Recently added articles from ALAN Review:
From the Editors
Oct 01, 2008; ... There's a buzz in the air. You get wind of it in the department store aisles filled with book bags, binders, glue sticks and rulers. It's fall, and another school year is cranking up. As students head back to school, this issue of The ALAN Review provides an extensive look at a variety ...
Critical Literacy in Cyberspace?
Oct 01, 2008; ... A Case Study Analysis of One Preservice Teacher's Attempts at Critical Talk about Monster in Online Chats with Adolescents Despite the ubiquity of research that suggests discussion about literature helps to increase student engagement with literary texts and is an integral part of ...
Die a Graphic Death: Revisiting the Death of Genre with Graphic Novels, or "Why won't you just die already?"
Oct 01, 2008; ... Graphic Novels and the Slow Death of Genre In "The Death of Genre: Why the Best YA fiction Often Defies Classification" [The ALAN Review, 35.1: 43-50), Scot Smith speaks of having to constantly reclassify and reshuffle texts as he and his students consider the books on the genre lists ...
Walter Dean Myers: A Monster of a Voice for Young Adults
Oct 01, 2008; ... Walter Dean Myers, award-winning author of young adult literature such as Monster and Fallen Angels, is well represented in school and public libraries across the nation. His novels have become standard elements as teachers and librarians work to connect students to literature. The ALAN Review ...
Hearing Nancy Garden Out
Oct 01, 2008; ... Author Nancy Garden looks nothing like the warrior- like image I had conjured of her after reading her books and every article I could find about or by her. She is a small, almost fragile woman with a soft voice and gentle demeanor, but when she speaks or writes about the issues that matter to ...
Perception and Reality: Examining the Representations of Adolescents in Young Adult Fiction
Oct 01, 2008; ... Young adult literature is not yet fifty-years old, and already, it has led to many different permutations and variations in the presentation of reading experiences for young people. From contemporary realistic novels to pure flights of fantasy, young adult fiction has transformed the landscape ...
Artichoke's Heart
Oct 01, 2008; ... Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee Dutton Books, 2008, 276 pp., $16.99 Weight Issues/Cancer/Southern Lit. ISBN: 0-978-0-525-47902-4 Rosemary Goode grapples with her weight through sarcastic wit, Pounds-Away diet drinks, and constant haranguing from her mother, Aunt Mary, and the ...
The Brothers Torres
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees Hyperion Books for Children, 2008, 316 pp., $16.99 Coming of Age ISBN: 978-1-423-1034-1 Frankie and Steve Towers are very different brothers. Steve is older, popular, and a jock. Frankie is younger and doesn't have much going on in his life ....
The Boy Who Dared
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti Scholastic Press, 2008, 202 pp., $16.99 Historical Fiction ISBN-13: 978-0-439-68013-4 ISBN-10: 0-439-68013-4 The Boy Who Dared tells the story of Helmuth Hübener, a young man growing up in Nazi Germany. Although he enters the Hitler Youth, ...
The Calder Game
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Calder Game by Blue Balliert Illustrations by Brett Helquist Scholastic Press, 2008, 379 pp., $17.99 Mystery ISBN-10: 0-439-85207-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-439-85207-4 Calder Pillay and his father are off to England on a business trip. Calder is fascinated because they will be staying near ...
Conception
Oct 01, 2008; ... Conception by Kalisha Buckhanon St. Martin's Press, 2008, 277 pp., $21.95 True to Life/Teen Pregnancy ISBN-13: 978-0-312-33270-9 Conception is the second novel written by Kalisha Buckhanon, a notable young author who has won several distinguished awards. This novel alternates between two ...
The Diamond of Drury
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding Roaring Brook Press, 2008, 432 pp., $16.95 Adventure/Historical Fiction ISBN-13: 978-1-59643-351-9 ISBN-10: 1-59643-351-5 Catherine (Cat) Royal is on the hunt for a diamond hidden somewhere in her home, The Royal Theatre. Cat's guardian has ...
Diamond Willow
Oct 01, 2008; ... Diamond Willow by Helen Frost Frances Foster Books, 2008, 128 pp., $16.00 Poetry ISBN: 978-0-374-31776-8 0-374-31776-3 An interesting combination of poetry and prose, this book tells the story of a Diamond, a 12-year-old girl growing up in central Alaska. Each poem is in the shape of a ...
In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story
Oct 01, 2008; ... In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story by Carolyn Meyer Harcourt, 2008, 350 pp., $17.00 Historical Fiction/Sibling Rivalry ISBN: 9778-0-15-205594-3 Carolyn Meyer, acclaimed author of numerous historical novels for young readers, now wonders: What must it have been like to be the sister ...
The Disappeared
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Disappeared by Gloria Whelan Dial, 2008, 137 pp., $16.99 Civil War/Siblings/Epistolary Novel ISBN: 978-0-8037-3275-9 The military regime of 1970s Argentina comes eerily alive in this new novel by Gloria Whelan (Homeless Bird). Eduardo Díaz is arrested for his peaceful demonstrations ...
Juliet's Moon
Oct 01, 2008; ... Juliet's Moon by Ann Rinaldi Harcourt, 2008, 245 pp., $17.00 Historical Fiction ISBN: 978-0-15-206170-8 This installment of Ann Rinaldi's Great Episodes series tells the story of Juliet Bradshaw, a 12-year-old girl growing up in the midst of the Civil War. Her only living family-her ...
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart Hyperion, 2008, 352 pp., $16.99 Friendship/Secret Societies ISBN-13: 978-0-7868-3818-9 Frankie Landau-Banks, a sophomore at Alabaster, a prestigious boarding school, is tired of being taken for granted by everyone ....
Feathered
Oct 01, 2008; ... Feathered by Laura Kasischke Harper Teen (HarperCollins), 2008, 261 pp., $17.89 Suspense ISBN: 978-0-06-081318-5 Terri, Anne, and Michelle, childhood friends and seniors at Glendale High, are off to Cancun for spring break. Armed with sunscreen, bikinis, and their mothers' admonitions in ...
The House of Djinn
Oct 01, 2008; ... The House of Djinn by Susan Fisher Staples Frances Foster Books, 2008, 207 pp., $16.95 Islamic Heritage/Mystical ISBN: 0-374-39936-0 A continuation of Susan Fisher Staples's tale first told in her book Shabanu, readers are introduced to Mumtaz, Shabanu's daughter, who still does not know ...
The Dead and the Gone
Oct 01, 2008; ... The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer Harcourt Books, 2008, 336 pp., $17.00 Fiction/Apocalyptic/Survival ISBN: 978-0-15-206311-5 Seventeen-year-old Alex Morales and his family live in New York City. His mom has started a new job at the hospital, his older brother Carlos has gone ...