Discusses a paperback program designed for new entrants to secondary school. A sample pupil progress sheet is included as an appendix. (AA)

Suggests ways to guide students in the skills of plot development so that they produce interesting fiction. (DD)

Explains the review procedures and rating system for teen books in "Voice of Youth Advocates" and provides annotated bibliographies for the twenty best books in 2001-2202, including fiction, nonfiction, and science fiction and fantasy. (LRW)

For educators' summer reading enjoyment, "Kappan" editors recommend three books on nature (Robert Richardson's biography "Emerson: The Mind on Fire, William Cronin's edited book "Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature," and Gary Snyder's poetry volume "Mountain and Rivers Without End"). Also…

Includes annotated bibliographies for 10 books of fiction that appeal to urban African American girls, five adult titles and five young adult titles. Identifies seven essential characteristics present in the most popular books in a teen section, based on conversations with teens. (LRW)

Discussion of censorship of young adult books focuses on works of fiction that deal with censorship. Includes 14 annotated bibliographies; discusses stereotyped views of censors; and considers types of materials that have not been discussed in novels regarding censorship, including music and Internet filters. (LRW)

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)

Notes that African American literature has always had science fiction elements in its focus on narratives of the alienated and marginalized "other." Contends that Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton are two African American writers of science fiction who examine the connections between the stories of a culture and the genre of science…

Addresses metaphysical questions concerning the ultimate structure of reality and discusses scientific nature. Suggests that the world cannot afford to neglect the role of conceptual analysis in thinking critically about the possibilities that science fiction claims to describe. (Author/KHR)

Presents an interview with Lynne Tillman, a fiction writer, essayist, and educator. Discusses her first novel, "Haunted Houses" (1987). Considers how that novel inaugurated the themes and techniques that have come to distinguish her as a writer. (SG)

Discusses how Natalie Babbitt combines fairy tale with psychological realism in "Tuck Everlasting" by using the motif of the hero's journey as a metaphor for a character's changing perceptions of himself or herself and the world. (MG)

Offers six high school teachers' suggestions about using adolescent novels to introduce students to a literary classic. Reports that this approach can help young readers relate the literary experience to their own lives. (SR)

Discusses the role of children's literature in relationship to the current societal problems of children. It is concluded that the responsibility of writers for children is to do the best work they are capable of and that the purpose of literature is to give pleasure to the reader. (MES)

Claims that Quebec writers in the 1960s-80s, buoyed by nationalist and separatist aims, created alternative "Marias" who write out of their language, dreams, and bodies, and who are trying to effect a further liberation. Asks where future trajectories invented by Quebec writers will propel their readers next. (RAE)

Analyzes the characterization of teachers in realistic fiction books selected as the best in children's literature during the past eight years. The negative and positive characteristics portrayed are described and the effects on the public image of the teaching profession are discussed. (eight references) (CLB)