When Pancho arrives at St. Anthony's Home, he knows his time there will be short. If his plans succeed, he'll soon be arrested for the murder of his sister's killer. But then he's assigned to help DQ, whose brain cancer has slowed neither his spirit nor his mouth. DQ tells Pancho all about his "Death Warrior's Manifesto", which will help him to live out his last days fully - ideally, he says, with the love of the beautiful Marisol. As Pancho tracks down his sister's murderer, he finds himself falling under the influence of DQ and Marisol, and beginning to understand that there's more to life than revenge and more to death than sadness. "I love Francisco's books. They make you bigger inside after reading them" Maggie Stiefvater

Exploring Relationships and Connections to Others: Teaching Universal Themes through Young Adult Novels offers readers opportunities to explore the most common universal themes taught in secondary English Language Arts classrooms using contemporary young adult literature. Authors discuss adolescence and adolescent readers, young adult literature and its possibilities in the classroom, and ways to teach thematic analysis. The book provides context, traditional approaches to teaching, and examples of thematic explorations of each of the chosen themes. Chapters include developed teaching instructional units to study four universal themes: love and loss; friendship and betrayal; hate, its destructive consequences, and healing; and dreams and hope for tomorrow. Each instructional unit includes rationale, essential questions and objectives, calendar plans for up to five weeks, examples of introductory, reading and discussing, and enrichment activities and assessments. The activities target academic skills for ELA curricula and create safe spaces for exploring topics of relationships and connections to others, both of which are vital to adolescent growth and development. Each instructional chapter suggests a wide range of additional texts and resources for theme explorations.

Covering the genres popular with today's teens—fiction and nonfiction, including poetry and graphic novels—this resource provides 110 great book choices for young adult reading, interactive booktalks, and individual writing activities. All educators and library professionals need practical resources with easily accessible information and activities that can be immediately applied. Teen Talkback with Interactive Booktalks! is such a resource, supplying ready-to-use, interactive booktalks and curriculum connections for more than 100 recently published young adult books. This unique book is an invaluable tool for motivating teens to read. It shows how to make booktalks interactive and get teens participating in the presentation, rather than passively listening. Book selections include titles published from 2008 to 2012 organized in seven categories: Issues, Contemporary, Adventure/Survival, Mystery/Suspense, Fantasy, Heritage, and Multiple Cultures. Complete bibliographical information for each selection is included along with a literary classification as well as an age/grade level and gender designation. The read-alouds passages include talkback questions to facilitate discussion, and related works are supplied as suggestions for additional reading choices.

This book provides a guide for grieving youth and adults as well as extensive descriptive lists of recommended professional literature resources. Grief caused by loss is both a very common human experience and a highly individualized one. For example, children experience a number of losses that are unique to their young age—such as sibling and parent death, adoption, or divorce—and should be given special consideration by professionals and parents helping them in these situations. For gay, lesbian, or cohabiting heterosexual couples that suffer the loss of a partner, societal standards often deny the survivors in these relationships the right to grieve. Helping Those Experiencing Loss: A Guide to Grieving Resources is a book like no other, supplying compassionate information for navigating the emotional distress that every man and woman will experience in their lifetime, as well as a comprehensive guide to the literature of bereavement and grieving. It explains the grieving process, interpreting the results of research on the topic in plain language and addressing specific groups: children, young adults, parents who have lost a child, adults who have lost spouses, and the aging population.

In this volume, Alice Crosetto and Rajinder Garcha identify hundreds of resources-including books, Internet sites, and media titles-that will help educators, professionals, parents, siblings, guardians, and students learn about coping with the loss of a loved one and the grief...

With the explosion in YA publishing, it’s harder than ever to separate good books from the rest. Booklistmagazine’s editors’ deep and broad knowledge of the landscape offers indispensable guidance, and here they bring together the very best of the best books for young adults published since the start of the 21st century. Drawing on the careful judgment of expert YA librarians, this book Includes a foreword by best-selling YA lit authority Michael Cart, who demonstrates how we have entered a new golden age of books for young adults Collects reviews which showcase the most stimulating contemporary YA titles Features an essay in each section, grouped by genre, presenting an overview and examining relevant trends Indexes selections by author, title, and genre for handy reference The thoughtful professional review coverage for which ALA’s Booklist is known makes this volume an ideal tool for YA readers’ advisory and collection development.

Children's and young adult literature has become an essential medium for identity formation in contemporary Latino/a culture in the United States. This book is an original collection of more than thirty interviews led by Frederick Luis Aldama with Latino/a authors working in the genre. The conversations revolve around the conveyance of young Latino/a experience, and what that means for the authors as they overcome societal obstacles and aesthetic complexity. The authors also speak extensively about their experiences within the publishing industry and with their audiences. As such, Aldama's collection presents an open forum to contemporary Latino/a writers working in a vital literary category and sheds new light on the myriad formats, distinctive nature, and cultural impact it offers.

Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

Stonewall Book Award winner. “Konigsberg weaves together a masterful tale of uncovering the past, finding wisdom, and accepting others as well as oneself.” —School Library Journal (starred review) Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Children’s/Young Adult A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection Carson Smith is resigned to spending his summer in Billings, Montana, helping his mom take care of his father, a dying alcoholic he doesn’t really know. Then he meets Aisha Stinson, a beautiful girl who has run away from her difficult family, and discovers a secret regarding his grandfather, who disappeared without warning or explanation decades before. Together, Carson and Aisha embark on an epic road trip to try and save Carson’s dad, restore his fragmented family, and discover the “Porcupine of Truth” in all of their lives. “Words like ‘brilliant’ are so overused when praising novels—so I won’t use that word. I’ll just think it.” —Benjamin Alire Sáenz, author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe “Undeniably human and unforgettably wise, this book is a gift for us all.” —Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle “Konigsberg . . . crafts fascinating, multidimensional teen and adult characters. A friendship between a straight boy and a lesbian is relatively rare in YA fiction and is, accordingly, exceedingly welcome.” —Booklist (starred review) “The story tackles questions about religion, family, and intimacy with depth and grace . . . Equal parts funny and profound.” —Kirkus Reviews

This beautiful novel from the author of Marcelo in the Real World about life after a suicide attempt is perfect for fans of It's Kind of a Funny Story and Thirteen Reasons Why. When Vicky Cruz wakes up in the Lakeview Hospital Mental Disorders ward, she knows one thing: After her suicide attempt, she shouldn't be alive. But then she meets Mona, the live wire; Gabriel, the saint; E.M., always angry; and Dr. Desai, a quiet force. With stories and honesty, kindness and hard work, they push her to reconsider her life before Lakeview, and offer her an acceptance she's never had.But Vicky's newfound peace is as fragile as the roses that grow around the hospital. And when a crisis forces the group to split up, sending Vicky back to the life that drove her to suicide, she must try to find her own courage and strength. She may not have them. She doesn't know.Inspired in part by the author's own experience with depression, The Memory of Light is the rare young adult novel that focuses not on the events leading up to a suicide attempt, but the recovery from one -- about living when life doesn't seem worth it, and how we go on anyway.