This study explored the nature and performance of masculinity as portrayed in three popular young adult novels: two novels featuring male protagonists and one featuring a female protagonist. Drawing on emerging theory and scholarship, researchers view masculinity, like femininity, as a gendered performance, socially scripted but amenable to…

This article offers teachers a critical framework for use and adaptation in organizing class discussions focused on notions of freedom in young adult literature. The authors open by discussing the notion of freedom, including concepts related to negative and positive freedom and to arguments advocating critical discussion of common assumptions…

Explored 9th-grade urban and rural English students' reading engagement and interpretation of a multicultural novel involving bi-ethnic identity. Students read and responded to the novel via journal writing and a research paper. Results indicated that students produced more personal and interpretive reactions to the novel than simple descriptions…

Notes that adolescent readers view characters in young adult novels as living and wrestling with real problems close to their own life experiences as teens. Reviews recent studies related to teaching literature and adolescent identity construction. Offers a framework teachers can use to initiate discussions based on critical literacy in their own…