Cart
Sign up for our monthly email alertsPassions and Pleasures
Essays and Speeches About Literature and Libraries
Series: Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature #26
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SUBJECTS
Literature » Children's & Young Adult Literature
Children's & Young Adult Services » Literary Criticism
Library & Information Science » Children's & Young Adult Services
Children's & Young Adult Services » Children's & Young Adult Services (General)
Children's & Young Adult Services » Teacher Resources
Literature » Literary Criticism
REVIEWS
"I am persuaded that "a new age" has come and am ever sure that Michael Cart is its harbinger."
—Spring 2008, Children's Literature Association Quarterly
DESCRIPTION
Passions and Pleasures: Essays and Speeches About Literature and Libraries is a collection of Michael Cart's favorite columns and speeches about young adult literature, how he has observed and participated in the growth of the genre, the changes it has undergone, and what he sees as its future. He talks about the importance of young adult literature in helping teens to navigate through the tough teen years, believing that books can change individual lives if they "constitute realistic literature inhabited by complex characters whose lives, both exterior and interior, invite us to not only empathize but to also think."
Cart's seventeen essays and speeches discuss the current state of YA literature; the work of pioneers like Robert Lipsyte and Robert Cormier who provided thought-provoking, realistic fiction; why librarians and other educators should embrace the graphic novel; the evolution of GLBTQ fiction, why he believes that young lives are at stake, and how literature can help these young people; and why he loves libraries and librarians. His concluding essays are devoted to remembering champions of young people, like Robert Cormier, William Morris, and Michael Printz. This is a wonderfully engaging read for anyone who is interested in young adult literature and wants to learn about its roots, its evolution, and the people who pioneered it and continue to champion it today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Cart, recipient of the Grolier Foundation Award for distinguished contributions to young people and literature, teaches young adult literature at UCLA and is the author or editor of a dozen books, including the young adult novel My Father's Scar, which was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and The Heart Has Its Reasons: Young Adult Literature with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2004, coauthored with Christine A. Jenkins, (The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2006).
