Breaking the Taboo with Young Adult Literature

This text offers 6th - 12th grade educators guided instructional approaches for including diverse young adult (YA) literature in the classroom as a form of social justice teaching and learning. Through the YA books spotlighted in this text, educators are provided pre-, during-, and after reading activities that guide students to a deeper understanding of topics that are often considered taboo in the classroom - race, racism, mental health, immigration, gender, sexuality, sexual assault - while increasing their literacy practices.

Victor Malo-Juvera is a former middle school teacher and current associate professor of English Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he teaches courses in young adult literature and multicultural young adult literature.
Paula Greathouse is associate professor of secondary English Education at Tennessee Tech where she teaches English methods and literacy courses. She was a secondary English and Reading teacher for sixteen years.

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: Breaking the Taboo
Victor Malo-Juvera and Paula Greathouse
CHAPTER 1: Date Rape in Speak: Teaching for Justice Using the Graphic Novel
Shelly Shaffer CHAPTER 2: Speak! Shout! Hearing from and Advocating for Victims of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment
Marshall A. George
CHAPTER 3: Exploring Women's Rights and Sexual Assault through Blood Water Paint: How far have we come anyway?
Alice Hays
CHAPTER 4: Examining Mental Illness in John Green's Turtles All the Way Down: OCD - More than Just Attention to Detail
Elsie Lindy Olan & Kia Jane Richmond
CHAPTER 5: Putting the Pieces Together: Destigmatizing Self-Harm through Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces
Janine J. Darragh and Ashley S. Boyd
CHAPTER 6: When Home is Traumatic: David Small's Graphic Memoir, Stitches
Emily Wender
CHAPTER 7: Choosing Love over Hate: Raising Students Who Understand Bullying and Its Dangerous Consequences - Hate List
Leilya Pitre
CHAPTER 8: Far from Simple: Addressing the Complexities of Equity and Justice in Robin Benway's Far from the Tree
Sharon Kane and Christine Walsh
CHAPTER 9: Digging up the Injustices of the Roaring 20s: Dreamland Burning
Crag Hill
CHAPTER 10: Examining Systemic Racism and Police Brutality in Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give
Steffany Comfort Maher
CHAPTER 11: Confronting Cultural Appropriation and Gentrification through YAL: Shadowshaper
Meredith N. Sinclair
CHAPTER 12: Teachers, Allies, & Sacrifice: Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and his Sacrifice for Civil Rights
Steven Bickmore and Tammy Szafranski
CHAPTER 13: Exploring Equity and Justice in the Female Immigrant Experience through Anya's Ghost
Nina R. Schoonover and Michelle Falter
CHAPTER 14: Equity, Justice, and Love: Contextualizing the Fight for Marriage Equality with Loving vs. VirginiaTerri Suico
CHAPTER 15: Telling the Stories: Teaching LGBTQ+ Memoir
Melanie Hundley
CHAPTER 16: Using Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story to Portray Love's Power in Assisting Two Outcast Adolescents Achieve Societal Voices and Personal Self-Esteem
Lisa A. Hazlett and Ann Marie Smith
CHAPTER 17: Engaging the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Immigration in American Street
E. Sybil Durand
ABOUT THE EDITORS
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
SUBJECT INDEX