The first paragraph of Lady Audley’s Secret describes Audley Court in vivid detail. The “avenue of limes” creates a lasting image of a row of lime trees, forming a path to the Court (7). We get the sense that Audley Court is a swanky place…

this twitter manifesto reminded me of our discussions of celine dion (and we’re reading jennifer weiner later in the semester, so her tweets are particularly apropos). [in case you missed it, she’s referring to an article by new york times TV reviewer alessandra stanley about…

So, tomorrow: You’ll be in groups of three, which Maddie will assign at the beginning of class. First, share the docs: -open your essay in google docs -click “share” in the upper right corner, then select “anyone with the link can edit,” and finally click…

A theme that relates specifically to John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” and other young adult novels is intimacy between two characters. Alleen Pace Nilsen’s article titled “Books for Young Adults: Love and the Teenage Reader” discusses young love in literature and different books…

In the article “Young Adult Literature: Let It Be Hope” by Kristen Randle, Randle argues that it has become common today for young adult novels to be too “bleak,” with story lines that only focus on the negative reality of the world “in order to…

Thomas W. Bean and Karen Moni’s article  “Developing Student’s Critical Literacy: Exploring Identity Construction in Young Adult Fiction” addressed how the identities of characters are formed in popular young adult fiction. Bean and Moni make it a point that  “Because they deal with issues that…

For better or worse, YAL is extremely prevalent in today’s society in a variety of ways. YA novels pack bookstore shelves, inspire movies, and even find themselves in syllabi of college English courses. David Cappella’s article, “Kicking it Up Beyond the Casual: Fresh Perspectives in…

I read an article discussing the lack of positive energy and themes in young adult literature, an article which complained that “Readers are left with pictures of troubled teens living in a negative adult world and stories that end with little hope” (Dick Abrahamson and…

In Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s written article, Friends in Need: Illness and Friendship in Adolescent Fiction, the author goes into detail about how there are so many different genres of young adult novels that lead into specific situations regarding illnesses, love, loss, and emotional themes that…

As young adult literature becomes increasingly popular, the genre expands and changes along with the change in readers. Melanie D. Koss and William H. Teale examine what trends and characteristics are present in YA literature by conducting studies using over 50 books and sharing their…