Matching Items (8)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: young adult
- All Subjects: Hunger Games
- Creators: Blasingame, James
- Creators: White, Julianne
- Status: Published
Description
The Way Home is a full-length young adult novel. The story is split between the perspectives of Theo and Ella, best friends from high school who are starting their freshman year in college. Neither is extremely excited about the start of the new phase of their lives; Theo struggles with severe anxiety and is just hoping to survive the four years; and dark memories in Ella's past don't seem to want to let her start over. A series of murders happening in town don't help their nerves at all, making it hard to focus on the "college experience." They were supposed to be there for each other... But then Ella goes missing, and Theo is left without a clue of where she went. While he searches for her desperately, she wakes up miles away from home, surrounded by strangers. In their efforts to find one another again, they instead find themselves presented with opportunities to study the impossible: magic. Things become stranger and stranger as murders, magic, police investigations, and ever-looming final exams begin to challenge Theo and Ella in ways they never expected. In writing this novel, I hoped to depict the transition from high school to college and the worries and wonders that come with it. The story is almost split directly in half, beginning with normal school life and shifting into the world of magic. The conflicts presented to the characters during the first half, such as grades, majors, and socializing, persist throughout the second half, but are also metaphorized once the characters begin studying magic. I chose to include a protagonist with an anxiety disorder because I believe mental disabilities are not represented enough in YA literature, though it is something that many high school and college students deal with. I wanted to create a character that could inform others and that students with similar mental disorders could relate to. Additional themes I deal with include newfound independence, individuality, growth, and friendship.
ContributorsWoner, Catherine Flynn (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis director) / Irish, Jennifer (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The interaction between England and Scotland is complicated and continually changing. Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott examines this long-standing relationship through his various writings. Scott conveys a presence that is both acutely aware of the damages enacted upon Scotland by various English political efforts, and sensitive to the delicate relationship that the two regions had begun to form during his lifetime. Through a critical analysis of Scott's novel, Rob Roy, one can see the various strategies Scott used to balance the need to address prior controversies within the relationship, and the petition to move beyond the prior conflict and develop a mutual understanding of each culture. Through this, Scott is able to regenerate a sense of Scottish nationalism for his people, and encourage improved relations within the British Isles.
ContributorsChotena, Chelsea (Author) / Facinelli, Diane (Thesis director) / Foy, Joseph (Committee member) / White, Julianne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Adaptation theorists suggest that effective film adaptations combine familiar material from the source with new material from the screenwriter. This study assessed the success of The Hunger Games film adaptations through analysis of the latent fairytale structure within each movie and parallel novel, and recommended film adaptation improvements. Russian scholar Vladimir Propp's structural analysis approach was used to identify 32 distinct functions and classify the series as a fairytale.
ContributorsMcGlynn, Rita Kathryn (Author) / Parker, John (Thesis director) / White, Julianne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This project created a teaching curriculum resource guide for using the popular series, The Hunger Games, in 6th-8th grade classrooms to introduce cultural issues such as child soldiers and international development to students. Studies have shown that literature can cultivate empathy and encourage youth to act. This combined with the expanding phenomenon of participatory culture and fandom activism as outlined by Henry Jenkins demonstrate the potential for youth to learn and act when given the opportunity and resources to do so. The curriculum is composed of three units: The first is a three-week reading of the books with various activities for students to really understand the narrative and source text. The second and third units address the issues of child soldiers and international development using The Hunger Games as a framework and a keystone to build connections so that these complex issues are accessible to youth. This project is a first step in the development of a curriculum that spans the full trilogy and covers a variety of current event topics.
ContributorsSimpson, Rebecca (Author) / Sivak, Henry (Thesis director) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Nelson, Margaret (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The following collection of YA prose poems have been designed to inspire and promote literacy among adolescents via its layers of depth and context while offering a productive and positive outlet for maturing emotions. By harnessing these emotional and psychological forces, we can inspire adolescents to use reading and writing to find meaning in their lives. These poems provide young adults with themes that reflect the growing pains and types of coming-of-age experiences that they can relate to and that helps them to make sense of their world. As educators, we want our students to fall in love with reading and writing. We must recognize that literacy is another significant developmental need of young adults and that YA poetry helps to bridge the gap between children's stories and adult classics thereby allowing for a smoother transition. This collection of poetry means to challenge our students to self-reflect and develop their own unique connections with the text. Adolescents need to be made to laugh and cry about issues concerning them, issues treated seriously and respectfully. Teenagers are on a journey of self-discovery and they are still trying to figure out who they are. Their need for peer acceptance must be balanced by their need for individuality. The following collection of poems makes use of a YA voice that transcends time and addresses issues concerning young adults of any multicultural generation.
ContributorsLepage, Michael Jean-Pierre-Kaina (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis director) / Ball, Sally (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In this study I hope to begin evaluating contemporary young adult literature that focuses on the bereavement of adolescents to see if the novels portray psychologically proven productive coping methods. I hope to initiate a conversation around how complicated bereavement is depicted within young adult literature that will establish a body of research that can be expanded into a further exploration into the young adult literature market. Within my study, I will conduct a psychological literature review on young adult complicated grief and coping mechanisms. Then I will create an instrument of analysis, a rubric/model to evaluate the fidelity of novels based on the research within the literature review. Finally, I will evaluate the depiction of productive adolescent grief coping mechanisms in the recently published novel All My Rage by Saaba Tahir based upon my literary model. Finally, I will write my own short story based upon my research and findings in analyzing the model, seeking to represent methods not seen in the literature or not discussed within research.
ContributorsBeadle, Ruth (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis director) / Irish, Jenny (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
In the years since 2020, both the use of the social media platform TikTok, and according to Scholastic, book sales have increased exponentially. The two work in tandem to create a sub-category within TikTok, affectionately named “BookTok” for its reader recommendation, the creative space for live fanfiction, or simply discussions of theme. Users of BookTok are often found to return to the “pinnacles” of Young Adult Literature, frequently through Suzanne Collins’ famed Hunger Games trilogy. Through the resurgence of The Hunger Games, society has seen the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the explosion of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the rise and fall of a global pandemic. The narrative surrounding the trilogy has thus been amplified, serving as a reminder/guidebook for readers to follow in the face of a revolution that seems inevitable. And while this may have always been the case, its social media popularity has made a great contribution to that.
ContributorsKenoun, Sabrina (Author) / Blasingame, James (Thesis advisor) / Free, Melissa (Committee member) / Acevedo, Gabriel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This project seeks to probe into an unexplored horizon of young adult literature studies: the empowering potential of Young Adult Fantasy (YAF) with queer Latinx representation for queer Latinx youth. The two theoretical frameworks of analysis used in this project are: Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s concept of “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” (1990) and Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s “Conocimiento” individuation journey.
ContributorsMartinez, Nora Grace (Author) / Justice, George (Thesis director) / Blasingame, James (Committee member) / Bebout, Lee (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12