ABSTRACT
This chapter explores strategies teachers can use for choosing young adult literature and for bringing readers together with those books. It identifies three broad criteria for book selection: developmental, social, and literary significance. The chapter describes the typical stages in the development of literary appreciation and identifies ways to support that development. It provides five different classroom "literacy routines"; each of these broad approaches for organizing instruction provides a unique environment for guiding students' interactions with literary texts. The chapter also describes one Classroom Scenario demonstrating a teacher read-aloud in the context of a mediated listening-thinking activity and another modeling the use of literature circles. The chapter examines the tools teachers can use for gathering needed information about students and concludes with a discussion of issues related to censorship.
