Defense Mechanisms
One of the best ways to help defend YA lit in your school (or community) is to be prepared for controversy.
Another great way to help is to show people why you care about YA lit, and how it's great.
Another great way to help is to show people why you care about YA lit, and how it's great.
Be Prepared
Here are some ways to be prepared:
Know The Facts
If you're interested in defending YA lit (whether it's the use of YA lit in schools, or just the use of a specific book), it's helpful to know the arguments against the books. Take a look at the Banned Books list, and try to anticipate what might be an issue in your community. Once you know what you're up against, you can appropriately marshal your compelling arguments and lovely visual aids in response.
Make a Rationale
Rationales are basically preplanned justifications ("The reason I am doing this is...."). In this case, I'm talking about rationales as ready-to-go documents (or websites) that you can produce when someone asks why you're teaching, using, or promoting YA lit (or a specific book) in school. The National Council of Teachers of English has a great guide to using and building rationales, which can be found here.
Don't Curb Your Enthusiasm!
A great way to defend YA Lit is to get more people to genuinely like and enjoy YA lit (yes, even Grown Ups).
If you're thinking about defending YA lit, you probably already love YA lit. So this next bit should be easy and fun.
Step 1) Get excited
Step 2) Find other people who are excited
Step 3) Share your excitement*
Step 4) Rinse and repeat
*For Step 3: Get creative! You should have just as much fun sharing as you do reading, so find a way to share that is fun for you (and the people you hope to infect). And if you have an expertise, yo, USE IT!
Here are just a couple of starter ideas:
If you're thinking about defending YA lit, you probably already love YA lit. So this next bit should be easy and fun.
Step 1) Get excited
Step 2) Find other people who are excited
Step 3) Share your excitement*
Step 4) Rinse and repeat
*For Step 3: Get creative! You should have just as much fun sharing as you do reading, so find a way to share that is fun for you (and the people you hope to infect). And if you have an expertise, yo, USE IT!
Here are just a couple of starter ideas:
Reviews A good review can be a really helpful way to get people familiar with new books (and get them hooked)!
Graphics
If you're a visual artist, use that! You can illustrate your favorite scenes, make new cover designs for your favorite books, or use photoshop/gimp/etc. to make graphics of characters and/or quotes you like.
BlogStart a blog! (And check out ours). You can use Blogger, tumblr, Weebly - whatever you please. The internet is your oyster.
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PodcastsSometimes it's nice to just listen. If you like to talk, make a podcast! You can add graphics (or not).
I've attached a sample podcast I made for Louis Sachar's Holes. In my podcast, I'm thinking of YA readers as the audience. But there's practically no limit to what you can do. Just keep your audience (and your mission) in mind.
RecommendationsIt's hard to turn down a great recommendation.
Basically, the key to a really great recommendation is: Be specific about who you're recommending for, and really try to find something that they will love. But if you need to start general, check out the Additional Resources page. VlogDo you like making vids? Then make vids! You can vlog reviews and/or make fanvids (or faux book trailers) for your favorite books.
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In all your wonderful efforts, please always remember to TRIGGER WARN when discussing something sensitive/traumatic!