The first YA book to deal with HIV/AIDS was M. E. Kerr’s
Night Kites. Published in 1986, the novel features a teenage protagonist whose older brother is sick with AIDS-related illnesses. As Christine Jenkins and Michael Cart point out, this novel did not inspire a trend: HIV/AIDS “would receive major thematic or topical treatment in only three other YA novels in the eighties.”
In addition to the four novels published in the 1980s, only thirteen texts “that included any character who was HIV positive or had AIDS appeared in the nineties.” Moreover, just one of the affected characters in these thirteen books is a young person; the rest are adults, “usually uncles or teachers.” Lydia Kokkola concludes that, during this time period, HIV/AIDS functions mostly as a “punishment” for sexually active and/or queer characters.
Florida State University News
Faculty and Staff Briefs: January 2021
Published:
HONORS AND AWARDS
Gregory J. Harris, Ph.D. (College of Human Sciences) and
Earl Levison (Student Affairs) were recently selected as recipients of the 2021 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award presented by the FSU Division of Student Affairs and the Center for Leadership and Social Change. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award was established in 1986 to honor a faculty member, administrator or staff member for their outstanding service in keeping with the principles and ideals of Dr. King. The honor also comes with a $1,000 stipend.