Customer Reviews

Literature for Today's Young Adults (8th Edition)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nilsen and Donelson have created an outstanding textbook that not only gives valuable information, but is a wonderful reference source. The text includes the history of adolescent literature, the various genres, and suggestions on incorporating young adult literature into the classroom. I personally enjoyed reading excerpts on authors and their opinions on a plethora of issues. Also, within the chapters there are focus boxes that categorize books and movies into genres, with a review on each, so it is extremely easy to locate a book that you might want to use in your classoom. Young adult books are oftentimes very controversial and Nilsen and Donelson deal with this head on. Nilsen and Donelson interviewed several authors who gave their opinions on censorship and the text includes reference sources to censorship and an extensive list of books. Overall, this is a text that I will certainly not sell back. It is well crafted and easy to use!

A review of "Literature for Today's Young Adults" Nilson/Donelson 6/6/01

Because I am not an avid reader, I needed a good guide to the different genres and adolescent novels that are available to and for young adults. I found the Nilson/Donelson text to be a great source of knowledge for me. It was very informative as to what each different novel offered to young adults and the controversy surrounding it. The authors were very descriptive with the information of each novel and author. The text was also helpful in providing me with ideas to use in my classroom of young adults as far as discussion of the issues that each novel dealt with. For a novice like myself is was very helpful! I would recommend this text for any teacher of Young Adult Literature. Especially for the first year teacher!

Having graduated from high school in 1979, I found my insights into teen literature to be prehistoric at best. As a "utility classroom teacher," I have to keep up with a variety of subjects. This book is a great help to anyone who needs to get a grasp of Young Adult literature, an important topic.
In an age when teens face, more than ever, the difficult issues the world places at their door, (drug and alcohol usage, sexuality, health and family conflict)any teacher entering the reading classroom should be familiar with literature that is current, educational and helpful. This volume provides insight into current authors and trends in Young Adult literature, as well as reviewing "old standards" and interviewing authors. It is an extremely helpful book for anyone who must not only educate but also provide guidance.

Nilsen and Donelson's comprehensive text provides much needed insight and clarification for those who are involved with young adults and books. Focusing on such YA topics as fantasy, New Realism, and adventure, this text leads the reader through the various genres, as well as critiquing various authors and their books. This feature is especially helpful because, as a teacher, I can not read all the authors and books available. By providing these condensed lists and descriptions of current and classic books, as well as lists of Hollywood tie-ins, the authors enable classroom teachers and librarians to survey a larger range of books than they would ordinarily be able to. The authors also cover the issue of censorship, making the distinction between concerned parents and the avid censor. In discussing censors, however, the authors deal rather unfairly with the religious right, ascribing fanatical views to groups devoted to restoring traditional values to the classroom. Conversely, the left is treated in a much more favorable light, while their political biases are downplayed.

Overall, I found this text to be very useful and intend to further my reading with some of the selections highlighted by these authors.

Literature for Today's Young Adults, by Aleen Pace Nilsen and Kenneth L. Donelson, Sixth Edition. I purchased this book for a class in adolescent literature, and have found to be the book very good and very thorough. The book includes many chapters about modern adolescent literature and their various controversies. Besides being an interesting book, I found it very thorough because it includes varied points of view, and includes many articles written by the authors themselves who write novels for young adults.

This is one textbook I actually enjoy reading! If you are interested in Young Adult literature, either from an educator's or a parental perspective, this book is a great place to learn more. Of course, being a textbook, there is a section on the history of the genre, but it's actually interesting. But the best feature of this book is the the Focus Boxes which list current titles with brief summaries as examples of each format and genre. Also useful is a chronological list of award-winning books which appears near the beginning of the book. This is one text I plan to keep, then replace with newer editions as they are published.

This textbook type book is an easy read, full of information regarding young adult characteristics in appealing writings, the growth and development of young adult literature and excellent listings, bibliographies and related web sites. Anyone working with young adults and literature will find this book a treasure.

In using the text listed above, I found it to be very helpful in finding out how to interpret different readings for the young adolescent reader. It enabled me to discover the proper way to determine if the book is adequate for a certain age group or if it should be kept for an older audience. The information contained in the book was very helpful. It uses different authors as a way to explain their views on their books. I thoroughly enjoyed the text and would recommend it to any educator that is looking to broaden their horizons and learn more about the adolescent literature arena.

This is a really helpful guide for teachers or future teachers. It has a lot of good information about YAL as well as lists for the different genres of YAL.

I bought this book for a class in selecting YA literature. The book gives practical information but, some of the websites mentioned are no longer available.