Fostering Mental Health Literacy through Adolescent Literature

Fostering Mental Health Literacy through Adolescent Literature provides educators a starting point for engaging students in the study of adolescent literature that features mental health themes with the intended goal of developing students' mental health literacy while simultaneously attending to English Language Arts content and literacy standards. Each chapter, co-authored by a literacy expert and mental health specialist, features a specific adolescent novel and provides middle and high school teachers background information on the novel's featured mental health theme(s), along with pedagogical approaches for guiding readers into, through, and out of the novel. In doing so, this text seeks to raise awareness of mental health issues thereby reducing associated stigma and normalizing individual and peer mental health experiences for all adolescents.

Brooke Eisenbach is a former middle school teacher and current associate professor of middle and secondary education at Lesley University where she teaches courses in young adult literature, as well as middle school and high school methods of instruction
Jason S. Frydman is a nationally certified school psychologist, registered drama therapist, and assistant professor of psychology at Lesley University. His research focuses on trauma-informed programming in educational settings and school-based creative arts therapies.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Preparing to Engage with Mental Health Themes in Adolescent Literature
Jason S. Frydman and Brooke B. Eisenbach
CHAPTER 2
What's Mined is Ours: Mental Health and American Rurality in Kristin Russell's A Sky For Us
Alone
Jeff Spanke and Sara Tyner
CHAPTER 3
Literacy and Loss: Examining Loss and Grief through Characterization in The Boy in the Black
Suit
Sherri Harper Woods and Terri Benton
CHAPTER 4
First Person Perspective: Understanding Adolescent Eating Disorders Through the Text Good
Enough
Laura L. Wood, MaryBeth DeGennaro, and Brooke B. Eisenbach
CHAPTER 5
Secrecy, Silence, and Transgenerational Trauma: Conflict and Character Development in I Am
Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Daniela Bustamante and Katie Sciurba
CHAPTER 6
Exploring graphic memoir trajectories: Processing the effects of substance use disorder and
healing through art in Hey, Kiddo
Grace Enriquez and Michelle Pate
CHAPTER 7
Teaching When Reason Breaks: Understanding Depression and Interrogating Bias through
Character Analysis
Elsie Lindy Olan, Kia Jane Richmond, and Mary Mae Kelly
CHAPTER 8
"I'm Not Like That": Reading Heroine to Engage Students in Conversations and Research About
Opioid Use Disorder
Amanda Rigell, Arianna Banack, and Allen Rigell
CHAPTER 9
Reading A Hero's Journey through OCDaniel
Caitlin Corrieri and Elyanna Genovese
CHAPTER 10
Exploring Mental Health Literacy through Book Clubs
Lesley Roessing and Jessica Traylor
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
SUBJECT INDEX
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON MENTAL HEALTH