Literature, CO Dime Novels

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 068 991 CS 200 241 AUTHOR Donelson, Ken, Ed. TITLE Adolescent Literature, Adolescent Reading and the English Class. INSTITUTION Arizona English Teachers Association, Tempe. PUB DATE Apr 72 NOTE 147p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Ill. 61801 (Stock No. 33813, $1.75 non-member, $1.65 member) JOURNAL CIT Arizona English Bulletin; v14 n3 Apr 1972 EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Adolescents; *English; English Curriculum; English Programs; Fiction; *Literature; *Reading Interests; Reading Material Selection; *Secondary Education; Teaching; Teenagers ABSTRACT This issue of the Arizona English Bulletin contains articles discussing literature that adolescents read and literature that they might be encouragedto read. Thus there are discussions both of literature specifically written for adolescents and the literature adolescents choose to read. The term adolescent is understood to include young people in grades five or six through ten or eleven. The articles are written by high school, college, and university teachers and discuss adolescent literature in general (e.g., Geraldine E. LaRoque's "A Bright and Promising Future for Adolescent Literature"), particular types of this literature (e.g., Nicholas J. Karolides' "Focus on Black Adolescents"), and particular books, (e.g., Beverly Haley's "'The Pigman'- -Use It1"). Also included is an extensive list of current books and articles on adolescent literature, adolescents' reading interests, and how these books relate to the teaching of English..The bibliography is divided into (1) general bibliographies,(2) histories and criticism of adolescent literature, CO dime novels, (4) adolescent literature before 1940, (5) reading interest studies, (6) modern adolescent literature, (7) adolescent books in the schools, and (8) comments about young people's reading. (DI) U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION !His DUCUMENI HAS BEEN REPRO OUCH) EAACIO AS KUNIO I RUM 1441 P( 14505 OR 0146ANilA I TUN ORR INA1114(, II POINTS 01 VIEW OR 011N RAS SIA441) 00 501 NECISSARILV RI PRI SENT 0111CIAt 0111CI Of EDU (AWN POSITION 014 polio ADOLESCENT LITERATURE, ADOLESCENT READING A AND THE ENGLISH CLASS Volume 14 - - - NumL.r 3 April 1972 0 ENG LISH6dieeept ARIZONA ENGLISH BULLETIN A Member of the NUE Exchange Agreement The ARIZONA ENGLISH BULLETIN is a publication of the Arizona English Teachers Association, a non-profit state affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English. The BULLETIN exists to create effective statewide articulation of English teachers at all levels, to.increase awareness of new ideas, programs, and movements in English, and to improve instruction at every level. The BULLETIN is published three times a year, in October, February, and April. It is supported by the English section of the Arizona College Association, and supported and subsidized by the Arizona English Teachers Association, Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University. Membership in the Arizona English Teachers Association (including sub5cription to the BULLETIN) is 54.00 a year (a three year membership is available 510.00). Send applications for membership to Mrs. Coleen Goodwin, Treasurer, AETA Central High School 4525 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, Arizona 85012 Make checks payable to the AETA and include both school and home addresses anc zip codes. Subscriptions to the BULLETIN are S3.00 for the three issues. Individual issues may be purchased for 51.25. For subscriptions or individual copies, send a check payable to ARIZONA ENGLISH BULLETIN to Ken Donelson, Editor, ARIZONA ENGLISH BULLETIN LL 639, English Department Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona 85281 Note to contributors: The editor of the ARIZONA ENGLISH BULLETIN welcomes all contributions related to the teaching of English and applicab:e to the theme of a forthcoming issue. Writers may find the following helpful in preparing manu- scripts. 1. Ordinarily, papers should be no longer than 10-15 typed,,double spaced pages. 2. Writers who wish to submit brief notes should consider submitting them as paragraphs for the Shoptalk section. 3. Avoid footnotes, unless absolutely necessary. If vital, list consecu- tively at the end of the article. 4. The BULLETIN serves all teachers of English, but its primary allegiance is to the National Council of Teachers of English, not the Modern Language Association. 