"Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of the most powerful young adult novels to come along in the past decade. It has won numerous awards, including the "School Library Journal" award for "Best Book of the Year," and was a National Book Award Finalist. Despite this acclaim, many English teachers are uncomfortable teaching "Speak" in their…

Although young adult literature is often recommended as a reading bridge to the classics, Stallworth insists that the genre deserves a prominent place in the middle school canon in its own right. She describes several examples from middle school classrooms of how young adult novels can enhance tweens' "life literacy" by both helping them develop…