Traces the historical development of young adult literature, analyzing classics in the genre and assessing its future

From Romance to Realism: 50 Years of Growth and Change in Young Adult Literature

Children's Books

Cart, Michael

Literature & Fiction

Harpercollins

A thoughtful and lively exploration of more than 70 years, from 1920 to today, of the literature of laughter. Borrowing techniques from both book reviewing and literary criticism, an esteemed children’s book authority explores three basic types of humor: talking animals and otherwise anthropomorphized animals used for comic purposes ; tall tales and frontier humor; and domestic or family comedy. Along the way the author also celebrates some neglected authors and offers fresh and sometimes revisionist views of established classics.

What's So Funny?: Wit and Humor in American Children's Literature

Teen & Young Adult

Necessary Noise: Stories About Our Families as They Really Are

Once upon a time that was not so very long ago, a family was described as a man, a woman, and their offspring. That was what families were. These ten stories talk about families the way they really are. 
Siblings coping with their younger brother's overdose. A girl terrified of her older sister's dual personality. A boy trying to adjust to his life with two mothers. A father visiting his son on death row. These are stories of today's families -- fractured, blended, at risk, non-traditional, and some that are even still nuclear.
Noted anthologist Michael Cart asked celebrated young adult authors the question "What does 'family' mean today?" The ten stories in this anthology provide some illuminating -- and sometimes surprising -- answers. Here family is defined by the connections between all kinds of people -- and the necessary noise they make.

Short Stories & Anthologies

HarperTeen

Once upon a time that was not so very long ago, a family was described as a man, a woman, and their offspring. That was what families were. These ten stories talk about families the way they really are.   Siblings coping with their younger brother's overdose. A girl terrified of her older sister's dual personality. A boy trying to adjust to his life with two mothers. A father visiting his son on death row. These are stories of today's families -- fractured, blended, at risk, non-traditional, and some that are even still nuclear.   Noted anthologist Michael Cart asked celebrated young adult authors the question "What does 'family' mean today?" The ten stories in this anthology provide some illuminating -- and sometimes surprising -- answers. Here family is defined by the connections between all kinds of people -- and the necessary noise they make.

HarperTempest

A girl is terrified of her older sister's dual personality. A boy adjusts to his life with two mothers. A father visits his son on death row. These are stories of today's families as they really are.
Noted anthologist Michael Cart has asked celebrated young adult authors the question "What does 'family' mean today?" The ten resulting stories provide illuminating -- and surprising -- answers. Here family is defined by the connections between all kinds of people -- and the necessary noise they make.

A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years.
Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others—and themselves—in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.

How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity

LEVITHAN, DAVID

Koertge, Ron

DONOGHUE, EMMA

Boylan, Jennifer Finney

Block, Francesca Lia

Shanower, Eric

Peters, Julie Anne

Sleater, William

How Beautiful the Ordinary

Powerful, riveting, and real. Sixteen celebrated authors bring us raw, insightful stories that explore guns and teens in a fiction collection that is thought provoking and emotionally gripping. For fans of Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and Give a Boy a Gun, and with an array of YA talent like the late great Walter Dean Myers, the poetic Joyce Carol Oates, the prophetic Elizabeth Wein, and the gritty Chris Crutcher, these are evocative voices that each has a different perspective to give. Capturing the hurt and the healing, victims and perpetrators, these stories get to the heart of the matter.
From a boy whose low self-esteem is impacted when a gun comes into his possession to a student recalling a senseless tragedy that befell a favorite teacher, from a realistic look at hunting to a provocative look at a family that defies stereotypes, each emotional story stirs the debate to new levels. The juxtaposition of guns and their consequences offers moving tales, each a reminder of how crucial the question of guns in our society is, and the impact they have on all of us.
Other acclaimed contributors are Marc Aronson, Edward Averett, Francesca Lia Block, Alex Flinn, Gregory Galloway, Jenny Hubbard, Peter Johnson, Ron Koertge, Chris Lynch, Eric Shanower, Will Weaver, and Tim Wynne-Jones.

Taking Aim: Power and Pain, Teens and Guns

Lynch, Chris

Galloway, Gregory

Myers, Walter Dean

Weaver, Will

Flinn, Alex

Wein, Elizabeth

Aronson, Marc

Crutcher, Chris

WYNNE-JONES, Tim

Hubbard, Jenny

Averett, Edward

JOHNSON, Peter

OATES,JOYCE CAROL

Powerful, riveting, real. Sixteen celebrated authors bring us raw, insightful stories that explore guns and teens in a fiction collection that is thought provoking and emotionally gripping. For fans of Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and Give a Boy a Gun, and with an array of YA talent like the late great Walter Dean Myers, the poetic Joyce Carol Oates, the prophetic Elizabeth Wein, and the gritty Chris Crutcher, these are evocative voices that each has a different perspective to give. Capturing the hurt and the healing, victims and perpetrators, these stories get to the heart of the matter.
From a boy whose low self-esteem is impacted when a gun comes into his possession to a student recalling a senseless tragedy that befell a favorite teacher, from a realistic look at hunting to a provocative look at a family that defies stereotypes, each emotional story stirs the debate to new levels. The juxtaposition of guns and their consequences offers moving tales, each a reminder of how crucial the question of guns in our society is, and the impact they have on all of us.
Other acclaimed contributors are Marc Aronson, Edward Averett, Francesca Lia Block, Alex Flinn, Gregory Galloway, Jenny Hubbard, Peter Johnson, Ron Koertge, Chris Lynch, Eric Shanower, Will Weaver, and Tim Wynne-Jones.

From Romance to Realism

History & Criticism

HarperColl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cart, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cart, Michael