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Lemon Girl
Is it possible to become an ethical psychopath? Charlie wrestles with her urges to create havoc by puppeteering her peers.
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Diary of a Goth Girl
Allegra Joy lives in regional Australia, where suitably Goth boyfriend material is sorely lacking. One day she meets a mysterious stranger.
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Young Adult And Middle Grade Books With Trans Feminine Characters
Young adult readers can now find better queer diversity scattered across young adult literature. Many of these new stories feature trans masculine characters. Here are some young adult stories featuring trans feminine characters.
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Resources About Non-binary Genders
Gender is in Western culture a relational concept. And “masculinity” relies on a binary relationship with femininity. Non-binary people have existed since the dawn of humankind, and are now cracking open proscribed Western gender expectations for everyone.
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Of Mice and Men: Classroom Alternatives
Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella by John Steinbeck. Two migrant ranch workers move from place to place in California looking for work during America’s Great Depression. This social protest novel is widely studied with high school English literature students. But, where funding allows, English teachers are starting to replace class sets Of […]
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Children’s Fiction Based On The Odyssey
There are three main types of modern myth, and by ‘modern’ I mean ‘3000 years old’. In one type the main character hangs around home base (e.g. an island). This type of myth is known as a Robinsonnade. Another much newer type is the so-called Female Myth, in which the main character (of any gender) […]
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Action Adventure Novels For Year 8s
Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks, good for older, struggling readers The Fall by Tristan Bancks Detention by Tristan Bancks, lots to discuss Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Jack Heath’s Minutes series e.g. 300 Minutes Of Danger The Explorer by Katherine Rundell Pax by Sara Pennypacker Bear Grylls: Spirit of the Jungle, harder to get now SEE […]
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The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy Young Adult Novel Study
The Tricksters is a young adult novel by New Zealand author Margaret Mahy, first published in 1986. Mahy wrote many stories for children, but The Tricksters seems to be one frequently talked about in scholarship circles, alongside The Changeover and The Haunting, which both won The Carnegie Medal. The Tricksters is a rare example of the new female mythic form,…
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Tomorrow When The War Began Questions
The following are some resources I used with New Zealand high school English students some years ago during a novel study of Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden. Posted here in case anyone still finds this useful. How many wars has New Zealand been involved in during the last 50 years? The Cold […]
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American Honey Film Study
American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold, is the granddaughter of Thelma and Louise — a road journey with classic mythic structure which follows the coming-of-age (or not) of an 18-year-old named Star.
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Illness and Disability in Children’s Literature
The United States has always been a terrible place to be sick and disabled. Ableism is baked into our myths of bootstrapping and self-reliance, in which health is virtue and illness is degeneracy. Madeline Miller Illness, disability and disfigurement has a problematic history in children’s literature. What are the main problems, today and in the […]
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The End Of The Fxxxing World Storytelling
Listed on IMDb as a comedy drama, The End Of The Fxxxing World is a darkly comic coming-of-age tale with a major crime at the centre of the plot. It is also a twisted and cynical romance. The script is written by Charlie Covell, based on the graphic novel by Charles Forsman. Forsman is an American […]
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Lady Bird Film Study
Lady Bird is an American coming-of-age film written and directed by Greta Gerwig, who won a bunch of awards for it. I can see why.
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In The Middle Of The Night by Robert Cormier
In The Middle Of The Night is a young adult horror novel by American author Robert Cormier. Written in the mid 1990s, this was one of his later works.