Resisting the will to empathise with a focalised character is assumed to be difficult for young readers, yet empirical evidence on how they actually respond is limited. This paper combines recent insights gleaned from cognitive literary studies with a small-scale empirical study of thirty-five Swedish adolescents reading an Irish short story in…

When it comes to morality in young adult (YA) literature, one often hears from parents, educators, or members of community groups who are challenging a book's moral content, yet there is not an opportunity to hear from the authors themselves. Educators see the value of YA literature in the classroom as a medium for not only academic growth but for…

Young adult literature has been a subject of contention for educators, adolescent psychologists, and critics for decades. Although some commentators maintain that young adult literature can be educationally and developmentally beneficial for adolescent readers, others argue that it often contains negative and potentially harmful messages that…

Teachers frequently read aloud as a part of writing instruction so that children's book authors can serve as mentors for students' writing. Despite extensive anecdotal reporting of the significance of reading aloud children's literature within writing workshop, the intertextual connections students construct between interactive read alouds and…

Reports on an interview with Gary Paulsen, the 1997 winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring an author's lifetime contribution in writing books for teens. Highlights include the importance of librarians and reading encouragement, the author's experiences and writing, and readers' responses to books. (Author/LRW)

Explores how child readers in Australia and Germany responded to Randolph Stow's "Midnite." Reports on responses from taped interviews conducted in each country, examining both child and adult responses to the ironic humor of the work. (MG)

Interviews elementary children about their fiction writing to gain a glimpse into how writing teachers might improve their teaching. Found the following three features in students' growing knowledge of characters: characters can elicit readers' empathy, can change the attitude of the readers, and can have a mind of their own. (MG)

Presents an interview with distinguished educator Louise Rosenblatt. Discusses teaching methods, reading processes, application of theory to practice, literature-based curriculum, and what she is working on now. (SR)

More than sixty years ago, John Dewey and Louise Rosenblatt produced theoretical work that challenged prevailing assumptions concerning art and aesthetic experience. Today, their work continues to be relevant and particularly useful for exploring the troubled interface between literary scholarship and classroom practice. Rereading Dewey and…

An interview method for assessing reading processes was pilot tested to examine reader-text interaction among native-Spanish-speaking fifth graders. Subjects were active participants in the reading situation but were lacking in aspects related to the text's cultural content. The reading interview method is highly recommended for use in…