The ability to analyze alternative points of view and to empathize (understand the beliefs, attitudes and actions of another from the other's perspective rather than from one's own) are essential building blocks for learning in the 21st century. Empathy for the human participants of historical times has been deemed by a number of educators as…

Ideological assumptions about childhood play into the production and selection of children's literature. Various ideologies proclaim that children should be happy and free from stories of evil, children's literature should help children encounter the joys in life, it should be filled with bright colors to keep children's attention, and it should…

Celebrating original voices, highlighting what might otherwise be lost--the "Library Journal" book editors try for a list of best books that they think will make a difference in everyone's reading lives. In other words, they had rather offer readers a sharp, interesting list that challenges than a list no one could complain about--or discuss. A…

In an era when the merger between capitalism and science becomes an accepted norm, new questions need to be asked about the ethical implications of scientific practices. One such practice is organ transplantation. However, potent debates surround the just distribution and ethical implications of organ transplantation. This paper examines the ways…

Responding to concerns that engineering is a poorly understood occupation and that young people are exposed to stereotyped images of scientists and engineers at an early age, this investigation sought to identify how science and engineering is portrayed in contemporary junior fiction (ages 8-12) and to what extent. An examination of 4,800 junior…

Science fiction has long promised the digitalization of books. Characters in films and television routinely check their palm-sized (or smaller) electronic displays for fast-scrolling information. However, this very technology, increasingly prevalent in today's world, has not been embraced universally. While the convenience of pocket-sized…

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2010 annual lists of Fabulous Films for Young Adults and Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults ages 12 to 18. This article presents the list of titles that were released in January 2010 during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston,…

Religious discrimination is a global concern, as social dissonance and devastating violence result from religious intolerance. In order to develop socially competent, global citizens and create a peaceful society, religious diversity must be explored in public school classrooms; yet it remains a controversial and seldom addressed topic. Children's…

Dorothy Day's love of the poor originated from reading novels that portrayed the poor as persons worthy of respect. This article explores how Day's reading novels opened her mind and heart to the realities of poverty. The methodology is literature-based. Dorothy Day's autobiography reveals the novelists who captivated her mind and cultivated a…

Aldous Huxley is perhaps the only author to have written a work of science fiction and a work of nonfiction to ascertain whether fiction had become reality. Both "Brave New World" and "Brave New World Revisited" are discussed and compared with Jacques Ellul's work on technology.

Children learn to read at approximately the same stage in life as they start to master their physical environment. This article argues that some of the same mapping and schema-building strategies inform each activity, and draws on examples from a broad range of children's books to support the idea that reading fiction and mapping one's local…

Science teachers today need engaging projects to help students build 21st-century skills (NSTA 2011). Contemporary young adult literature (YA lit) can form the basis of one such project. YA lit--a genre of fiction geared toward 2 to 20-year-olds--opens a powerful avenue to connect with students and cover science topics in greater depth. YA lit is…

An innovative reading comprehension curriculum that recruits social cognition in the teaching of visualizing, making inferences, and literature concepts was created, thereby achieving the first aim of the research. The Reading Rangers (RR) program was based on three research-based learning principles that were relied on in converting reading…

Universities are often enjoined to "get" with the "real world". In this article, Mary Evans gives an account of interpretations of literary realism in order to consider the "coercive realism" of the contemporary university. The prevailing assumptions that universities must contribute to the "real" world are…

This study explored the relationship between reading for pleasure and creativity. University students (N = 225) completed measures of reading for pleasure and creativity (SCAB). The results indicated that reading for pleasure was significantly, positively correlated to creativity. Implications for the classroom are explored, including possible…