The Purpose of Young Adult Literature...

is twofold: to tell a story and, according New York Times contributor Lisa Belkin, to send a message (by teaching a lesson).

I disagree.  Why do books for teens need to teach a lesson? Can't they just be for enjoyment? Escape? Or maybe just to show a world or reality different from (or maybe even the same as) one's own?

YA literature doesn't HAVE to be anything more than it is: written for teens.

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YA in the News

The past two weeks have been newsworthy for YA lit.  First we learned that Jay Asher's novel Th1rteen R3asons Why was going to be a movie and Selena Gomez is set to play Hannah Baker.  Then Valentine's Day came around and brought us the announcement of the Cybils winners.  This morning's New York Times has an article about dystopias in YA lit, which was kind enough to separate out less-well written, but still popular works like I Am Number Four from higher quality offerings, such as Scott Westerfeld's Uglies books and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, but still missed the mark on YA lit (if you ask me).  And finally, in sad news, the Times also reported that Perry Moore, author of Hero, a novel about a gay superhero, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment.

Oh, and on a personal note, I'm running a week-long Hunger Games camp this summer, and more and more students are coming to me to tell me they've registered.  At the same time, more students are asking about Hunger Games and looking for the books, which makes me hopeful that there is some good word-of-mouth buzz around the camp and the books.  Gotta love peer pressure!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Dear Aspiring Author: Enough With the Vampires

Everywhere one turns there's another vampire novel.  All these Twilight and Buffy imitations have gotten out of hand.  My friend (and fellow librarian) Kristie makes a simple request: Stop!


The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Controversy: 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader

Just a few days ago I posted a link to Bitch Media's list of 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader.  I was excited to see such a list created and had already started thinking about ways to use it.  Over the weekend, spurred by comments and emails from readers, staff and volunteers at Bitch read/re-read (at least) three of the titles and made the decision to remove them from the list and replace them with three different books.  The titles removed were:

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce - removed due to a "victim blaming" scene
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott - removed because of its "triggering nature"
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan - taken off because it "validates (by failing to critique or discuss) characters who use rape as an act of vengeance"

This has created a blizzard of comments from authors and librarians and it's basically just a big ol' mess.  Cries of censorship, authors requesting to have their works removed from the list, and even a little bit of name calling has begun.  Yikes.

I haven't read Sisters Red, so I don't feel qualified to make a comment on that title, but I have read the other two and disagree with the reasons given for removal.  They are both very mature books that demand an older audience, able to handle the gritty content.  I can see how Living Dead Girl could be a "trigger" for victims of abuse, but would argue that Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls, which is on the list (at #5) would be similarly triggering for individuals suffering with or who have suffered with an eating disorder.  From my own personal experience, I found that while reading the book and for days afterward my own eating was disordered and I found myself counting every calorie and indulging in negative body image issues more than usual.  When I read Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, I was disturbed by the rape scenes, but I did not feel that it in any way validated the characters use of rape as an act of vengeance.  To say that would also be so say that the book condones bestiality, since a character is intimately involved with a bear.  For me, that reasoning just doesn't have merit.

But my issue here really isn't with these specific books being taken off the list.  Rather, my issue is with putting out and promoting a list that wasn't carefully researched, prepared or vetted.  One of the creators of the list admitted that she hadn't actually read all of the books on the list, but compiled the list based on books she had read, reviews and recommendations.  Publishing and promoting a book list without personally reviewing the materials (in entirety) first is just bad business.  Do I sometimes recommend a book to a student based on reviews, even though I haven't read the book?  Certainly.  But would I publish a list declaring it to contain the "100 young adult novels that every feminist should add to the stack of books on their bedside table" without ensuring that every single book on the list was read by someone from my organization? Definitely not.  If you (person or organization) put out a list, it is your duty to defend your selections and to prepare in advance to be challenged on some materials.  It is inevitable that individuals will disagree with something on your list.  That's why preparation is key.  Read the books.  Read all the reviews.  As the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts motto indicates, Be Prepared.



The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader

from Bitch magazine.

And remember, feminists are raised, not born.  So start 'em early.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Breaking News: Teens Still Reading

I know, I know.  I'm flabbergasted at this myself.  In a ground-breaking, completely anecdotal study, the Washington Post has found that teenagers still read.

With the astounding success of series including Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games and the bounty of YA releases flooding the market, I kind of thought it was obvious teens were reading.  It's entirely feasible that as a middle school librarian whose life is nothing but tween and teen literature, my perceptions are skewed, but I thought this was a given.

Still, I guess it can't hurt anything to share the fact that teens are reading with a larger audience, right? Right.

So, keep up the good work, teens.  I know what good readers you are, and now, so does the readership of the Washington Post!


