Skip to Main Content
library logo

Ask us!

Children & Young Adult Fiction Across the Curriculum

Professor Lisa Tucker Sabbatical Project, Fall 2023
cover of the book Rainbow Girls showing a diverse group of young girls cover of the book Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora depicting the silhouette of a young person wearing a backpack with the words New York Times Bestseller across the top cover of the New York Times Bestselling Series Keeper of the Lost Cities depicting a young man and woman in a fantasy setting

 

Sabbatical Project, Professor Lisa Tucker

The following resource guide resulted from the sabbatical research conducted by RVCC Professor of English, Lisa Tucker, in the Fall 2023 semester. It details resources providing strategies for using children’s picture books and young adult (YA) novels in a range of college courses. 

The importance of this topic has been documented in the literature:

  • Students are reading less for pleasure (Cremin 2008 & Stainsbury 2004)
  • Negative experiences with reading (D. Allington 2005)
  • Efferent readers and detached readers (Rosenblatt 1978)
  • Minimal reading in college courses and students are only doing required readings (Fister 2011)
  • Faculty need to specify the intentionality and purpose for reading (Theriault 2022)
  • Prolific readers have developed a habit of reading and love to read (Cox & Schaetzel 2007)
  • Pleasure reading of literature strengthens one’s ability to read non-fiction course material (B. Cullinan 2000)
  • Literary fiction develops empathy (K. Oatley 2006, P.A. Murphy 2013, Diana Tamir 2016, and W. Chopik 2020)