Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 20 — Connecting with the Classics

A growing number of books from the field of YA literature give teens a range of innovative ways to connect with classic works of literature. Tune in to hear about recent titles that retell or reinvent classic stories, others that reimagine the lives of classic authors, and still others that invoke classic texts in contemporary storylines.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.

Recommendations in this episode include

• Beowulf by Gareth Hinds (Candlewick, 2007)
  
• King Lear by Gareth Hinds (Candlewick, 2009)
• The Merchant of Venice by Gareth Hinds (Candlewick, 2008)
  
• Hamlet by John Marsden (Candlewick, 2009)
  
• Exposure by Mal Peet (Candlewick, 2009)
  
• The Ghosts of Kerfol by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick, 2008)
  
• Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill (Knopf, 2007)
  
• A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson by Barbara Dana (HarperTeen, 2009)
  
• Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 2007)
  
• In Search of Mockingbird by Loretta Ellsworth (Henry Holt, 2007)
  
• King Dork by Frank Portman (Delacorte, 2006)
  
• Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick (HarperCollins, 2009)

Published October 30, 2009

About the Host

Jennifer Buehler taught English for ten years before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education. As a high school teacher, she developed an 800-book classroom library designed to engage and inspire her ninth grade students as readers. Watching students select reading materials led Jennifer to expand her own reading accordingly, allowing her to match books successfully with teens’ wide-ranging tastes and interests.

As a teacher consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, Jennifer regularly led workshops on young adult literature for parents, area teachers, and students in university methods classes. Now Assistant Professor of English Education at Saint Louis University, Jennifer teaches classes on English methods and young adult literature. She is an active member of NCTE's Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), and she served on ALAN’s first Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee.