Using Literature to Help Troubled Teenagers Cope with Identity Issues

JEFFREY S. KAPLAN is Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations at the University of Central Florida and Area Education Coordinator for the UCF Daytona Beach Campus./e He is the recipient of the State of Florida Teaching Incentive Program award (1996-1997) and has contributed to three textbooks.

• Introduction Prologue by Joan Bauer Identity within the Family: Phyllis Reynold Naylor's The Year of the Gopher by Lois Stover and J. Roy Hopkins Identity through Body Image: Chris Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Patricia L. Daniel and Vicki J. McEntire Sexual Identity: M. E. Kerr's Deliver Us From Evie by Rita G. Drapkin and Lynn Alvine Identity through Intimacy: Jenny Davis' Sex Education by Marie Hardenbrook, et al. Identity through Self-Awareness: Kathryn Lasky's Memoirs of a Bookbat by Patricia Crawford and Rosaria Upchurch Identity within the Father-Son Relationship: Robert Newton Peck's A Day No Pigs Would Die by Charles R. Duke and Jon L. Winek Identity within Societal Expectations: S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders by Mary E. Little and Mary Alice Meyers Identity Confusion: Zibby O'Neal's The Language of Goldfish by Marcia F. Nash and David Daniel Identity through the Realization of Prejudice: Carolyn Meyer's Drummers of Jericho by Tania Gartside and Kristen Sternberg Identity from Destruction: Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to by Janet E. Kaufman and Lynn Kaufman Identity through Peers: Paul Zindel's Harry and Hortense at Hormone High by Michael L. Angelotti and Terry Pace

"The search for one's healthy identity is an ancient quest reflected throughout history in myths and stories where human glory and conquest are often layered with great pain and self doubt. Today, this quest is found pravelently in young adult novels, where characters wrestle with modern dilemmas in order to find themselves. This reference resource provides a link for teachers, media specialists, parents and other adults to those novels and how to use them effectively. . . . This innovative aproach is meant to provide the opportunity for adults and adolescents to better understand each other." - Adolescence