Examining Images of Urban Life

A Resource for Teachers of Young Adult Literature

Laura M. Nicosia, James F. Nicosia

• Publisher: Myers Education Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781975502447, 9781975502430
• eBook ISBN: 9781975502461
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

There are novels that portray cities as magical places, others as stifling, imposing environments, and others still as a gritty but beautiful, living landscape. Cities can be the center of culture, business, the arts, and are the meeting places for diversities of all kinds. Examining Images of Urban Life gathers contributions from scholars, educators, and young adult authors, like Benjamin Alire Saenz and e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, who consider how living in a city affects character identity and growth, and the ways authors world-build the urban setting. The collection discusses what the urban landscape means, and dispels the media-driven, anecdotally propagated preconceptions about city living.

Urban life is varied and rich, just as its literature is. The collection revolves around a reconsideration of what the city represents, to its readers and to its inhabitants, and serves as a resource in urban settings, wherein teachers can select books that mirror and advocate for the students sitting in their classes.

Perfect for courses such as: Young Adult Literature | Children's Literature | Elementary Literacy | Reading and Literacy | Methods of Teaching | Public Purposes of Education | Educational or Historical Foundations of Education | Urban Studies | Media and Library Sciences

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Copyright
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction: Celebrating the City
• Chapter One: An Author’s Perspective: Finding Your Place in the Landscape
• Chapter Two: Storifying the City: Examining Representations of Urban Areas in Sherri L. Smith’s Orleans
• Chapter Three: Genre and Gentrification in the Young Adult Novel
• Chapter Four: Tears on Concrete: Shaping Youth Identities in the Shadows of Gentrification in Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper
• Chapter Five: An Author’s Perspective: Where I Can Plant the Seeds
• Chapter Six: “Somewhere away from the Lights of the City”: Unsettling the Normative Frameworks of Urban Space in Queer Young Adult Literature
• Chapter Seven: Anti-Urbanism in Willa Cather’s Mythical West
• Chapter Eight: The Poetic City: The Importance of the City Setting in The Poet X
• Chapter Nine: An Author’s Perspective: An Undocumented Girl Finds a Sense of Belonging
• Chapter Ten: The Urban and the Urbane: Girls and New York City in Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl and Rita Williams-Garcia’s Jumped
• Chapter Eleven: The Sensual City: Jason Reynolds’s When I Was the Greatest and The Boy in the Black Suit
• Chapter Twelve: An Author’s Perspective: Music Lives in the City
• Chapter Thirteen: Visions of the City: Examining Urban Landscapes in Shaun Tan’s Visual Narratives
• Editor Bios
• Contributor Bios
• Index