Donna Jo Napoli has received acclaim for her young adult works and is especially known for her historical novels and her retellings of myth and fairy tales. In this full-length critical study, Hilary S. Crew integrates criticism and biographical information to illuminate Napoli's many novels, as well as other writings by Napoli such as her essays on writing for young people and her book, Language Matters. A comprehensive critical analysis of 19 novels, Donna Jo Napoli: Writing with Passion provides an understanding of how Napoli's life and profession as a professor of linguistics influences her writing for young adults. The novels analyzed in this study include Napoli's retellings of such fairy tales and myths as The Magic Circle, Zel, Bound, Beast, and Sirena; novels whose stories are drawn from religious and traditional sources such as Song of the Magdalene, Breath, and Hush; such historical works as The Smile, Daughter of Venice, and two novels set during WWII, Stones in Water and Fire in the Hills; and her most recent book for young adults, Alligator Bayo. An interview with Napoli concludes this significant resource for those working with young adults.

In this study, feminist theories and insights from new discourses on female adolescence are employed in analyzing the discourses and cultural scripts used in telling stories about the relationship between teenage daughters and mothers in young adult novels and in short stories. The stories examined in this book were marketed for young adults and published between 1965 and 1998. Included are daughter-mother narratives, African-American young adult novels, and narratives set in other cultural contexts. The daughter-mother narratives are examined in relation to Freudian and feminist theories of female adolescent development and in relation to feminist theories pertinent to the mother-daughter relationship, including black feminist criticism. Topics include the fairy tale daughter-mother narrative in re-tellings of Rapunzel and Snow White and generational stories of daughters and mothers. Also discussed are the range of issues raised in daughter-mother narratives that are highly significant to the lives of today's daughters: debates about the responsibilities of mothering, choices made between career and raising families, abortion rights versus the right to life, and topics relating to sexuality, gender, and body image. The implications of this study for those who work with young people and their literature are also discussed.

Women have always been involved in war; a fact that has generally been acknowledged, but not always documented. The importance of the availability of good print, nonprint, and Internet resources for the study of women's involvement in war is especially important given the limited coverage of the subject in textbooks. Women Engaged in War covers the war efforts of females of all ages actively involved in various battles, wars, and war-time activities. Coverage ranges from Sybil Ludington's ride on horseback to rouse American soldiers to fight against the British to women's roles as nurses, doctors, spies, soldiers, correspondents, and photographers to women's roles on the home front. The scope of the book is multinational and multicultural and spans from the earliest historical records of women warriors to the present. Fiction, picture books, nonfiction, biographies, autobiographies, collective biographies, oral narratives, reference books, journal and periodical articles, and nonprint and electronic resources are included in this annotated guide. This helpful reference concludes with professional resources for educators; primary resources; an international directory of memorials, monuments, and museums; classroom activities, lessons, and booktalks; and recommendations for building a core collection.