Final Exam part 2

Consider these arguments against YA literature below.  Do you agree or disagree?  Pick one book from this semester and imagine that you are having to justify its inclusion in the district’s curriculum.  Imagine that the school board is arguing against you

I feel that The Book Thief should be added to the curriculum because its a book that talks about an even that happened in History and shows how people would hide their what they really felt for fear.  The district wants and tries to protect the students from being exposed to themes that they feel that is not proper for students.  I would have to disagree with them because students should be taught about what life is in reality for them to become stronger in life and have knowledge of previous tragic events.  The district will argue that the Holocaust is too strong for students and could be depressing.  And maybe it is a strong event that happened in history and had a great impact on the nation and students will learn to value themselves and avoid making the same mistakes that people did.  As society ages we see common reoccurences of past events because have little knowledge or they don't break away from that mentality and we want our next generation to be optimistic to change and be open minded.  We want to avoid them being pessimistic about life and their surrounding.  Having students read literature that could challenging will help enhance them in reading and fluency.  Learning about real life events also builds a connection to the life that we live in and strengthen their optimism of life.  Students will not only enjoy challenging books but they will remember it later in life because of the fact that it dealt with an even that marked history and a change of society.  The Book Thief will give students a chance to express themselves of their thoughts of the event and compare and contrast to what is going on today in society and give their opinion to what they think or feel.  Some could start to have a change of mind if they are following the footsteps or being racist or being naive about other peoples beliefs and change to being open minded and not grow up with that mentality as well to go for what they believe and not hide.

Final Exam Part 1

1.  Define Young Adult Literature.  Use your notes (particularly look at the notes from early in the semester found on the Course Home Page and Content), your books (mention or quote from at least two), and your own realizations to craft a definition of Young Adult Literature.  Your response should be a minimum of five hundred words.

Young adult literature is very close to adult literature because many adults are reading adult literature now a day.  The reason that young adult literature is meant or aimed for young adult because of the theme of the story and for the most part the main character is at the age of a young adult.  YA literature ages various depending on the nature of the story, it can range from 10 years to 18 or 12 years to 18 or years, it’s a matter of the story and the child.  Not all YA literature is meant to be read by a young adult child because some stories require the child to be more mature to read the theme focused in the story.  That is why some adults will pick up a YA book to read because they are meant to read by mature readers.  YA literature will focus in reaching the students interest by using similar life experiences that they live as they grow.  Not to mention the main characters will teenagers and the student’s will find a connection with the main character for the most part.  Having the main character think for themselves, make choices, and act on their own as if was the real life events.  Students will be more engaged if the main character is put in the situation where he/she makes a difference in the story, creating events where there is a cause and an effect afterwards.  From the books that we have read, The Giver, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and The Watsons Go To Birmingham remind me of how the main character would have a connection with teenagers because they lived similar events that could relate to the real life.  In The Giver, Jonas is a normal 12 year boy that goes to school and with the exception of the community and their rules and obligations; he does the normal things like play catch or ride a boy like any boy would, “Jonas rode at a leisurely pace, glancing at the bikeports beside the building to see if he could spot Asher’s” (Lowry 26).  He lives with both his parents and has a younger sister.  Obviously their family structure in this story is not the real way that we form a family but they have the basic foundations of a family structure.  Jonas faced discipline from his parents like a child about his age would do if he did anything wrong.  In the story of The Watsons Go to Birmingham, the main character is about close to teenage and the brother who is a teenager, a younger sister and Kenny’s friend Rufus.  Students can identify themselves with Kenny or By or both depending on their attitude.  In this story, we see how Kenny faces being bullied by his brother and at school.  Then when Rufus moves to their school, he then becomes the victim, “Then Larry Dunn said, Lord today, look at the nappy-headed, downhome, country corn flakes the cat done drugged up from Mississippi, Y’all!” (Curtis 30).  In both these books we can see how a student can relate some part of their life and catch their interest to continue reading.  In The Giver at the end escapes his community because he doesn’t want to continue living how they were living, he wanted to be able to experience the feelings that he felts when the Giver would transmit to him, he took his own steps and left.  In The Watsons Go to Birmingham, after the incident that happened when they went to visit their grandma, By did a whole attitude change from being a stubborn hard headed teenager.  Kenny had a life change too because the incident caused confusion. In both of the boys they attitudes changed a sign on maturation as well in which real life boys pass through a phase like this.  I feel that YA literature also serves as a teaching lecture to adults because we learn about what kids might do or think at the age of main character.  We also enjoy YA literature because we might relate to the story of when we were at that age.  After reading the YA books for this class, I got to enjoy books that I would’ve never had thought of reading and actually enjoying them

Works Cited

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. New York: Delacorte, 1995. Print.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.