Tyler Turner's Introduction

By Anonymous -
Hello, my name is Tyler Turner. I am a senior here at USC Upstate and a Mass Communications major. I plan on becoming a librarian after I graduate. I was born and raised here in Spartanburg, South Carolina for most of my life, though I have also lived in Charleston. I love to read, particularly fantasy novels and comics. My favorite books are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the "Harry Potter" series. I enjoy reading the fantasy genre because it creates entire worlds to explore and think about filled with unique characters and creatures that you can't get from real life or more realistic novels. I feel that adolescent literature is particularly important because it comes in at such a crucial time in a person's development. Books can be a way for young adults to express and understand themselves or connect with other people that are different than them. I hope that by studying adolescent literature I'll gain a better understanding and appreciation for it and use the knowledge gained in this class to further my librarian career.

Comments

  1. StephanieDawkinsAugust 26, 2016 at 5:52 AM

    I agree with you, about why adolescent literature is so important. I know that when I was going through High School, reading was my escape from everything that is going on around me. I would put myself in their shoes and go through the book as if I was in it. I also hope that by studying adolescent literature I'll be better prepared to teach my student and understand exactly what they are going through.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 26, 2016 at 8:53 AM

    OMG!!!! You will be surrounded by lovely books at work! I am so jealous. I would be walking around smelling like cleaning products and surrounded my sick people. Adult Literature is one of my favorite genres, and I feel like it gets a bad rep of being considered not up to par with great literature, so thanks for actually echoing how I feel about it. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Speak and the Symbolism of Nature

By Anonymous -
   Laurie Halse Anderson's,  Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice.    Melinda st
Read more