Book Advocacy as a Way of Life: Lessons from Michael Cart

From the editors: On August 28, 2026, shortly after completing this piece, Jennifer Buehler died following a traffic accident. Her tribute to her good friend Michael Cart encapsulates so many parts of her: her love and loyalty to those she held dear, her careful and thoughtful scholarship, her clear-eyed and precise writing, and her devotion to ensuring that adolescents have access to books that honor their interests, emotions, and lives. Her championing of young adult literature is evident in her work as a teacher, first at the secondary level and later at St. Louis University, a scholar, and an active member of both the National Council of Teachers of English and ALAN, where she served as president in 2016. Like her ALAN Workshop theme, “Innovators, Visionaries, and Rebels: Celebrating Risk Takers in Young Adult Literature,” she was an innovator, a visionary, and (at least to those who thought that only the classical canon belonged in the classroom) a rebel. We will greatly miss her innovative mind, her visionary leadership, and her rebellious (in the best and most complimentary way possible) spirit. Our thoughts go out to those whose lives she touched.