At Home with Multicultural Adolescent Literature At Home with Multicultural Adolescent Literature Bonnie O. Ericson For teachers living in urban areas or the border states, multiculturalism is no longer an issue for debate or discussion.
Multiculturalism is now an always exciting, sometimes challenging, everyday fact of life.
Although access to multicultural literature is essential for these students, it is important to realize that such literature is hardly for them alone. One positive and powerful way to encourage understanding among various cultural groups, no matter who or where, is through the reading of good multicultural adolescent literature. They will also note their commonalities concerning issues like identity, responsibility, and preparing for the future. Homes are an important part of the lives shared by adolescents of all cultures, whether they embrace that home or reject it or feel about it some emotion between these extremes. Promoting the reading of books that look at homes in the lives of teenagers from many cultures can, therefore, be an important beginning in the exploration by young adult readers of what they have in common and how they differ.