ALAN is made up of people who read and promote books written for teenagers— young adult literature. Among those of us who are addicted to and promote YA Lit, three groups carry the message: college/university professors, school and public librarians, and middle school/junior high/high school teachers. Though college/university professors have been a driving force in this organization since its founding in 1973, and school/public librarians have become active along the way, it is M/J/H teachers who carry these books into their classrooms and into the hands of teens five days a week, 180 days a year. Proudly I was one of those high school YA book pushers for 30 years.

When I first attended an ALAN workshop many years ago—I thought I had found the pot of gold. Here were people dedicated to making my job easier by giving me a box load of books, and creating a time and space where I could see and listen to authors who wrote books for the young people I spent most of my time with—the students in my classes. Flat-out, I was astounded. How could I not have known about ALAN before? How could I not have known that this incredible resource existed?

This morning I sit in my home office surrounded by books, with thousands more in our library downstairs. There aren’t any corners in my office–the walls of books flow into each other and over the floor like fog filling every available inch. They have taken over my office as they have my life. I am an ALAN addict, teen book junkie, supporter of YAL, and a pretty poor housekeeper.

After that first ALAN workshop, I took my book-booty back to my classroom and shared my amazement and newfound wealth with my students. Starting with my first class we would pull the books out of the box and pass them around, and at the end of the period I would put them back in the box for the next class to discover. We were all stunned—and very happy! Hundreds of other ALAN workshop participants have no doubt done the same thing over the years.

Each year as I sat in the audience, I wanted to do more to involve other teachers in ALAN, so I started brain-storming. To anyone willing to spread the word about

ALAN and young adult books, here are some ideas.

In your classroom:

1. Start a teen reading book club/group focusing on teen books as an after school activity and involve your school or public librarian. As other colleagues get interested, ask them to join, or start one for staff.
2. Create a reading workshop section in your course adapted from Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle.
3. Carry around the teen book you are presently reading and talk about it with whomever notices it.
4. Publish a class newsletter that reviews great books and post it outside your classroom and in the school library.
5. Convince the school newspaper that creating a column that reviews great teen books is a must.
6. Put your name in several places in each of your books and loan them to interested kids.
7. Ask your students to recommend titles.
8. Give an assignment that involves current YA titles and send a copy to your librarian.
9. Send a copy of the YA bib you use for your Reading Workshop to your school library or public library to encourage them to order these titles.
10. Invite the librarian into your classroom to give book talks.
11. Offer extra credit to anyone with a public library card.
12. Take a field trip to the school library or the public library.
13. Let students know they can write to authors of their favorite books, but do not make it an assignment.
14. As a class, check out authors through websites or blogs. Explore them like treasures maps because that is exactly what they are.

Get involved in ALAN:

1. Of course, attend the ALAN workshop whenever you/your school system can get you there.
2. Once there, introduce yourself to as many people as you can: people at the registration desk, people standing in line with you, people sitting beside you in the audience, the people walking on and off the stage, and the authors who are wandering around the hall and who will autograph your books.
3. Attend the ALAN author party on Sunday night and introduce yourself to EVERYONE. Make connections with other members in other states. Ask questions about books, ALAN, authors, publishers.
4. Read The ALAN Review and send a note to the author of any article that inspires you.
5. Share The ALAN Review book reviews with your students (and your school librarian).
6. Find out about the ALAN Research grants.
7. Find out about the Gallo Grants for a beginning colleague.
8. Send in a proposal for an ALAN breakout session.
9. Offer to introduce an author.
10. Join a committee.
11. Find out about the Amelia Elizabeth Edwards Award that ALAN presents each year.
12. Run for the Board.
13. Educate yourself about censorship challenges against teen books.
14. Write an article for The ALAN Review. If you don’t want to do it alone, get another teacher or a student to co-author it. We love to hear what students think!
15. Find out about TAR, ALAN Picks, SIGNAL and VOYA.
16. Review books for TAR, ALAN Picks, SIGNAL and VOYA.
17. VOTE! —Don’t throw out the ballot because you do not know anyone. Read the paragraphs; maybe someone on the ballot sounds like you.

Work the exhibit floor during NCTE. Go up to publishers whose books you use and talk to them about your classroom successes with those books. Ask if there is any way you can do anything for them or how you can get ARC’s (advanced reader copies).

I know what you are thinking–I am way too busy and the state isn’t making life any easier! That is what I thought. Let me ask you a question, how do the grading, the meetings, conferences, weekly reports to the support staff, midterm progress reports, finals, state testing prep and state testing make you feel about teaching? So . . . ?

If you want to feel good about your teaching and your connection with your students, get active in ALAN. That step will make a difference in your teaching life that you never would have guessed possible. It did for me.

Email me. Let’s talk. bottcj [at] aol [dot] com

I wrote this article during September 2010, since then I have been elected vice-president of ALAN, a thrilling professional opportunity that became official at the ALAN workshop in Orlando where for two days we listened to authors who write for teens. Everyone in the audience had received a large box filled with these authors’ books given by generous publishers. Since then, some ALAN members have emailed me their thoughts about how the ALAN workshop impacts their lives.

