AdLit News Headlines

Are you interested in wonderful middle grade novels with neurodivergent characters? Lucky for you, we’ve rounded up eight.

Encouraging student-led exploration and performance can help make Shakespeare’s plays accessible and fun for middle schoolers.

From reimagining the classroom to tearing down imposter syndrome, author, critic and fierce public intellectual bell hooks inspired women of color across generations to create a world in which all are free to reach their potential. In 2003, she wrote, “To me the classroom continues to be a place where paradise can be realized, a place of passion and possibility, a place where spirit matters, where all that we learn and know leads us into greater connection, into greater understanding of life lived in community.” On December 15, bell hooks died after an extended illness but her legacy remains.

As the Newberry Award for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children” turns 100, Katherine Paterson stands out as only one of six authors to have received that prestigious medal twice. She discusses her two Newberry award winning novels, Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved.

Help with food and housing belongs in their mission, leaders say, because “anything that gets in the way of learning is in our lane.”

Many students do not realize and are not told that what counts as a passing grade in high school may not be acceptable for schools within the University of California system or at California State University. 

According to a statement published on Schoolyard News, Friday’s protest of in-person learning isn’t aimed at Boston Public Schools, but the state’s Department of Education and Secondary Education. DESE officials said that no matter the situation, remote learning no longer counts toward a district’s minimum required structured learning time. 

Young artists can face lonely paths; they can be misunderstood, ignored or even persecuted. But the urge to create is so powerful, and it can give young people’s lives such richness. Writers capture artists’ journeys in many ways. Two recent books take very different approaches to these journeys but arrive at a similar destination, of love and respect for the power of creation.

Five Rockingham County schools are working together to get kids reading again. They are calling it the ‘Battle of the Books’ competition.

Explaining the criteria for successful learning at the surface, deep, and transfer levels puts students in a better position to meet benchmarks.

New study hints parental mindset about potential for growth yields better outcomes starting from very early age.

The National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature has written a new book, called “Ain’t Burned All the Bright,” targeted at teens that explores what it means to be Black in America right now.

The challenges of parenting a teenager can leave one powerless and alone. Accepting these challenges is the only way to get to the other side

Multiple studies have shown that teenagers need between eight to nine hours of sleep every night to function at their optimum level. Unfortunately, most teenagers fall short of meeting the hours of sleep they require. Many teenagers feel that it’s okay not to get enough sleep. That they can “function” with less sleep. Some believe that they can go through days of less sleep and then catch up on lost sleep by sleeping more at other times. This is a recipe for disaster!

Jason Reynolds will discuss his novels and the art of storytelling as part of the University of Augusta Writing Project Author Series. The event takes place this Saturday at 3 p.m. and is free however participants must register online to participate. Currently, more than 400 people across the country, mostly educators, have registered.

Sharing lessons from what I did wrong can help others avoid a culture of fear and intimidation.

While balance training may not necessarily sound fun to most adolescents, video games typically do. And for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, video games that improve their balance by teaching them yoga and tai chi poses also improves their posture, reduces the severity of their autism symptoms and influences the structure of their brains.

25 videos, comics, poems, paintings, photos, songs, games and GIFs tell a powerful story.

Joseph Allen, UVA’s Hugh Kelly Professor of Psychology, has turned out more groundbreaking research based on a longitudinal study of nearly 200 participants who were just 13 years old when the study began in 1998.

The latest research finds that the quality of teen’s relationships with their friends is a better predictor of certain long-term outcomes than their relationships with their parents. 

Last year was a great year for YA novels with Latinx protagonists, and 2022 promises to continue this positive trend. Here are seven titles to keep an eye out for this year.

Older students struggling with reading is not a phenomenon new to the pandemic. In 2019, before COVID disrupted schools, scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that only 66 percent of 4th graders and 73 percent of 8th graders were at or above a “basic” level of proficiency in the subject. But the turmoil over the past two years has resurfaced questions about exactly how best to get students up to speed, and it’s directed funding toward academic recovery. 

Teaching literacy to older students who are still learning English is a topic that’s traditionally gotten less attention in research, training, and professional development than its counterpart for younger students. Experts caution that good literacy instruction must be built on what’s already known about best practice for adolescent literacy in general, and be grounded in teachers’ detailed understanding of their students, since the English-learner population is highly diverse.

To policymakers, poet Giovanni Rose would be just a statistic. But like everyone ignored by politicians, he is so much more

Experts say we’ve entered a new age of censorship, marked by what the American Library Association (ALA) called “a dramatic uptick in book challenges and outright removal of books from libraries.”

E.L.L. students are invited to write a 50-word story using our recent vocabulary words. Send yours in by Jan. 31.

Start the new year off right with this incredible collection of books spanning the reading rainbow.

After getting a high school diploma in the spring, most graduates across Massachusetts were heading to public or private college. For other students, however, post-graduation plans meant going straight into the workforce or joining the military. 

Listen as Elijah talks to his former coach and teacher, Andy Harding. The conversation focuses on connections and how those relationships can be impactful for people on their journey of finding resilience. Harding is a social studies teacher and assistant football coach at Tarboro High School. 

