A review of "Literature for Today's Young Adults" Nilson/Donelson 6/6/01

Because I am not an avid reader, I needed a good guide to the different genres and adolescent novels that are available to and for young adults. I found the Nilson/Donelson text to be a great source of knowledge for me. It was very informative as to what each different novel offered to young adults and the controversy surrounding it. The authors were very descriptive with the information of each novel and author. The text was also helpful in providing me with ideas to use in my classroom of young adults as far as discussion of the issues that each novel dealt with. For a novice like myself is was very helpful! I would recommend this text for any teacher of Young Adult Literature. Especially for the first year teacher!

Having graduated from high school in 1979, I found my insights into teen literature to be prehistoric at best. As a "utility classroom teacher," I have to keep up with a variety of subjects. This book is a great help to anyone who needs to get a grasp of Young Adult literature, an important topic.
In an age when teens face, more than ever, the difficult issues the world places at their door, (drug and alcohol usage, sexuality, health and family conflict)any teacher entering the reading classroom should be familiar with literature that is current, educational and helpful. This volume provides insight into current authors and trends in Young Adult literature, as well as reviewing "old standards" and interviewing authors. It is an extremely helpful book for anyone who must not only educate but also provide guidance.

Literature for Today's Young Adults, by Aleen Pace Nilsen and Kenneth L. Donelson, Sixth Edition. I purchased this book for a class in adolescent literature, and have found to be the book very good and very thorough. The book includes many chapters about modern adolescent literature and their various controversies. Besides being an interesting book, I found it very thorough because it includes varied points of view, and includes many articles written by the authors themselves who write novels for young adults.

This book has all you need for teaching segmental pronunciation - Phonetic descriptions, lists of predicted problems based on first languages, and minimal pairs. It's in this last category where the book is the most definitive - just about all the minimal pairs you could ever wish for are here. It also has a few sentences with contextual clues and some without contextual clues for quizzing. If these are not enough, it's easy and fun for the teacher to create more from the lists.

In the appendix are some multiple contrasts, back vowel, lax vowel and diphthong contrasts, clusters with /l/ and /r/ and consonant clusters, as well as a basic glossary.

The book doesn't even mention suprasegmental aspects such as stress, intonation, and multi-syllable linkings. Books like Sound Advantage or Clear Speech cover these aspects fairly well, but no book does segmentals any better.

Pronunciation teachers will be able to make good use of this book as it gives you just about everything you need to teach segmental aspects. It's cheap, no-nonsense, and straightforward. With no cassettes and technical language, it might not be as useful to students as to teachers.

Sudlow's Exercises in American English Pronunciation (Excellence in Education, Monmouth, OR) is the same kind of book. It has more and better practice exercises, but less extensive phonemic descriptions, fewer minimal pairs, and a less extensive L1 problem list. Every pronunciation teacher should have it as well.

Don't go for the fancy new books, these old ones have all you'll ever need for segmental practice.