Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Tamora Pierce’s work has been cited by many Young Adult fantasy authors as a major influence in recent years. Despite this, her work remains relatively obscure among librarians and readers of Young Adult literature. This paper examined one of Pierce’s Young Adult fantasy series, Protector of the Small, by comparing the series to existing works of Young Adult fantasy literature commonly accepted as classic or canonical literature. Among the comparative works were titles authored by C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, and Philip Pullman. Comparison was character-focused, with emphasis on the representation of parents, other sympathetic adults, peers, and family units. Some comparison was also focused on the representation of antagonists in the selected works. The aim of the comparative analysis was to serve as a guide for librarians, teachers, and readers of Young Adult literature to better understand potential target audiences for the Protector of the Small quartet. It was found that target audiences for the series would likely seek or benefit from the Protector of the Small quartet’s inclusion of supportive parental and mentor figures, strong familial bonds, and supportive and communicative peers. Target audiences would also seek literature with nuanced antagonists capable of character growth. Most prominently, target audiences would seek Young Adult fantasy literature that addresses real-world issues and challenges for young women, including sexism, puberty, and reproductive healthcare.

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Thesis (Ed.D)--Boston University

The purpose of this study was to analyze a representative seventy-eight current young adult books to determine the extent to which they contain items which are objectionable to would-be censors. Seventy-eight books were identified which fit the criteria of popularity and literary quality. Content analysis was selected as the quantitative method of research. Each of the seventy-eight young adult books was analyzed for the six categories which were established through prior research. The six categories include profanity, sex, violence, parent conflict, drugs, and condoned bad behavior. These categories were tallied each time they occurred in the books. Reliability was assured with a rating of .98 by a committee of six professionals. The data reveal that profanity occurred more times in the seventy-eight books than the other five categories with a total of 5,616. The category of drugs was noted 4,171 times. References to sex followed in number with 3,174. The categories which occurred the least were violence with 1,849 occurrences and condoned bad behavior with only 489 occurrences. By applying a frequency index formula to determine the number of objections in each book in relation to the number of pages, a comparison among the books could be made. The analysis, synthesis, and interpretation of the data led to several conclusions. Local school systems should establish and follow procedures for book selection and removal. The interests of young adults are met by the presentation of a variety of ideas and realistic plots and settings. The books, even with objectionable items, are chosen by teachers and students to read; therefore, they should be accessible in secondary school libraries as they provide valuable reading experiences for young adults. This study established that young adult literature serves an important function in providing quality reading material of interest to teenagers. These reading experiences help broaden the learning environment for young adults.

This study was conducted to determine how immigrants and the immigration experience are represented in current young adult (YA) literature. In the study, I asked the following questions: Who are the immigrant characters in recent YA books? Why do they come? How do they experience immigration? How are they perceived or treated by others? A content analysis methodology was used to examine, from a critical literacy viewpoint, recent young adult novels with immigration themes. Data were analyzed by identifying and interpreting patterns in themes across 22 YA novels with immigrant protagonists or other important characters, published between 2013 and 2017. Data indicated that the protagonists in the study reflected current immigration trends fairly accurately, came to the United States primarily to escape violence or persecution in their home countries, experienced a variety of challenges, tended to hold onto their home country cultures, and were often the objects of racism, but also found kindness and friendship in the United States. Teachers who desire to include authentic immigrant literature in their classroom libraries should consider from whose perspectives the books have been written, and learn about the authors' backgrounds and the messages that authors want to convey through the books that they write. In addition, immigrants can be encouraged to write children's and young adult books, sharing their experiences and contributing to the supply of realistic immigrant literature with complex and authentic immigrant characters.

The book publishing industry experienced a period of drastic change during the final decades of the twentieth century. Small publishing companies consolidated and were purchased by large, profit-minded media conglomerates. The widespread adoption of digital media technologies prompted many questions about the very future of the book itself. Yet at the pinnacle of these changes, the American young adult publishing market gradually began to experience not a decline, but a renaissance. In this report, I explore ways that changes in book publishing have manifested themselves in contemporary young adult literature through two case studies. Are today’s young adult books works of literature or commercial products? Is their increased popularity due to widening readership or more savvy marketing? Are the companies producing them more concerned with the public good or their own profit margins? / text

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 16, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Thomas P. Crumpler (chair), R. Kay Moss, Gary Weilbacher, Amelia Adkins, Sally Parry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-168) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 175 p. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Caroline Clark, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-175).

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga are widely recognized as three of the most successful recent young adult franchises. Although it may not seem so at first, each of these series has a preoccupation with feminist learning; each series’ author, whether explicitly or implicitly, addresses the extent to which their protagonists and fans can learn feminist lessons within, or from, these texts. Each protagonist does seem to undergo some kind of learning experience, and by measuring these against what feminist education scholars such as bell hooks call a feminist pedagogical model, I show that the reality of what is expressed in these texts does not necessarily align with the ways Hermione, Katniss, and Bella have been discussed by critics and fans. Further, I argue that despite their divergence from the didactic nature of earlier feminist young adult fiction, such as that written by Judy Blume, by making connections between young adult fiction and what fan theorist Henry Jenkins calls “convergence culture”, young readers of Rowling’s, Collins’s, and Meyer’s texts, through their critical and creative engagement with online fan activities, are actually participating in a kind of feminist education that interestingly embodies the aims of feminist pedagogy.