Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction - Steven T. Bickmore
PART I: CRITICAL FOUNDATION, ESTABLISHED THEMES, AND RECEPTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN AUTHORS
Chapter 1: Looking back to move forward: A Retrospective of the Coretta Scott King Award Deborah Taylor
Chapter 2: Themes and Critical Foundations of Early African American Authors of Young Adult Literature
Shanetia P. Clark
PART II: FOUNDING AUTHORS AND THEIR EARLY INTRODUCTION
Chapter 3: Walter Dean Myers: A Lifetime of Stories
Ngozi Onuora
Chapter 4: Virginia Hamilton, Liberation, and Bluish: Generating Acceptance and Empathy
Shanetia P. Clark and Steven T. Bickmore
Chapter 5: These Tears Are Real: Historical Representations in Julius Lester’s Day of Tears
Ruth McKoy Lowery and Cheryl Logan
Chapter 6: The Early Reception of Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Chris Crowe
PART III: FOUNDING AUTHORS, CURRENT REPUTATIONS, AND THEIR CONTINUED PRESENCE
Chapter 7: Poet of Harlem: The Truth, Text, and Legacy of Walter Dean Myers
M. Cathrene Connery
Chapter 8: Reading, Learning, and Telling Folklore through Virginia Hamilton’s Zeely
Nancy D. Tolson 
Chapter 9: Julius Lester’s Nonfiction Presentation of Slavery in To Be a Slave
Steven T. Bickmore
Chapter 10: Racialized Constructions in the Stories by Mildred Taylor
Wanda Brooks and Desiree Cueto
About the Authors

About the Author

Steven T. Bickmore is an Associate professor of English Education at UNLV and maintains a weekly academic blog on YA literature (http://www.yawednesday.com/). He is a past editor of The ALAN Review (2009-2014) and a founding editor of Study and Scrutiny: Research in Young Adult Literature.
Shanetia P. Clark, Ph.D. is an associate professor of literacy in the Department of Early and Elementary Education at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. Her interests include young adult and children's literature, the exploration of aesthetic experiences within reading and writing classrooms, and writing pedagogy.

Reviews

A brilliant tribute to the evolution of African American Young Adult Literature with practical resources! An essential read for every culturally relevant educator!

Bickmore and Clark celebrate African American writers who trail blazed a literary path for adolescent readers. Their instructional activities for individuals, groups, and whole-class instruction, invite teachers and scholars to be critical readers. With 23 years of classroom teaching and as a National Writing Project director, I can't wait to promote the authors in this book in my University classes, our summer institute, and with professional development workshops in K-12 schools. We need more resources like this!

Bickmore and Clark have assembled chapters that focus on the purpose and longevity of the Coretta Scott King Award which makes books like the ones discussed visible; examine important themes in AAYA; discussing how Hamilton, Myers, Lester, and Taylor produced work that "liberated" readers.

Bickmore and Clark's offer a comprehensive and pragmatic guide for teachers who want to make their classroom libraries and their classroom ELA instruction more inclusive. Specifically, this edited volume engages the teaching of African American young adult literature in our classrooms in ways that celebrate difference and that challenge students to consider how race has shaped American society! I can think of no better contemporary text for teachers that introduces the world of African American young adult literature.