Overview

This book offers revolutionary approaches to in-class discussions about young adult literature. It shows teachers how to think more widely than the themes of a book to consider how they might operate as prayers of lament, yearning, anger, confession, thankfulness, reconciliation, joy, obedience, pilgrimage, contemplation, and equanimity. It also offers a variety of ways for classroom discussion to consider a representative sentence or two from a young adult novel, and from that allow students to connect to linked passages in the rest of the novel. These approaches for classroom discussion are drawn from a variety of contemplative traditions, including Jewish and Christian faith traditions and include florilegium, lectio divina, PaRDeS, Ignatian Imagination, havruta, and marginalia. Drawing from a range of in-class experiences, the authors explain each approach in the context of twelve popular and critically interesting young adult novels including The Hate U Give, Long Way Down, Speak, The Poet X, The Fault in our Stars, Brown Girl Dreaming, and others. This book will transform discussions that are disconnected from the book, lacking in relevance, or missing the energy that drives good conversation into meaningful and energetic class discussions that students and teachers alike will value.

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9781475862096

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Reviews

Reading a young adult novel as a prayer of lament? I would not have thought so before getting into this fascinating--and provocative --book. Now I have new eyes to see.--Richard J. Mouw, PhD, President Emeritus, Fuller Theological Seminary This book takes some of young adults' favorite stories and shows us the deep theological gifts that can be made accessible to us through allegory. It makes difficult concepts simple and practical through close analysis and through the practice of loving books.--Vanessa Zoltan, Author of Praying with Jane Eyre and co-host of podcasts Harry Potter & the Sacred Text and Hot & Bothered

If movies can be prayers, why not Young Adult Literature? With generosity and enthusiasm, the authors of Seeing Young Adult Literature as Prayer open up the spiritual possibilities in a wide array of YAL stories, while also offering practical methods for teachers to do the same in their classrooms. Students of all kinds will be the better for it.--Josh Larsen, author of Movies Are Prayers Reading a young adult novel as a prayer of lament? I would not have thought so before getting into this fascinating--and provocative --book. Now I have new eyes to see.--Richard J. Mouw, PhD, President Emeritus, Fuller Theological Seminary This book takes some of young adults' favorite stories and shows us the deep theological gifts that can be made accessible to us through allegory. It makes difficult concepts simple and practical through close analysis and through the practice of loving books.--Vanessa Zoltan, Author of Praying with Jane Eyre and co-host of podcasts Harry Potter & the Sacred Text and Hot & Bothered

Author Information

William Boerman-Cornell has co-authored two previous books about using graphic novels to teach middle school and high school. A former high school English teacher, Boerman-Cornell is a professor of Education at Trinity Christian College near Chicago. Deborah Vriend Van Duinen has served as the director of The NEA Big Read, a community-wide reading discussion program in Holland, Michigan that has pioneered college and community cooperative reading approaches. She is an Associate Professor of Education at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Xu Bian brings expertise as an Assistant Professor of Chinese to a consideration of international and inter-cultural literary interpretation. The author of several peer-reviewed studies, Bian teaches at Seattle Pacific University in Washington state. Kris Gritter has published over twenty peer-reviewed articles and chapters about adolescent literacy and is the award-winning editor of a column in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Gritter is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Seattle Pacific University in Washington state.

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