We are in the midst of the largest teenage population boom since the nineteen sixties, and all of the media are scrambling to reach this alert, savvy, wealthy, and self-conscious generation. But for authors, editors, parents, teachers, and librarians this large group of readers poses a series of special problems: what is too old, or too young for teenage eyes? Should there even be a literature for teenagers, or wouldn't they be better off skipping ahead to adult books? Do boys read at all? Can books offer moral instruction, role models, or guidance on the path to adulthood? Where do books fit into the ever-growing set of multimedia options that are this generation's birthright? Marc Aronson, Ph.D. has won the LMP, the industry award for editing, and the Boston Globe Horn Book award for writing books for teenagers. Here, in a series of probing, innovative essays he marshals a decade of insights earned in practice as well as his knowledge as a scholar of publishing history, to pose and answer key questions about the true potential of young adult literature. As he revels in the passion of its readers he exposes the real problem with teenagers and reading: adult myths, projections, and blind prejudices. Exploding the Myths is a provocative book that will be necessary reading for everyone who deals with this burgeoning generation of readers.

Chapter 1 Foreword by Bruce Brooks Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 1 "The YA Novel Is Dead" and Other Fairly Stupid Tales Chapter 5 2 The Three Faces of Multiculturalism Chapter 6 3 The Challenge and the Glory of YA Literature Chapter 7 4 The Journals Judged Chapter 8 5 How Adult Is Young Adult? Chapter 9 6 We Have Nothing to Lose but Our Isolation Chapter 10 7 When Coming of Age Meets the Age That's Coming: One Editor's View of How Young Adult Publishing Developed in America Chapter 11 8 Exploring the Basement: The Artistic Challenge of YA Literature Chapter 12 9 What Is Real about Realism? All the Wrong Questions about YA Literature Chapter 13 10 The Power of Words Chapter 14 11 The Myths of Teenage Chapter 15 12 Calling All Ye Printz and Printzesses Chapter 16 13 Puff the Magic Dragon: How the Newest Young Adult Fiction Grapples with a World in Upheaval Chapter 17 14 What is YA, and What Is Its Future: Voice, Form, and Access- A Dialogue with Jacqueline Woodson Chapter 18 Index Chapter 19 About the Author