
|
Get three issues of
The ALAN Review and bimonthly emailed newsletters that provide resources, insights, and information about young adult literature in the classroom and beyond.
Click here to join.
Membership Rates
Individual ($30/year*)
Institutional ($50/year*)
|
|
|
|
See what's happening on our social sites:
|
|
|
Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE (ALAN) |
cannemcleod@outlook.com |
www.alan-ya.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|