After the Civil War Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.

You are an idiot. Don't get defensive! It's not your fault. For decades your teachers, authority figures and textbooks have been lying to you. You do not have five senses. Your tongue doesn't have neatly segregated taste-bud zones. You don't know what the pyramids really looked like. You're even pooping wrong - Jesus, you're a wreck! But it's going to be okay. Because we're here to help. Packed with more sexy facts than the Encyclopedia Pornographica, the Cracked De-Textbook will teach you about the true stars of history, why you picture everything from Velociraptors to Ancient Rome incorrectly, and finally, at long last - how to pop a proper squat. This book was built from the ground up to systematically seek out, dismantle and destroy the many untruths that years of misguided education have left festering inside of you, and leave you a smarter person...whether you like it or not. The De-Textbook is a merciless, brutal learning machine. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are informed.

In these changing times of global flows of media and technologies and reports of declining reading enjoyment, researchers, policymakers and educators need to engage anew with essential issues of what counts as reading, what kinds of reading matter and how to support teen reading engagement in school and out-of-school settings. Bringing together contributions from well-known and emerging adolescent literacy researchers from different disciplinary perspectives, this edited collection consolidates contemporary research on teens’ volitional print and digital reading, whether in school or out-of-school contexts. The first part of the book offers overviews of what teens are reading, followed by chapters on community support on reading and new ways of researching teen reading. With chapters from North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East, the collection will offer multifaceted and complex insights into what, how and why teens read in different contexts. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter encourage readers to consider how the research can be applied in their own research, policy and practice contexts. This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers and educators who are invested in supporting adolescent-engaged reading with evidence- based policies and strategies.

This book brings together international research and practical perspectives on the current state of teenagers' reading. Contributions by teachers, researchers and other educators explore the 'what, how, when, where, and why' of adolescents' reading, advancing our grasp of the relationships between and among teenage readers, texts and contexts.

Identifies evidence-backed and easy-to-implement strategies for encouraging young people to read, and helps you to position your library as an indispensable resource for supporting reading. While most reading research focuses on young children, this book looks at how to support reading beyond the early years and into adulthood. Reporting on strong, peer-reviewed research supported by sound theoretical and methodological approaches, it emphasizes the practical implications of these findings, sharing what this means for you in terms of how you can be a powerful positive reading model and influence in young people's lives. Enriched with the voices of today's young people, the book includes quotes that allow readers to decide how to support reading engagement for tweens and teens based on what would make them read more, as expressed in their own words. Engaging and readable, it will be of interest to school and public librarians and can be shared with teachers, parents, and other literacy instructors and advocates.

Drawing on scholarly research findings, this book presents a cogent case that librarians can use to work towards prioritization of reading in libraries and in schools. Reading is more important than it has ever been—recent research on reading, such as PEW reports and Scholastic's "Kids and Family Reading Report," proves that fact. This new edition of Reading Matters provides powerful evidence that can be used to justify the establishment, maintenance, and growth of pleasure reading collections, both fiction and nonfiction, and of readers' advisory services. The authors assert that reading should be woven into the majority of library activities: reference, collection building, provision of leisure materials, readers' advisory services, storytelling and story time programs, adult literacy programs, and more. This edition also addresses emergent areas of interest, such as e-reading, e-writing, and e-publishing; multiple literacies; visual texts; the ascendancy of young adult fiction; and fan fiction. A new chapter addresses special communities of YA readers. The book will help library administrators and personnel convey the importance of reading to grant-funding agencies, stakeholders, and the public at large. LIS faculty who wish to establish and maintain courses in readers' advisory will find it of particular interest.

Incorporating cognitive, neuropsychological, and sociocultural perspectives, this authoritative text explains the psychological processes involved in reading and describes applications for educational practice. The book follows a clear developmental sequence, from the impact of the early family environment through the acquisition of emergent literacy skills and the increasingly complex abilities required for word recognition, reading fluency, vocabulary growth, and text comprehension. Linguistic and cultural factors in individual reading differences are examined, as are psychological dimensions of reading motivation and the personal and societal benefits of reading. Pedagogical Features *End-of-chapter discussion questions and suggestions for further reading. *Explicit linkages among theory, research, standards (including the Common Core State Standards), and instruction. *Engaging case studies at the beginning of each chapter. *Technology Toolbox explores the pros and cons of computer-assisted learning.

Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic Realism examines those fundamental themes which inform our understanding of "the teenager"—themes that emerge in both literary and cultural contexts. Models of adolescence do not arise solely from discourses of psychology, sociology, and education. Rather, these models—frameworks including developmentalism, identity formation, social agency, and subjectivity in cultural space—can also be found represented symbolically in fantastic tropes such as metamorphosis, time-slip, hauntings, doppelgangers, invisibility, magic gifts, and witchcraft. These are the incredible, supernatural, and magical elements that invade the everyday and diurnal world of fantastic realism. In this original study, Alison Waller proposes a new critical term to categorize a popular and established genre in literature for teenagers: young adult fantastic realism. Though fantastic realism plays a crucial part in the short history of young adult literature, up until now this genre has typically been overlooked or subsumed into the wider class of fantasy. Touching on well-known authors including Robert Cormier, Melvin Burgess, Gillian Cross, Margaret Mahy, K.M. Peyton and Robert Westall, as well as previously unexamined writers, Waller explores the themes and ideological perspectives embedded in fantastic realist novels in order to ask whether parallel realities and fantastic identities produce forms of adolescence that are dynamic and subversive. One of the first studies to deal with late twentieth-century fantastic literature for young adults, this book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of adult attitudes toward adolescent identity.

This book presents a curricular framework for students grades 6–12 that school librarians and teachers can use collaboratively to enhance reading skill development, promote literature appreciation, and motivate young people to incorporate reading into their lives, beyond the required schoolwork. Supporting Reading Grades 6–12: A Guideaddresses head-on the disturbing trend of declining leisure reading among students and demonstrates how school librarians can contribute to the development of lifelong reading habits as well as improve students' motivation and test scores. The book provides a comprehensive framework for achieving this: the READS curriculum, which stands for Read as a personal activity; Explore characteristics, history, and awards of creative works; Analyze structure and aesthetic features of creative works; Develop a literary-based product; and Score reading progress. Each of these five components is explained thoroughly, describing how school librarians can encourage students to read as individuals, in groups, and as school communities; support classroom teachers' instruction; and connect students to today's constantly evolving technologies. Used in combination with an inquiry/information-skills model, the READS curriculum enables school librarians to deliver a dynamic, balanced library program that addresses AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.