5. The editor assumes the right to make small changes to fit the format or the needs of the BULLETIN. Major surgery will be handled by corres- pondence. Subjects for the 1971-1972 issues: October (Student Teaching in English) ;February (Elective Pro);rams in English); and April (Adolescent Literature, Adolescent Reading, and the English Class) . i41,17.J1 I OP. ..1.1,111 A; 4/1 1.4tt/1.111() ff1 Arizona English TeachcwAssociation ?,)1 /4,l. OU,144,7.1?y, rii?fu AINI VI NIS 111!.. toff u, Out: t I tlf10011711)% 10141.4111filf'W)Itt.t ,)% (),17.1f11!off417, *.t.',.;1(1., ..! ; ARIZONA ENGLISH BULLETIN Spring 1972 - - - - ADOLESCENT LITERATURE, ADOLESCENT READING, AND THE ENGLISH CLASS Contents You Call That "Literature"? Beverly Haley, Fort Morgan High School, Fort Morgan, Colorado 1 A Bright and Promising Future for Adolescent Literature Geraldine E. LaRocque, Teachers College, Columbia University 6 Inside THE OUTSIDERS Lynn Kerr, Kaibab School, Scottsdale 10 The Literary Value and Adolescent Appeal of Mary Stolz' Novels Billie F. Kaser, ASU Graduate student 14 Thrills and Adventure for Only Fifty Cents Alan S. Dikty, Editor, BOYS' BOOK COLLECTOR, Naperville, Illinois 20 And She Let One Saddle Oxford Drop Lazily from Her Toe Gail Renee Rissi, Graduate student, Southern Illinois University 26 The Adolescent in Literature--Feeling it M. Jerry Weiss, Jersey City State College 29 Do Adolescents Read Recommended Literature? Janet K. McReynolds, Rend Lake College, Ina, Illinois Miriam C. Dusenbery, Southern Illinois University 35 A Fourteen Year Old Boy Reports on His Reading Ruth K. J. Cline, University of Colorado 40 Growing Pains in Arizona: Youth in the Fiction of John Weston W. Paul Blakely, Drake University 44 Who Will Read Prydain? Betty B. Whetton, Kenilworth School, Phoenix 51 The Hit List in "Paperback Power" Robert A. Larabell, Arcadia High School, Scottsdale 54 Junior Novels as Outside Reading Possibilities Dorothy Matthews, University of Illinois 57 Of Gangs and Pigs and Pregnant Girls, Of Trees and Trials and Barbarians Ken Donelson, ASU 65 I Can't Believe I Read That Whole Thing Kathi Blevens, Rocky Ford High School, Rocky Ford, Colorado 73 Goodbye, Boredom Shirley James, ASU, formerly Kaibab School, Scottsdale 75 Focus on Black Adolescents Nicholas J. Karolides, University of Wisconsin at River Falls 78 Southwestern Novels for the Junior High School English Classroom Peter Derven, formerly Prescott High School 83 THE PIGMAN--Use It Beverly Haley, Fort Morgan High School, Fort Morgan, Colorado 89 50 Adolescent Novels in Paperback Which Ought to Be in Every School Library . 93 A Survey of Adolescent Interests in Three Schools William T. Ojala, ASU Marda McNeill, ASU student 96 The Times They Are a Changin' Wayne Litfiy, ASU student 109 Those Who Don't Read Have No Advantage Over Those Who Can't Read Ruth K. J. Cline, University of Colorado 111 What of the Teaching of Literature in School? 116 The Popularity of Jeannette Eyerly's Novels Diane Morgan, ASU graduate student, formerly Magee Junior High, Tucson . 122 Shoptalk 126 Current Reading 136 Preface to the Issue--ADOLESCENT LITERATURE, ADOLESCENT READING, AND THE ENGLISH CLASS Originally, I intended to devote this issue to literature written specifically for young people, roughly grades 5 or 6 through 10 or 11, material fondly (or conde- scendingly) called "junior" or "adolescent" or "transitional" literature. But a fast reading of just the first two or three articles submitted revealed that restricting the issue to the original goal would hamper writers interested in discussing both what students liked to read and what they might like to read. Since both adolescent and adult titles kept popping up, the issue was broadened to what now appears on the cover, doubtless a more clumsy but certainly a more accurate indication of the contents therein. If comments on MR. AND MRS. BO JO-'.TONES and THE PIGMAN and THE OUTSIDERS and DURANGO STREET abound, so also do comments on A SEPARATE PEACE and S IDDARTHA and RED SKY AT MORNING and JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN. No claims will be made that teenage literature has produced any great or enduring works of art, no adolescent WALDEN or CRIME AND PUNISHMENT or HAMLET, though some high- ly respectable work has been written. But few writers worry much about that in writing for adults. Literary merit is a sometimes thing at best, judged as it must be by sub- jective and personal criteria, and longevity of literarylperformance is hardly planna- ble and often accidental. If much appears on the teenage:market that is not particular- ly good by adult standards (literary or otherwise), that bothers adolescents but little. If that sounds like writers aiming at the teenage market pander to the needs and tastes and interests of the young, so what. Writers aiming at any market, whether it be readers of science fiction novels or westerns or Gothic romances or PLAYBOY or PMLA, must keep their readers in mind, and the writer pandering to his audience and the writer remem- bering his sacred duty to his audience are too often different ways of saying the same thing, one reserved for material a reader dislikes, one for material a reader respeCts. The real wonder of adolescent literature is how very much of it is well written. If much is literary garbage, much of any year's production for adults is also garbage. If adolescent literature has produced hack writers (but very popular hack writers) like Gene Olson and William Huntsberry and Rosamund du Jardin and Amelia Walden, it has also produced excellent writers like John Tunis and Paul Zindel (who's also the writer of some first class Broadway plays) and Mary Stolz and Susan Hinton.

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