Paul W. Hankins who teaches at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, Indiana, sent me these comments. The box of books I took back to the classroom from ALAN was like being re-affirmed as the “teacher who has all of the ‘good’ books.” If one really wants to know what it takes to be a hero in the Language Arts classroom, it’s simple: be the one that provides avenues to stories and connections to writers. It was so much fun to go through the contents of the box with the students. Of course, I prattled on about how I got to hear this author or that author as we looked at the cover art and the inside flaps of our new books. Participation in the ALAN workshop this year afforded us the ability to add some of the titles we had been missing at the beginning of the new school year. It’s like ALAN is a silent benefactor, helping to do what I have had to do so many years on my own: providing books for my readers in Room 210.

This came from Ricki Berg who teaches at Rockville High School in Vernon, CT. The ALAN Workshop is my favorite time of the year. I always look forward to being surrounded by people who love and appreciate Young Adult literature as much as I do. I feed off the energy of the Workshop participants for the 363 non-ALAN days of the year.

From the university perspective, James Bucky Carter, an Assistant Professor of English Education who teaches at University of Texas at El Paso, added this: ALAN helps me keep up with the best of YA literature and helps me refine and add to the reading lists for my YA courses. ALAN also helps me situate my thinking regarding trends and issues in young adult literature and literacy in the larger discourses surrounding those issues.

Jennifer Buehler, Assistant Professor of English Education in the College of Education and Public Service at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri sent me this and the link to her blog.  And to my great surprise, I found that my YA lit blog entry about NCTE/ALAN was included in a link (along with many others) in the NCTE Inbox this morning!  How do you like that?

http://lessdustyshelves.blogspot.com/2010/12/ncte-annual-conventionalan-workshop.html

Jeff Harr, a high school teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School, in Kent, Ohio, shared this. My participation in ALAN has done a few things. It’s broadened my reading by introducing me to more authors in one sixteen-hour period than I met in the first forty years of my life. Because of it, my students are reading many of those authors. I have become the young adult expert in my high school, which has resulted in several other teachers who see my kids reading so much asking me for suggestions for good books. I kind of feel the same way as Jack Gantos who, at the ALAN breakfast this year, said that if there were some sort of disaster and the world was in mortal danger, the people in the room–the ALANers–would be the ones he’d want to see whisked away to a safe location; what they’re doing is that important. People who love books, love kids, and love literacy.

I want to start a collection of all these wonderful comments and ideas from ALAN members by asking you to share how ALAN has affected your teaching, your classroom, your professional involvement, and your thoughts about teaching . . . because these responses can encourage others to get more involved in ALAN.

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE publishes The ALAN Review three times a year (fall, winter, and spring).  This peer-reviewed journal in circulated to nearly 3,000 members and contains articles on YA Literature, its application in the classroom, and current research trends in the field of YA Lit.  The journal also includes a section for book reviews and a “Voices from the Field” column that celebrates the encounters classroom teachers and librarians have with YA Literature.

In coalition with the editors of The ALAN Review, ALAN Online will begin posting one full-text article from each issue of the journal.  By featuring one article on ALAN Online, we hope to bring the great work published in the journal to a wider audience.  If you would like to subscribe to The ALAN Review, you may do so by joining ALAN for only $20.00 a year.  Your membership fee includes a full subscription to the journal. For more information about joining ALAN, please click here.

The first featured article “Not so innocent: Book trailers as promotional texts and anticipatory stories”, written by Denise Davila, was published in the Fall 2010 issue of The ALAN Review.  In her article, Davila proposes that book trailers, produced as part of the official promotion of a published YA book, “can be viewed as texts and cultural artifacts” in and of themselves.  Her article also includes the findings of three different research studies in which college undergraduates respond to promotional book trailers.

You can access the full-text of this article by following the link below.

Denise Davila: Not So Innocent

The editors of The ALAN Review have announced the calls for manuscripts for the Winter 2010 and Summer 2010 issues.  If you would like to contribute to these issues please review the submission guidelines.

2010 Winter Theme: Young Adult Literature in the 21st Century: “Scattering Light” on Our Freedom to Think, See, and Imagine:
The theme of this issue asks us to imagine what it means to “scatter light” using young adult literature. Which pioneers in our field have encouraged us to “scatter light”? Which novels or poems encourage young readers to think about their pasts as they continue in the future? How does young adult literature help readers deal with adolescent issues as they think, see, and imagine those futures? What texts give “voice [to those who have] been pushed down hard” by school or society? This theme is meant to be open to interpretation, and we welcome manuscripts addressing pedagogy as well as theoretical concerns. General submissions are also welcome. October 15 submission deadline.

