Tumbleweed Road is a novel that began as a short story in a fiction workshop many years ago. The novel is set in the contemporary American South and traces one tumultuous summer in the life of a 14-year-old girl named Carolina Wells. The plot of the story is as follows: Carolina, a 14-year-old girl from Crow, Florida, does not understand her mother and remembers little about her past. In the story, we meet Carolina, her mother, "Mama," and two brothers, Johnny and Austin. Carolina does not understand her mother and her wild nature. At home, Carolina is forced to care for her two younger brothers. Carolina's father is long gone out of the picture, and Carolina was always told by her mother that she has no father - no one worth speaking of, anyway. Carolina can't remember why her father is gone, but remembers the fight that caused him to leave, and she blames her mother entirely for his leaving when she was just a toddler. Carolina questions her Mama about the disappearance of her father, but she refuses to even speak his name. Carolina desperately wants normalcy, family, and love - through a series of life-changing events involving a range of characters, including a spiritual woman across Tumbleweed Road, a mysterious girl named West and an old friend named Cade, this novel is about Carolina's quest to find her place in this world.

There are certain issues - such as violence, sexuality, politics and religion - which are problematic but have to be dealt with in society. In this dissertation types of controversial issues present in recent Afrikaans youth literature, the portrayal of those issues, and the ways in which solutions are offered for these issues are investigated. The argument follows from the assumption that the literature which the adolescent reads, has a directive value. Quite often the reader will choose to read material about a certain situation with which the reader is also faced in real life. It may be easy for the reader to identify with a character in similar circumstances or facing the same dilemma. Through the actions of the character, the reader can then explore certain avenues or possibilities which have the potential to be helpful in the solution of the problem or issue. For this dissertation research was done about certain controversial issues and related aspects in literature in general, which are then applied to three youth novels: Skilpoppe (1998) by Barrie Hough, Daar's vis in die punch (2002) by Jackie Nagtegaal and Nie vir kinders nie (2005) by Francois Bloemhof. These three texts were chosen because all three of them have generated public discussion, specifically in the media, about the presence of controversial issues. The results indicate the portrayal of the controversial issues to be unbiased and from a non-judgemental authoring perspective. The presence of the text internal corrective, which refers to the portrayal of a certain issue thereby giving it an outcome (positive or negative) or an alternative, is noticeable and is discussed in this dissertation. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

There are certain issues - such as violence, sexuality, politics and religion - which are problematic but have to be dealt with in society. In this dissertation types of controversial issues present in recent Afrikaans youth literature, the portrayal of those issues, and the ways in which solutions are offered for these issues are investigated. The argument follows from the assumption that the literature which the adolescent reads, has a directive value. Quite often the reader will choose to read material about a certain situation with which the reader is also faced in real life. It may be easy for the reader to identify with a character in similar circumstances or facing the same dilemma. Through the actions of the character, the reader can then explore certain avenues or possibilities which have the potential to be helpful in the solution of the problem or issue. For this dissertation research was done about certain controversial issues and related aspects in literature in general, which are then applied to three youth novels: Skilpoppe (1998) by Barrie Hough, Daar's vis in die punch (2002) by Jackie Nagtegaal and Nie vir kinders nie (2005) by Francois Bloemhof. These three texts were chosen because all three of them have generated public discussion, specifically in the media, about the presence of controversial issues. The results indicate the portrayal of the controversial issues to be unbiased and from a non-judgemental authoring perspective. The presence of the text internal corrective, which refers to the portrayal of a certain issue thereby giving it an outcome (positive or negative) or an alternative, is noticeable and is discussed in this dissertation. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.