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From: nancy thalia reynolds <ntreynolds_at_comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 04 May 2011 15:14:28 -0700
Lori Aurelia Williams's loosely connected YA novels (not a series) feature characters who are poor, but that's not the thematic center. Rather, they're character-driven, and often the characters are vivid and engaging. Among these are WHEN KAMBIA ELAINE FLEW IN FROM NEPTUNE and one published in 2010, MAXINE BANKS IS GETTING MARRIED.
In Kit Pearson's intriguing fantasy AWAKE AND DREAMING, Theo, the protagonist, lives a transient life in fairly dire circumstances with her unstable mother, but the story turns on Theo's longing for a storybook family and an author's desire to give Theo what she wants, which the author also wanted as a child herself.
The hero of Jeremy Craig's YA novel THE STRAITS is a boy made homeless by a hurricane that killed his mother and sister, now living in a FEMA trailer. Again, the setting is significant but not The Point. The story is not a didactic one, but an adventure tale.
Nancy Thalia Reynolds
MIXED HERITAGE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
Received on Wed 04 May 2011 03:14:28 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 04 May 2011 15:14:28 -0700
Lori Aurelia Williams's loosely connected YA novels (not a series) feature characters who are poor, but that's not the thematic center. Rather, they're character-driven, and often the characters are vivid and engaging. Among these are WHEN KAMBIA ELAINE FLEW IN FROM NEPTUNE and one published in 2010, MAXINE BANKS IS GETTING MARRIED.
In Kit Pearson's intriguing fantasy AWAKE AND DREAMING, Theo, the protagonist, lives a transient life in fairly dire circumstances with her unstable mother, but the story turns on Theo's longing for a storybook family and an author's desire to give Theo what she wants, which the author also wanted as a child herself.
The hero of Jeremy Craig's YA novel THE STRAITS is a boy made homeless by a hurricane that killed his mother and sister, now living in a FEMA trailer. Again, the setting is significant but not The Point. The story is not a didactic one, but an adventure tale.
Nancy Thalia Reynolds
MIXED HERITAGE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
Received on Wed 04 May 2011 03:14:28 PM CDT
