Word on the Street Urban Fiction for Adults & Teens Jan Elkins & Stephanie Bertin Salt Lake County Library System

Urban Fiction Ghetto Lit HipHo p Lit Street Lit Gangsta Lit

Settings and Themes Urban Settings Characters of color – Usually African American – Also Latino or other minority groups Fast-paced Focus on relationships Survival on the streets

Settings & Themes Hip-Hop culture – Rap – Street fashion – Brand name cars & clothes Violence – Crime – Gangs – Revenge

Appeal Characteristics Language – Straightforward, casual – First-person – Slang – Curse words External Action – Between characters, not in their heads – Impulsive characters, react not reflect – Usually from the first page

Appeal Characteristics Authenticity – Often from authors own experience Drugs, Sex & Violence – Treated in matter of fact manner – Part of life on the streets – Can be explicit/graphic Pragmatic – Survival – no absolute good and evil – Drugs, sex & violence are a means to an end – Often cautionary – street life is not for the long-term, leads to death or prison

Street Lit in the Library Prepare for Challenges Possible Reasons for Challenges: Controversial content & themes Literary quality Negative portrayal of African Americans and minorities Review Library Collection Development Policy Be prepared to back up selections with book reviews or recommendations

Urban Fiction

Urban Fiction for TEENS

Butcher & Hinton Certain controversial elements are expected by the YA reader; in fact, the genre would be failing in its mission if some novels did not mirror the [reality] many young people experience. Professors Katherine Bucher and Kaavonia Hinton, authors of the textbook Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation. Well-written realistic fiction novels do not dictate specific moral and ethical beliefs. Rather, they challenge readers to learn the importance of moral and ethical behavior by drawing their own conclusions after they consider the events and facts from their own personal perspectives using their own moral and ethical judgments. Butcher and Hinton

Urban Fiction for Teens Street Lit vs. Urban Stories

Walter Dean Myers

Bluford High The Bully by Paul Langan

Tyrell by Coe Booth

Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Messed Up by Janet Nichols Lynch

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

A Girl Like Me by Ni-Ni Simone

Drama High Series by L. Divine

Alan Lawrence Sitomer

The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees

Urban Non-Fiction for Teens The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King by Reymundo Sanchez

Question s?