Foreword -- Introduction -- Part One HOW WE GOT HERE -- The Outsiders, Fat Freddy, and Me -- A (Not So) Short History of YA Lit -- Twayne and Scarecrow An Editor's Memoir -- Part Two TRENDS AND TENDENCIES -- Drowning in Success -- YA Lit and the Deathly Fellows -- So What Really Happened? -- Vetting the Verse Novel -- The Death of Animals -- The Lit of Chick Lit -- Part Three DEFINING YA -- Middle Muddle -- Our Side of the Fence -- Smash/Crash/Slash -- A Loving Farewell to Robert Cormier -- Researching YA in the Elysian Fields -- Part Four FIRST LOOKS AT MASTERWORKS -- The Gift of The Giver -- Monster as Radical Change -- The Last Cormier -- Part Five THE DAWN OF GRAPHIC NOVELS -- Maus: A Survivor's Tale -- Whaam! in Paris -- Part Six CENSORSHIP NEAR AND FAR -- The Pottymouth Paradox -- Who's Afraid of the Big Bad . . . ? -- Perplexing Censorship in Germany -- Visiting Dubrovnik Public -- Part Seven INSIDE ALA -- The Not-So-Smart Alex -- Blood on the Table -- Prizes and Paradoxes -- Bookstores and Libraries -- Part Eight SPIRITUAL MATTERS -- Godsearch -- Wrestling with God -- Part Nine THE CRITIC'S LIFE -- Shooting at the Library -- Visiting Francesca -- The Belly Dancing Critic -- Reality and Fiction at the Reichenbach Falls -- Ending the Perplex -- Appendix: Twayne's Young Adult Author Series -- About the Author.