This book is designed to be a resource that embodies the progressive concepts of life-connected topics by focusing on the search for self-understanding. It uses adolescent literature that is prize winning and much prized by young people, and it uses this literature to focus on difficult topics that adults (parents, teachers, and the school's curriculum) are often afraid to answer. Following an introduction which explains the wisdom of using developmentally appropriate materials for adolescents, the book is divided into 3 sections. Section 1 is about understanding the 10- to 14-year-old through early adolescent literature. Section 2, which discusses involving early adolescents in their own development, contains the 15 literature units, divided into topics and with a suggested young adult novel for each topic. Section 3 focuses on constructing additional units and activities for other novels and suggests other unit themes. Contains a bibliography of selected early adolescent literature. (NKA)