The Heart Has Its Reasons

Young Adult Literature with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content 1969-2004

Michael Cart; Christine A. Jenkins

Society does not make it easy for young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to find accurate, nonjudgmental information about homosexuality. It makes it even more difficult for young homosexuals to find positive role models in fiction either written or published expressly for them or – if published for adults – relevant to them and their lives. This book examines these issues and critically evaluates the body of literature published for young adults that offers homosexual themes and characters.

From School Library Journal

This terrific and long-overdue resource chronicles the development of GLBTQ-themed young adult literature over time and intersperses critical commentary with annotated bibliographies of related fiction. Cart and Jenkins use a three-part framework to describe the historical changes in content and the depiction of gays and lesbians in terms of what they call ‘homosexual visibility,’ ‘gay assimilation,’ and ‘queer consciousness/community.’ The authors take a historical approach and examine GLBTQ-themed young adult literature decade by decade, discussing pivotal works in detail, and conclude each chapter with an annotated bibliography and a list of notes or works cited. Well organized and easy to read, Heart is a valuable, semi-scholarly reference for both collection development and research.–Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston

From Booklist

Both a comprehensive overview and a lively, detailed discussion of individual landmark books, this highly readable title in the Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature series discusses 35 years of YA books with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (GLBTQ) content. Booklist columnist Cart, a groundbreaking YALSA leader, and Jenkins, a well-known academic, have long played crucial roles in raising standards and gaining recognition for YA literature, and they speak with authority and personal experience about the history of the field, candid about the stereotypes and enthusiastic about what is ‘accurate, thoughtful, and artful.’ They note the long invisibility of GLBTQ themes in YA fiction and then chart the great breakthrough titles as well as the range from simplistic ‘problem’ scenarios to gays as complex protagonists and part of the gay community–though the cliches are still with us, including the gay as sad-eyed loner. With fully annotated bibliographies, including a chronological list, this is a valuable YA and adult resource, sure to be in great demand for personal reference and group discussion. For more on this book, see Books by Booklist Authors on p.128. Hazel Rochman

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Details

ISBN	810850710
Genre	Bibliography; Literary History
Publication Date	Mar-06
Publisher	Scarecrow Press
Format	Hardcover
No. of Pages	232
Language	English
Rating	NotRated
BookID	5213

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The Heart Has Its Reasons by Michael Cart; Christine A. Jenkins