The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Summer Reading: Presidential Style

Turns out that President Obama and I have more in common than one might think.  Word on the street is that the "Reader in Chief" popped into a bookstore while on family vacation and purchased To Kill a Mockingbird (guess he's in on the 50th anniversary hype too!), The Red Pony, and a few titles from the Land of Elyon and Hunger Games Trilogy series!

I wonder if he's as pumped up about Tuesday's release as I am.  If only I were a news reporter who could ask him the important questions, such as: Are you on Team Peeta?  Team Gale?  Team Katniss?  Who's your favorite character?  How do you think the series will end?  Alas, the world may never know.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Kibbles n' Bits (and Gravy Bits!)

I haven't had the chance to read much lately, and that's caused a lack of things to blog about.  Happily, there's enough going on in the YAlitosphere that I can bring you this post, filled with bits o' news from around the interwebs!

• As you may be aware, Betsy Bird has been counting down the Top 100 Chapter Books over at her blog, Fuse #8.  What you may not have noticed is that just yesterday she quoted yours truly in her description of #35, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
• This isn't news to me (or probably you either!) but I guess the rest of the adult world can sometimes be slow to catch on to things teens (and people who work with teens) know instinctively.  What I'm speaking about specifically is that YA lit is awesome. 
• Is there a YA book that you feel is under-appreciated? If so, nominate the title for the Nerds Heart YA tournament, and give it the chance to shine! Nominations must be submitted by March 31st.
• Opening Ceremonies got underway yeaterday, brackets are posted and the books are ready to battle to the death!  Check out SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books.  The first contest is on March 15th.
• And finally, what good would an update be without an entry from The Twilight Zone? Summit Entertainment has released a teaser trailer for Eclipse, which releases in theatres on June 30th.

That's all for now, but I'll be back once I get a chance to read some of these paper things lying around the house.  Take care!

Speaking of Acne and Angst, Where Has All the Acne Gone?

In a startling feat of originality, the Denver Post has published this gem on the darkness of teen literature. His basic premise, much like the Wall Street Journal article published not too long ago, is that young adult fiction is a booming market and the biggest sellers are dystopias and novels about severely troubled - anorexic, depressed, self-hating, world-hating, violent - teen protagonists. I give the author props for the admirable work he has done in interviewing some key people: a young adult librarian, a bookseller, David Levithan and book hungry teens! It is a truth now universally acknowledged: many of the latest bestselling teen novels contain darker fare. The fact that this is nothing new is never mentioned. That's fine. I'm over that part. And yet, I still can't help but feel he's missed the boat.

Teen fiction is not a genre.

Just like adults and children, teens have varied reading tastes. There are teens who love fantasy. There are teens who love realistic fiction - be it of the bubbly gummy, angsty or truly troubling variety. There are teens who love horror. There are teens who love Manga. There are teens who love science fiction. There are teens who love all sorts of different kinds of literature, and there are teens who like to stick to just one or two of the above listed genres. Much like adults, teens can go from reading a chic-litty romance novel (Twilight) to a dystopian science fiction (The Hunger Games) to a classic (The Outsiders).

One thing that I think is true is that teens are more open to reading a wider variety of books than adults. Most adults have their genre - be it romance or western - and most every bookstore or library has worked to subdivide the fiction collection to cater to their reading interests and separate out "their books" so that they know exactly where to go to look for books to fit their reading interests. With teens, more often than not, all books - except maybe for Manga - all of the books are listed alphabetically by author. Teens hunt and peck for authors they know, covers that look cool, specific recommendations from friends or the librarian and eventually stumble out of the stacks with something to take home. For some teens, it's all Manga or all fantasy, but most like to hop around and try different things. It's Gossip Girl one week, and Thirteen Reasons Why the next.

I love that teens can be so open to new reading experiences and don't put false limits on what they think they want to read, just because a spine label tells them what genre a given book is.

But what was my point? When I started this post it was because one particular line of the article jumped out at me:

And it's not all Harry Potter or the "Twilight" series (think "Dracula" with acne and angst.)

In all of my reading of young adult fiction there's angst galore, for certain. I mean, the characters are teens, and teens do angst best. But where has all the acne gone? Seriously. As a teenager, acne (along with parents who just don't understand what it's like to be a teenage) was one of the largest sources of my angst. But nobody seems to have acne anymore. Twilight certainly was NOT Dracula with acne and angst. This is true for many reasons, not the least of which is that the two books have nothing in common aside from a vampire protagonist. But there was no acne to be found! The only recent book I've read in which I even recall the mention of acne was the ARC for Justine Larbalestier's Liar. What is up with that? Why aren't there articles written about the demise of teen acne lit? Am I the only person who has noticed this shocking trend?

Better get the Wall Street Journal on the phone. This article is going to be big.