The 32 articles in this special journal issue are intended to familiarize teachers with recent, good young adult literature and to provide them with ways of integrating it into the literature curriculum. Topics discussed in the articles include: (1) the changing hero in young adult literature, (2) book clubs, (3) the place of young adult fiction in a high school reading center, (4) the theme of child abuse in young adult literature, (5) arguments and tactics used by censors, (6) the black teenager in young adult novels by award-winning authors, (7) fictional models for female readers, (8) the use of fiction in drug education, (9) what students read during their summer vacations, (10) using realistic language in young adult books, (11) the theme of power in young adult literature, (12) the adolescent in dramatic literature, (13) poetry for adolescents, (14) recurring themes in recent Mexican-American fiction, (15) a composite portrait of the teacher in selected novels for adolescents, (16) young adult literature as a guidance technique, (17) urban teenagers' concerns and young adult novels, (18) science fiction literature as a boon to both teachers and students, (19) how teachers use the young adult novel in the English classroom, and (20) portraits of father/son relationships in contemporary adolescent literature. (FL)