Take a look at five categories of YA non-fiction to discover exciting, compelling, and fun reads as well as books that may “simply” be the kinds of books readers turn to for writing a report or learning a new skill.

A feel good story from across the pond. A teenager who made and gave out thousands of Covid-19 “survival packs” for young people during lockdown has been awarded for his goodwill.

Lowry, who has lost a sister and a son, has spent decades writing about the pains of memory. Literature, she says, is “a way that we rehearse life.”

The National Assessment for Educational Progress, the organization that produces the periodic Nation’s Report Card based on student testing, found that the numbers of 9 and 13-year-olds who regularly read for pleasure has plummeted. During the 2019-20 school year the proportion of middle schoolers who frequently read for fun dropped by more than half, to 17%, while the percentage who seldom or never do more than tripled. This is worrisome for many reasons.

Here are five standout YA novels from 2021 that could continue to pick up steam into the new year because of their clever plotting and lyrical writing.

Wilmington’s Residential Adolescent Achievement Place bridges educational and social gaps existing among “at-risk youth” in New Hanover County. A network of community partners as well as college students at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College volunteer with the organization, which has resulted in the program success, growth, and outreach.

A literacy professor and a professor of criminal justice are serendipitously brought together and a research project on how students could learn from young adult novels, and the criminal justice issues addressed in those novels.

Finding books for autistic tweens and teens that will reflect what they are feeling and experiencing is really, really tough because there is a wide spectrum of experiences and emotions when we are considering autism. Books that cover these types of topics are hugely important because it allows those who are neurotypical to attempt to step into the shoes of someone who is neurodiverse, at least for a little while. It’s never fully possible to live inside someone’s mind but reading books on the subject, especially through fiction, is one of the best ways to do this.

Read about four stellar titles that feature odd couples and ragtag groups embarking on ­fantastic adventures of redemption and discovery. 

The partnership between WriteOn NYC and Parsons Scholars turned out to be a natural fit, as the two programs share a mission of helping high school students from low-income backgrounds explore their creative talents and find connections between their interests and possible careers. 

We are in the midst of what could be a meaningful moment of cultural and social change but most research on the impact of media on young people has focused on television shows and video games rather than books. 

You are fully welcome to judge books by their cover in this post.

Read about how the Burlington Public Library has remodeled and expanded an area designed for young readers, and introduced new programming that offers teens everything from yoga to cooking classes.

Naomi Bailey, Donna L. Shrum, Crystal Watson, and Jenny Edwards, Ph.D. share meaningful takeaways from working with students.

Five expert book club facilitators to share some of the ways they run their clubs and spread book love with young readers.

A new study of more than 2,400 adolescents ages 13 to 16 shows that just two online single-session interventions can help curb teen depression.

Read a conversation with YA author and former high school English teacher, Ashley Perez, about what it’s like when your book is the one getting yanked out of libraries. 

Employers are seeking non-academic skills, skills students build through SEL, as they search for successful job candidates.

What comes to mind when you think of graphic novels? Maybe it’s superhero comics, easy reading or books not written for me. Read more to dispel a few of those myths.

Food for thought is on the menu when middle school students attend the Sí Se Puede Book Club during lunch at Jefferson Academy in Hanford.

Here are four strategies park rangers use to create an audience-centered experience and establish reasons for learning that could work in any classroom.

A New Mexico district is replacing some professional development days with teacher wellness retreats

They say reading can take you anywhere, anytime. But right now, for students at Pioneer and Garrison middle schools, reading can also get a flavor of ice cream named after them. 

The graphic novelist Ken Krimstein illustrates the stories that were revealed when a trove of prewar personal accounts from Jewish teenagers was discovered.

Students returning home from juvenile detention centers deserve support to reintegrate into their communities, especially during the pandemic.

The new teen center serves as the New York Public Library’s flagship space for young adults to be built throughout the library system over the next five years.

Young adults in Louisville between the ages of 16 and 24 have a new resource for career and educational assistance. “The Spot,” housed on the campus of Jefferson Community and Technical College in downtown Louisville, was created to help young adults reimagine their futures by overcoming trouble with the law, homelessness and other issues.

It’s always insightful to see which YA novels/series become popular YA movies. From romantic comedies like To All the Boys to action movies like MCU’s Spider-Man, these young adult franchises stand out as the best of the best.

Listen to an interview with Darcie Little Badger about her new Young Adult novel, A Snake Falls To Earth that asks young adult readers to tackle big, real world problems. 

A glance at recent YA literature seems to show a more diverse cast of characters, with POC, disabled and LGBTQ+ protagonists and secondary characters. While diversity initiatives and individual authors’ successes are highly significant, it seems that YA still has a way to go in order to be truly diverse. Meanwhile, other areas of literature, such as adult fiction, may not be as far behind YA as one might initially think. 

Seeking to attract a more diverse group of students to science, technology, engineering and math, many programs target students as early as possible, to demystify the fields and get students comfortable with them long before they apply for college. 

A NY Times reporter spent six months with Genesis, one of one million New York City students who has lived through the most disrupted moment in the modern history of public education. This is Genesis’ story.