New book by FSU’s Gross: HIV/AIDS in Young Adult Novels

Dr. Melissa Gross of the School of Library & Information Studies at The Florida State University has co-written a book, HIV/AIDS in Young Adult Novels: An Annotated Bibliography, with doctoral students Annette Y. Goldsmith and Debi Carruth. The book is published by Scarecrow Press (citation below).

Not long after becoming public health concerns in the 1980s, HIV and AIDS were featured in a number of works of fiction. Such titles were written primarily for adult readers, although the subject would soon be incorporated into novels aimed at young adults as well. It is difficult to identify fiction that contains material about HIV/AIDS, as these books are seldom cataloged for this content, nor is this content consistently acknowledged in published reviews. Readers, however, have a need for accessible information on this subject.

In HIV/AIDS in Young Adult Novels: An Annotated Bibliography, the authors address this gap by identifying and assessing the full range of young adult novels that include HIV/AIDS content. This resource is comprised of two major parts. The first part summarizes findings from a content analysis performed on novels written for readers aged 11-19, published since 1981, and featuring at least one character with HIV/AIDS. The second part is an annotated bibliography of the more than 90 novels identified for use in the study. Each entry in the bibliography contains an annotation that summarizes the plot and how HIV/AIDS is depicted in the story, an indication of the accuracy of the HIV/AIDS content, a note on how central HIV/AIDS is to the story, and an evaluation of the literary quality of the book. This work will assist readers in collecting, choosing, evaluating, and using these works to educate readers about HIV/AIDS.

Melissa Gross, Ph.D. is professor in the School of Library and Information Science at College of Communication & Information of the Florida State University. She is the author of Studying Children's Questions: Imposed and Self-Generated Information Seeking at School (Scarecrow, 2006) and coauthor of Dynamic Youth Services through Outcome Based Planning and Evaluation (2006). Dr. Gross has published extensively in the areas of information seeking behavior, library program and service evaluation, and information resources for youth. Learn more about Dr. Melissa Gross.

Bob Branciforte, MLIS

Creative Director

College of Communication & Information

The Florida State University

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