Biography

Dr. Wanda M. Brooks teaches in the middle/secondary teacher certification program in the College of Education and Human Development, the Temple Teacher Residency and the doctoral program in education (literacy and learners concentration). She teaches courses related to literacy theories, research and instruction as well as qualitative research methods. Her research interests fall into two complementary areas. First, to better understand how readers develop literary understandings, she examines the written and oral responses of African American young adolescents to diverse children’s and young adult books. Second, she carries out content analyses of African diaspora literature for youth to further situate and solidify these kinds of texts as representative of a developing literary tradition. She has published in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, Children’s Literature in Education, the Urban Review and The English Journal. Before taking a university level faculty position, she taught middle grades language arts in several east coast public schools.

Research Interests

  • Literacy
  • Multicultural Education

Courses Taught

Number

Name

Level

EDUC 0809

Race and Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Books: Reading Between the Lines

Undergraduate

EDUC 5262

Introduction to Qualitative Research

Graduate

Selected Publications

  • Gardner, R.P., Brooks, W., & Cueto, D. (2023). Black Children’s Literature Policy, Publishing, Response, and Engagement: Where Do We Go from Here? Language Arts, 101(1), pp. 16-25. National Council of Teachers of English. doi: 10.58680/la202332597

  • Browne, S., Brooks, W., & Baroudi, F. (2023). A Community-Based Book Club Re-imagines “The Rules” in Long Way Down. Voices from the Middle, 30(4), pp. 44-47. National Council of Teachers of English. doi: 10.58680/vm202332573

  • Cueto, D.D. & Brooks, W.M. (2022). Coe Booth: Reclaiming humanity in stories about urban life. In S.T. Bickmore & S.P. Clark (Eds.), More Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Doors A Period of Growth in African American Young Adult Literature (2001 To 2021), 3 (pp. 11-20). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Retrieved from https://rowman.com/

  • Cueto, D.W. & Brooks, W.M. (2022). Tracing terror, imagining otherwise: A critical content analysis of anti-Black violence in middle grades novels. Research in the Teaching of English, 56(4), pp. 411-431. National Council of Teachers of English. Retrieved from https://library.ncte.org/

  • Brooks, W.M. & Cueto, D. (2020). Racialized Constructions in the Stories by Mildred Taylor. In S.T. Bickmore & S.P. Clark (Eds.), On the Shoulders of Giants Celebrating African American Authors of Young Adult Literature, 1 (pp. 121-130). New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved from https://rowman.com/

  • Cueto, D. & Brooks, W.M. (2019). Drawing Humanity: How Picturebook Illustrations Counter Antiblackness. In H. Johnson, J. Mathis, & K.G. Short (Eds.), Critical Content Analysis of Visual Images in Books for Young People Reading Images (pp. 41-56). New York, NY: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/