"You Cannot Chase Two Antelopes at the Same Time" will teach your child(ren) the invaluable lesson of determination and focus. This heart-warming story about the courage and determination of a little boy and his sister who set out to chase two antelopes unsuccessfully, extracts in a vivid illustrative style, the important character trait of determination and focus. The little boy and girl set out to accomplish an impossible task and try different approaches, but to no avail. They finally figured out that in life some pursuits are too delicate to focus on multiple things at the same time. The vivid imagery of antelopes and their incredible sense of swiftness will thrill, entertain and motivate your children. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1080/thumbnail.jpg

Children like it simple, powerful and compelling, don't they? The "spirit" of this book makes the art of thanksgiving for children a simple, powerful yet compelling force. I Did It! I Said Thank You is a collection of short and simple thanksgiving notes for children during this month of thanksgiving and all throughout the year. Through the eyes and heart of a five-year old, we have captured and compiled short focused notes about the true essence of "why" and "what" children are thankful for. We have attempted to organize and compile it into daily reasons for thanksgiving for a whole month to preserve this all important "trigger" for children all around the world. "THANK YOU" is an "eight-letter word" so simple, yet so powerful and profound. Children are taught to include the art of thanksgiving in their quiver of manners and vocabulary. Children can and will learn about the valuable gift of thanksgiving through vivid visual illustrations and the compelling simple thanksgiving notes. This book is written for all children in every nation and every continent who want to simply say THANK YOU to the eternal source of all things precious and for the gift of life. Join us as we explore the world of thanksgiving through the eyes and heart of a kid. Enjoy! / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1081/thumbnail.jpg

Are you searching for fresh opportunities to support literacy through reader response activities? Batchelder Awards and international stories are relatively untapped resources that offer a global approach for children to expand comprehension through tales from many nations. Pairing these stories with reader response exercises provides an outstanding opportunity for collaboration with social studies and language arts teachers. Handouts will be provided. (F4-E162)

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By employing the critical studies of adolescence from Nancy Lesko, Roberta Trites, and Maria Nikolajeva and the study of positive and negative symbols of rebellion examined by Robert Lindner through Leerom Medovoi, I will interrogate the popular notion that female protagonists in dystopian Young Adult Literature (YAL) are strong, self-aware rebels who are positive role models to YA readers. Using the didactic nature of dystopian literature, I will examine how adult authors consciously (or unconsciously) set ideological standards for their YA readers through the female protagonists and how these standards are not as empowering as they initially seem. To address this disparity between what is promoted as rebellion and what is actually enacted by female protagonists, I will analyze Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy and Ally Condie's Matched trilogy. The analysis will conclude that the female protagonists are problematic, subscribing to specific, conservative ideologies presented in the novels which prohibits them from seeing through the rebellion they are involved in and that their choices are determined by male characters instead of their own self-awareness.

Both folklorists and literary critics have been drawn to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s body of work because of his distinctive style and incorporation of folk motifs. Such motif-spotting presents no challenge in Hawthorne’s juvenile literature like his retellings from Greek mythology in Wonder Book for Girls and Boys; however, contemporary folklore redirects the focus of this scholarship to “how particular literary uses of folklore fit into a larger, more fundamental concept of what folklore is and how and what folklore communicates” (de Caro & Jordan 2015:15). Hawthorne’s work interacts with other forms of cultural expression in the nineteenth century such as dominant cultural narratives and artwork to transform the classical narratives in Wonder Book for Girls and Boys into narratives that reflect customs in conversational discourse and childrearing practice.

We are what we read. People read for many different reasons and outcomes. We may read for information, affirmation, escape, or inspiration. We may read to get in a better mood. Various studies have shown that readers are more apt to be empathetic, to understand that their experience is not the only experience. Through Scholarly Personal Narrative, I trace my own evolution of reading and my curious preference for Young Adult (YA) literature. Contemporary YA literature offers a unique combination of viewpoint, emotion, and transportation which allows for a deeper understanding of diverse backgrounds, and I explore whether a program of purposeful choices can influence perspective.

