Teacher Round Table

Study and Scrutiny has focused on the publication of critical and empirical studies surrounding the scholarship and critical merits of Young Adult literature. Because other journals provide a space for pedagogical practices concerning YA, the editors have intentionally shied away from explaining to teachers how to teach a particular title in a particular way. Still, the intention of the journal has been, in part, to support the learning of secondary students as readers and the classroom practices of their teachers. This section hopes to serve as a space to open the conversation surrounding YA literature, its critical merits, and ways that the research might serve teachers as they make curriculum choices about both texts and strategies. The idea is to bring teachers, as intellectuals, into conversation surrounding the scholarship of a featured study. For this issue, four Oklahoma teachers from four different school districts focus on Arianna Banack’s article “Connecting and Critiquing the Canon: Pairing Pride and Pride and Prejudice.”

Intensely Original

The story of Beauty and her beast is truly a tale as old as time: a beautiful girl falls in love with a beast and her love transforms him into a prince. This project is framed by Joosen’s (2011) argument regarding fairy tale retellings disrupting Jauss and Benzinger’s (1970) claim that fairy tales and retellings align with the horizon of expectations. Using Kemmerer’s A Curse so Dark and Lonely (2019), a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling, this essay tests Joosen’s (2011) theory to determine if the retelling remains true to or diverges from the original parent material.

Connecting and Critiquing the Canon

This article discusses the intertextual connections between the young adult novel, Pride by Ibi Zoboi, and the canonical text, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Similarities between the plot and structure of the two texts are discussed along with the differences in themes between the novels. Critical Race Theory is used to help make sense of the differences between the novels and critique the overwhelming whiteness of the canon. Implications for educators who wish to pair the two novels are provided.

Cinderella’s Transformation

Cinderella’s story endures through countless adaptations. In this study, I analyzed the tropes of the patiently suffering heroine, the cruel stepmother, magical help, beauty as female currency, and being chosen by the prince in Cendrillon (Perrault, 1697), Mechanica (Cornwell, 2015), and Cinder (Meyer, 2012). The (re)visions deconstruct binary gender roles through heroines who liberate themselves from their servitude, prioritize independence over marriage, and experience supportive female relationships. The portrayals of the cruel stepmothers disrupt the trope of powerful women as inherently evil, and the storylines critique the injustices of Othering. These (re)visions reflect contemporary discourses that expand expressions of femininity.

Doctors, Drugs, and Danger

Scholarship on young adult (YA) literature has long attended to the interrelationship of power, ideology, and narrative. Drawing on this scholarship, we examined a nonfiction text about the opiate epidemic. Using critical comparative content analysis (CCCA), our study examined differences in Dreamland (the original version) and Dreamland (the young adult adaptation) to better understand the changing nature of textual representation when youth become the imagined audience. We found that in the youth adaptation of Dreamland, the implied youth reader is (a) provided less information about the opiate epidemic, which is also delivered in a simpler structure; (b) kept at a greater rhetorical distance from people who might be deemed unsavory, and (c) given a more optimistic view of the opiate epidemic in terms of progress achieved rather than action needed. The youth adaptation of Dreamland, therefore, positions youth as needing simplicity, protection, and a sense of optimism. Our analysis demonstrates how the implied youth reader is a textual byproduct of discourses of adolescence/ts. As youth adaptations continue their prominence in the YA marketplace, scholars and teachers should critically engage how youth are positioned as readers and thinkers by the YA publishing industry. Next steps involve additional studies that focus on the implied (youth) reader through CCCA and studies that involve middle and secondary education students, the real readers of these texts. This study is supplemented by an interview with Sam Quinones, the author of the original version of Dreamland.

Image and Text

Jones and Woglom (2014) pointed to the tensions that sometimes exist around using comics and graphic novels as literary work in the classroom. It is from this noted tension that we arrive at a call for both critical and empirical studies that examine this issue more closely. If, indeed, graphic novels have potential for instruction, then in what ways are teachers using them across educational settings? Beyond popularity, how do children and adolescents respond to these works? How do educators align themselves with the counter-narrative of comics as texts worthy of analysis and exploration, and how do they send this message to critics of the medium? In what ways do graphic novels sit within the context of antiracist and social justice-oriented pedagogy? Download PDF for full description and submission requirements. Submissions due November 15, 2021.