Heck is used to getting by on his own; his mother is unreliable, at best. But even a boy with a rich imagination is going to have a tough time managing when he and his mother find themselves without a home. It's a good thing Heck has wit, strength, and a lot of optimism.

Promote today's best and most popular YA books with help from this practical guide. Focusing on titles published after 2000, Schall provides you with background information, ready-to-use (or adapt) booktalks, read-aloud selections, learning activities, and related reads for approximately 100 fiction and nonfiction books with broad teen appeal. Organized by genres and themes, it has something for every teen reader. Whether you are a public or school librarian, teacher, or teen group leader, you'll find this collection helpful in motivating teens to read, building their appreciation of books, and in extending learning opportunities beyond the reading experience. Grades 6-12.

This compilation of essential information on 100 superheroes from comic book issues, various print and online references, and scholarly analyses provides readers all of the relevant material on superheroes in one place. The American Superhero: Encyclopedia of Caped Crusaders in History covers the history of superheroes and superheroines in America from approximately 1938–2010 in an intentionally inclusive manner. The book features a chronology of important dates in superhero history, five thematic essays covering the overall history of superheroes, and 100 A–Z entries on various superheroes. Complementing the entries are sidebars of important figures or events and a glossary of terms in superhero research. Designed for anyone beginning to research superheroes and superheroines, The American Superhero contains a wide variety of facts, figures, and features about caped crusaders and shows their importance in American history. Further, it collects and verifies information that otherwise would require hours of looking through multiple books and websites to find.

Spanning the birth of the industry to its first few decades, this book has approximately 100 full-color portraits of the legends of American comic books―publishers, editors, and artists. Its subjects are popular and obscure, men and women, and it includes several pioneering artists of color.

Taking a multifaceted approach to attitudes toward race through popular culture and the American superhero, All New, All Different? explores a topic that until now has only received more discrete examination. Considering Marvel, DC, and lesser-known texts and heroes, this illuminating work charts eighty years of evolution in the portrayal of race in comics as well as in film and on television. Beginning with World War II, the authors trace the vexed depictions in early superhero stories, considering both Asian villains and nonwhite sidekicks. While the emergence of Black Panther, Black Lightning, Luke Cage, Storm, and other heroes in the 1960s and 1970s reflected a cultural revolution, the book reveals how nonwhite superheroes nonetheless remained grounded in outdated assumptions. Multiculturalism encouraged further diversity, with 1980s superteams, the minority-run company Milestone’s new characters in the 1990s, and the arrival of Ms. Marvel, a Pakistani-American heroine, and a new Latinx Spider-Man in the 2000s. Concluding with contemporary efforts to make both a profit and a positive impact on society, All New, All Different? enriches our understanding of the complex issues of racial representation in American popular culture.

In this guide, 100 recommended books and booktalks offer the perfect way to start value discussions with teens and teen/adult book groups. With its focus on current, popular titles, Value-Packed Booktalks: Genre Talks and More for Teen Readers is a flexible tool for all educators—from Young Adult (YA) librarians and readers' advisors at public libraries to school librarians and teachers. Booktalks are provided for young adult literature published between 2006 and 2010, organized by values addressed in specific genres. Examples of discussions show how these booktalks can help teens define what is personally important to them and why. Unique in that it ties current popular genres to values (courage with adventure titles, problem-solving with mystery/suspense), the book focuses on 100 recently published YA fiction and nonfiction titles, offering summaries, lists of themes, values statements, booktalks, and curriculum connections. It also cites passages appropriate for read-aloud booktalks, designates a general grade-range (middle, junior, or senior high school), notes gender appeal for the titles (male, female, or cross gender), and lists similar or related works, some published before 2006.

A complete guide to the history, form and contexts of the genre, Superhero Comics helps readers explore the most successful and familiar of comic book genres. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book reveals: ·The history of superhero comics-from mythic influences to 21st century evolutions ·Cultural contexts-from the formative politics of colonialism, eugenics, KKK vigilantism, and WWII fascism to the Cold War's transformative threat of mutually assured destruction to the on-going revolutions in African American and sexual representation ·Key texts-from the earliest pre-Comics-Code Superman and Batman to the latest post-Code Ms. Marvel and Black Panther ·Approaches to visual analysis-from layout norms to narrative structure to styles of abstraction