Defines young-adult literature and the problems of writing novels for young-adults. Discusses rites of passage in adolescent literature, narration, and societal lore. (PRA)

Denounces the treatment of Ronald Takaki's "Strangers from a Different Shore" by members of the Association of Asian American Studies who criticized it on grounds of scholarly ethics. (DM)

Shares excerpts from an interview with George Ella Lyon who is a poet, playwright, teacher, and author of both adult and children's books. (MG)

Interviews Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede, coauthors of "Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing." Discusses their research findings, their own history of writing together, and collaboration as a subversive activity. (SR)

Interviews practicing scientist and essayist Stephen Jay Gould about his essay writing. (SR)

Explores the collaborative learning partnership between science fiction writer Robert Heinlein and his wife Virginia. Shows how Virginia's self-directed learning projects complemented and enabled Robert's writing. (SK)

Describes an interview with children's author Karen Hesse, discussing such things as how she chose writing as a career, her use of figurative language and her skillful crafting of dialog, where her book ideas come from, and her latest projects. (SR)

Describes how writer and artist Chris Raschka creates children's books that transcend their silent, static medium to skip and sing their way into the hearts of children. Discusses Raschka's background as an artist and writer, as well as a bit of history about his "seemingly simple" style. (SR)

This experiment searches an online library catalog employing author surnames, plus one or two title words of books in citations of eight scholarly works whose authors selected the title words as being recallable. Results of searches yielded a single-screen miniature catalog (minicat) 99% of the time. (Author/LRW)

Discusses how an author of books for children and young adults writes historical fiction and historical nonfiction. Explains how authenticity is achieved, by fictionalizing historical events for a novel and by dramatizing historical events for nonfiction. Gives examples and discusses similarities with archaeology. (LRW)

Describes the American Library Association (ALA) Convention in New Orleans from a teen's perspective, particularly the Intellectual Freedom Teen Panel. Topics include barriers to information, including Internet filters; censoring and the First Amendment; and general impressions of the convention, including meeting authors. Sidebar includes notes…

Describes how the author realized that his prepubescent Superboy hero is not brave and represents what can never be. Describes how he came to believe that true heroes are defined by how they respond to what they do "wrong." Notes how this affects the author's writing and the heroes he creates in his novels. (SR)

Describes how the author came to love Mark Twain's writings, taught "Huckleberry Finn" and other of Twain's writings to a ninth-grade class in a Hasidic Jewish Academy, and learned to really love Samuel Clemens. Describes how this love inspired the author to write two books celebrating what she has valued most in 40 years of reading Mark…

Discusses the "time-slip" novels of English writer Lucy Boston. Describes how they offer children and adults a "powerful and sensuous awareness" of the past in the present, as well as a vision of natural and social harmony in which the responsibility of the individual is one of care, respect, and intelligent transmission from…

Examines electronic publishing for academic and professional publishers. Discusses benefits of electronic publishing to authors and readers, argues that the hard sell and product-driven mindsets will not work in a customer-focused communications medium, and outlines characteristics of electronic publishing that must be incorporated in successful…