Word on the Street

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

2. Street Lit Gangsta Lit Ghetto Lit HipHopLit Urban Fiction

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 Street Lit in the Library Prepare for Challenges

8. Urban Fiction www.streetliterature.com www.streetfiction.org

9. Urban Fiction for TEENS

10. 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

11. Urban Fiction for Teens Street Lit vs. Urban Stories

12. Walter Dean Myers

13. Bluford High The Bully by Paul Langan

14. Tyrell by Coe Booth

15. Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

16. Messed Up by Janet Nichols Lynch

17. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

18. A Girl Like Me by Ni-Ni Simone

19. Drama High Series by L. Divine

20. Alan Lawrence Sitomer

21. The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees

22. 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

23. Questions?