Summer 2024      Volume 52, Number 3

Finding Common Ground: Understanding Ourselves and the World Through
Literature: Books for When Everything Is Just Too Much
By Jung Kim and Deborah Augsburger

Document: Column  

Introductory Paragraph:  This was a hard school year, and it seemed like this was the year the pandemic fatigue really caught up with everyone. And the heaviness of the pandemic seemed to catch up to young adult publishing as well—a lot of dark, introspective books were published this past year. Some of them are beautiful, but when you read as much literature as we do . . . it can feel like a lot. So we wanted to end this school year with some suggestions to uplift and refresh. That is not to say that all the books are “beach reads” or lack substance, but we wanted to bring you books that brought hope and light even if some of the topics strayed darker. When everything else is so overwhelming or seems to be falling apart, at least we still have excellent books.

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.52.3.2024.38

Page Numbers:   38-43