1st Edition

Identity, Criticality, and Advocacy in Young Adult Literature Training Teachers to Empower Students in the ELA Classroom

Edited By Steffany Comfort Maher, Alice Hays Copyright 2026
254 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

254 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Identity, Criticality, and Advocacy in Young Adult Literature explores teaching strategies for incorporating young adult literature (YAL) as a tool for developing identity, criticality, and advocacy both inside and outside English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Censors are stripping young people of the power to read and learn about the world in ways relevant to them. To combat this, we share... Read more

Introduction: The Power of Young Adult Literature  Section I: Identity  1. Issues of Identity in YA Science Fiction Depicting Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics  2. Analyzing Community Cultural Wealth in With the Fire on High to Foster Asset-based Perspectives  3. Examining Young Adult Literature through a Rogerian Perspective: Self-Actualization in I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter  4. Huda F Are You: Playing with Language in YA Literature to Explore Multiple Identities  5. Using Charlie Jane Anders’s Victories Greater than Death to Explore the Possibilities of Imagined Worlds and Transgender Narratives in the High School ELA Classroom  6. Examining Intersectional Identities: Using Fantasy Novels to Understand Multifaceted Identities  Section II: Criticality  7. What Do Students Deserve in Secondary ELA Classrooms? Promoting Criticality with We Deserve Monuments  8. Analyzing Starr’s Identity in The Hate U Give using Critical Race Feminism  9. Environmental Criticality in Darcie Little Badger’s A Snake Falls to Earth  10. Teaching Criticality with The Last Cuentista  11. Burning a House in the Sky: Narrative Writing and Grief-Responsive Pedagogy  12. Down Came the Rain: A Critical Examination of the Intersectionality of Ecological Disaster  13. The Self/ves as Locations of Resistance in La Borinqueña  Section III: Advocacy  14. How to Become the Sun—Walking with Ger Duany: Advocacy In and Out of the Classroom  15. Voices in Print, Power in Action: Young Adult Literature as an Invitation to Adolescent Activism and Agency  16. Fostering Mental Health Literacy Through Curriculum and Classroom Conversation on Ab(solutely) Normal  17. Teaching LGBTQIA+ History Through Young Adult Literature: Vehicles for Student Understanding, Empathy, and Advocacy  18. Advocating for Consent: Exploring Sexual Assault in Young Adult Literature  19. From the Book to the Board of Education: Lessons on Criticality, Collectivity, and Class Struggle from Shadowshaper and the Earthseed Series  Section IV: Conclusion  20. Protecting the Freedom to Read: Nurturing and Sustaining Advocacy in Teachers, Students, and Communities

Biography

Steffany Comfort Maher is an associate professor of English education and director of the IUS Writing Project at Indiana University Southeast. Her research interests include critical inquiry approaches to teaching literature, critical methods of teaching young adult literature, and critical youth studies. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Maher taught middle and high school English and social studies for 12 years in Michigan.

Alice Hays is an associate professor and chair of the Teacher Education Department at California State University, Bakersfield. During her Ph.D. work, Dr. Hays taught English composition at the college level. Prior to that, Dr. Hays taught high school English for 19 years in Arizona.