Recalls the author's wandering, drifting years growing up in the Hawaiian Islands. Discusses where fiction fits into the lives of adolescents. (RS)

Presents an interview with Avi and discusses his 2003 Newbery Medal Award. Describes how the art of fiction writing is the art of transforming ideas (which we all have) into written words that build a narrative design. (SG)

Discusses numerous young adult novels that use the Second World War as a background. Notes that war books proliferated in the late 1960s as authors who were young during the war years began to come to terms with their war experiences. (RS)

Claims that capturing an adolescent novel in shaped, found, or structured poetry gives students ways to tell others what the novel meant to them. Discusses five poetic forms (riddle poem, found poem, character poem, poem for two voices, and repeat poster poem) and presents student poems. (RS)

Raises and answers some questions about why the author, a full-time college professor, writes fiction. (RS)

Discusses the "Orphan Train" (homeless children in the midnineteenth-century United States sent to new homes in the west by the Children's Aid Society of New York) through three different literary perspectives. (RS)

Studies the life and work of author Maureen Daly. Describes her reading and writing habits, her family background, and her most famous novel, "Seventeenth Summer." (HB)

Suggests that in her novels of fairy tale/fantasy fiction for adolescents, Robin McKinley emphasizes the values found in most fantasy fiction, courage and honor. Also suggests she makes an important contribution to balancing gender roles in young adult fiction by portraying female characters who are physically strong, smart, and courageous. (RS)

Describes the background to some books written by the author, and discusses her desire to motivate those adolescents who do not usually read to read her books. Expresses a desire to write quality books that will win adolescents over to reading. (MG)

Suggests that, at its best, fiction is more than story. Notes that the author did not realize how much more than story there can be, and how important it is to teach children how to mine stories for their deeper pleasures, until she began writing fiction herself. (RS)

Presents an annotated list of the 10 best fiction and the 10 best nonfiction young adult literature published in the 1980s. Notes that the books mix popularity and quality into a cake of reading motivation. (RS)

Discusses the way Lynn Hall uses animals in her novels. Shows how her use of animals varies from background to the focus of the story, often as central object of the heroine's affection. Analyzes Hall's animal novels as archetypically romantic in pattern. (HB)

Considers if Anne Frank's diary is still viable or if it has been too far removed from its original author or its original context. Concludes that the book "Anne Frank and Me" offers historical accuracies about the Holocaust while placing its readers squarely at the millennium. (SG)

Presents as overview of the children's and adolescent literature of Betsy Byars, giving special weight to technique and theme. (TB)

Considers whether the tales of Robin Hood should be presented as fact or fiction. Discusses the appropriateness of the tales for use in literature programs. Presents arguments for Robin Hood as fact and arguments for Robin Hood as fiction. Considers different versions of the tale. (SG)