Adolescence is an incredibly complex period of life. During this time young people are searching for and wanting to create their own unique identity, however being confronted with a plethora of roles and directions is challenging and confusing. These challenges are reflected in the vast array of young adult literature being presented to young people today. As a result young adult literature has the potential to function as scaffolding to assist teenagers in the struggles of adolescence by serving as an important source of information about the world and the people in it. Teenage novels also give young people the opportunity to try on different identities and vicariously experience consequences of actions while developing their own distinctive personality and character. As this study reveals, the Australian young adult novel has undergone considerable developments, with 1989 serving as a milestone year in which writers and publishers turned in new directions. In general, Australian young adult novels have changed from books set predominately in rural areas, incorporating major themes of child abuse, death, friendship and survival with introverted characters aged between twelve and sixteen in the early 1980s to novels with urban settings, a large increase in books about crime, dating, drugs and mental health and sexually active, extroverted characters aged between fourteen and eighteen in the late 1990s. To chart the progression of these changes and gain an understanding of the messages young adults receive from adolescent novels an evaluative framework was developed. The framework consists of two main sections. The first part applies to the work as a whole, obtaining data about the novel such as plot, style, setting, temporal context, use of humour, issues within the text and ending, while the second part collects information about character demographics including gender, age, occupational status, family type, sexual orientation, relationships with family and authority figures, personality traits and outlook for character. To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the construction of youth in Australian young adult literature a random selection of 20 per cent of Australian young adult books published in each year from 1980 to 2000 were analysed using the evaluative framework, with 186 novels being studied altogether. During the 1990s in particular, Australian young adult literature was heavily criticised for being too bleak, too dark, presenting a picture of life that was all gloom and doom. This research resoundingly dismisses this argument by showing that rather than being a negative influence on the lives of young people, Australian books for young people present a comprehensive portrayal of youth. They probe the entire gamut of teenage experiences, both the good and the bad, providing a wide range of scenarios, roles, relationships and characters for young people to explore. Therefore Australian young adult literature provides an important source of information and support for the psycho-social development of young people during the formative years of adolescence. This research is significant because it gives hard evidence to support the promotion of a representative selection of Australian young adult novels both in the classroom and in home, school and public libraries. By establishing the available range of contemporary Australian young adult literature through this study, young adult readers, teachers and librarians can be confident in the knowledge that appropriate titles are accessible which meet the needs and interests of young people. Consequently, the substantial amount of data gathered from this study will considerably add to the knowledge and understanding ofAustralian young adult novels to date and provide an excellent starting point for further research in the future.

This thesis is a reader-centred investigation of Australian young adult selfdefined 'keen readers' of novels for pleasure, and considerations regarding audiencels by writers and publishers. It is predicated on the understanding that adult power operates at every level of young adults' lives, including the publishing, promotion and availability of their literature. The complexity of defining 'young adult' and 'Young Adult literature' and therefore publishing and promoting for this nominal audience is recognised as being dependent on the varying adult constructs of the terms and, therefore, is at the basis of decisions made in this adult-oriented industry. Historical and commercial aspects of Australian publishing (nominally) for this group of readers provide a context for this grounded theory-based qualitative study. Analysis of transcripts from focus group discussions with self-defined young adult 'keen readers of novels for pleasure' demonstrates that these participants had a sophisticated understanding of their leisure reading experiences regarding what they liked reading, how they found out about books, what made them choose one book over another, and where they obtained them. The insights gained from these 34 participants informed the analysis of comments by Australian adult 'creators' - writers and publishing staff - regarding audience, commercial pressures, promotional aspects and other factors influencing what is published and made available to young adult keen readers for pleasure. That these 34 participants were active buyers and promoters as well as borrowers of books indicates the need for the industry to recognise their expertise and value as a distinct and influential audience niche - the 'neo-consumers' of the future. The research provides a starting point into analysis of the influence of the group of adults I have termed 'gatekeepers', whose (largely institutional) roles enable them to either connect young adult readers with books and creators, or to separate them.