2010 Summer Theme:  Interplay: Influence of Film, New Media, Digital Technology, and Image on YA Literature:
The lines between various forms of media are frequently blurred for young adult readers; young adult novels increasingly have some combination of web sites, blogs, fan fiction, and video games to accompany them. The theme of this issue asks us to consider the influences of film, new media, digital technology and image on young adult novels.  What does the interplay between digital media and young adult literature look like?  How is young adult literature being influenced by digital media?  What roles do film and image play in young adult literature? What are the reading experiences of young adults who “read” books in multiple media?  Which novels and novel media help readers to question or critique society and the world?  This theme is meant to be open to interpretation, and we welcome manuscripts addressing pedagogy as well as theoretical concerns. General submissions are also welcome. February 15 submission deadline.

A New Section to The ALAN Review:
Got a story about young adult literature you’d like to share? ALAN is starting a new section of The ALAN Review featuring brief vignettes (no more than 300 words) from practicing teachers and librarians who would like to share their interactions with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators with YA literature. ]]> http://www.alan-ya.org/2009/06/the-alan-review-call-for-manuscripts-winter-summer-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.alan-ya.org/2009/03/the-alan-review-call-for-manuscripts-fall-2009-and-winter-2010/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-alan-review-call-for-manuscripts-fall-2009-and-winter-2010 http://www.alan-ya.org/2009/03/the-alan-review-call-for-manuscripts-fall-2009-and-winter-2010/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:55:45 +0000 David Macinnis Gill http://www.alan-ya.org/?p=261 The editorial team of The ALAN Review has released a call for manuscripts for the next two issues of the journal!  If you are interested in contributing to these upcoming issues, please refer to the submission guidelines posted on The ALAN Review page of ALAN Online.

2009 Fall Theme: Growing Up: Young Adult Literature Gaining Stature at the High School Level

Steven Bickmore

Robert Cormier’s I am the Cheese changed how I viewed novels written for young adults. I realized that the characters, the plot, and the narrative structure of this novel were as sophisticated as most of the books I read as a college English major. The novel was a finely crafted piece of literature that gripped the reader in a tale of suspense. I became convinced that young adult literature could not only help young readers learn to read and digest high quality “classic” literature, but that many of these novels were quality literature. They deserved to be read and valued on their own merits. I wanted my students to read books that appealed to them, books that they didn’t want to put down, books that they would read again. Ultimately, I wanted them to find the magic of reading that has continually forced me to pick up another new book and explore the world that opens up between its cover.

I spent 25 years teaching high school English classes ranging from remedial level 9^th grade students to 12^th grade Advanced Placement courses. At every level I included YA literature as self-selected literature, through literature circles, or as whole class readings. One year I placed Ender’s Game as the first novel in a Senior Advanced Placement class. Placing Ender’s Game first, changed the discussion of literature throughout the year. My research agenda includes investigating how preservice teachers come to YA Literature and the pedagogy they adopt in the classroom. I also write about promoting YA literature that not only attracts and speaks to its audience but also exhibits high literary quality. I now teach English Methods and Young Adult Literature courses at Louisiana State University.

Melanie Hundley

I fell in love with young adult literature my first year of teaching seventh grade at a middle school in Georgia.  It was a textbook adoption year so when some of the textbooks were damaged, they were not replaced.  I didn’t have enough textbooks for my students; what I did have was a terrific media specialist who helped me get class sets of young adult novels.  Reading Where the Red Fern Grows, A Wrinkle in Time, Dogsong, Number the Stars, and Bridge to Terabithia with my students gave me a very different perspective on those texts.  Those reading experiences and our deep, thoughtful discussions helped me reshape what I thought about literature, about teaching literature, and what texts were key to use with students. 

As a classroom teacher, I used young adult literature in a variety of ways including reading workshops, as companion pieces to canonical literature, and in writing workshops as examples of the writer’s craft. In all of my courses, from 7^th grade to AP, I incorporated YA texts to engage students in reading, writing, and critiquing the world. I now teach Writing Methods and Young Adult Literature courses at Vanderbilt University. My research interests include new media, technology and writing, and teacher education. I see a strong connection between changing literacy practices including the reading and writing of hypertext and the increase in non-traditional and multigenre YA literature. 

Jacqueline Bach

I attended my first ALAN Conference in 1994. This experience, along with guidance from Dr. Pamela Sissi Carroll and Gloria Pipkin, convinced me to read young adult literature with my students. One year, after an especially grueling Julius Caesar unit and an obligatory week of state standardized testing, I gave my students two weeks to read whatever young adult novel(s) they wanted in order for them to “remember what they liked about reading.”  At the end of two weeks, my students pleaded with me: “Why can’t we read books like this all of the time?” I now share that comment with my pre-service English teachers in the hopes that they, too, will listen to their students.

Since then, I have taught high school English in three states, a Young Adult Literature course, facilitated book clubs whose members read young adult novels, and worked with teachers on incorporating YA Literature into their curriculums. My current research with YA Literature includes how it can be used to conduct professional development with teachers on social issues and its representations of transgender and gender variant characters. I am in the process of introducing young adult literature to school counselors and administrators in the hopes that they can also benefit from what we know about this field.