Young Adult

It has been five years since I first started my job at the library as the Young Adult associate. I've been 'retired' for three years now, but during my two years on the job, I grew to enjoy YA books and became quite intrigued by the rapid development of this segment in the publishing world. I still scour the YA shelves looking for good things to read and it is the one section in Barnes and Noble that I spend the most time browsing.

I was in the store yesterday having a coffee with my friend Kim. She has a YA book coming out from a new small publishing company and has received her first round of edits. We looked through the current YA titles and discussed how much has changed in the tone of those books over the past five years. I'd say 90% of the book covers are dark in tone. I'm talking color choice, graphic choice etc. Fantasy reigns supreme whether it be fairies, vamps, weres or ghosts. Of course the tone of the stories has changed too. YA books can be gritty, dark and full of many 'adult' themes.

The market has grown. The shelf space given to YA in the bookstore now is double what it was five years ago. Our library added shelf space to YA as well, something that was planned before I left my position.

I've also noticed several books located in YA that were once kept in the Adult sections. Some books are being released and are automatically marketed for both segments of readers.

It was fun to look at the covers yesterday, read the jacket copy and wish I had my old job back so I could buy those books and get them on our library's shelves.

the wide variety in YA fiction

I've read three YA books over the past ten days and have been treated to a total smorgasboard of plots, themes and characters.

The 'Nightworld' mega book featured paranormal stories about a variety of teens. The "Princess Ben" novel was a fairy tale featuring teens. "Gossip Girl" is a soap opera, oops, novel featuring rich upper east side New York teens.

The only thing they had in common was the fact teenaged characters populated the pages.

Now, that being stated, I also have to state that YA books cover the grades from 6 through 12 and these books represent that very wide spread in ages and maturity levels. "Gossip Girl" with its drinking, sex, profanity and drug use is most definitely not a book for the vast majority of 6th graders. The back cover actually has an age recommendation of 15 and older. "Nightworld" tackles tough topics, but was a more tame read. "Princess Ben" could be read and enjoyed by the whole YA audience range.

Of course the quality of the writing is a whole other topic well beyond content. Don't think I will be wasting my time with any more Gossip Girl books, but I will eagerly search out more by Nightworld writer L.J. Smith. I still admire the skill of "Princess Ben" author Catherine Gilbert Murdock and her book "The Dairy Queen" is an excellent read.

the buzz on Breaking Dawn

I was surfing around yesterday and stumbled across a movement encouraging readers to return the latest big YA book "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer to the bookstore where they purchased it. I guess folks are not too happy about how the series concludes. Of course my curiosity got the better of me and I read the articles in the NY Times and LA Times about the hub-bub. If the articles were accurate I now know the basic plot outline.

Can't say I'm suprised at all by how Meyer chose to wrap up the series given the major hints in the first three books and the author's background. Readers could see it coming if they paid attention. My teenaged neighbor read the book already and when asked what she thought she said it was totally predictable and not as good as the first three.

My oldest and I are waiting for the neighbor's mom to finish it so we can take our turns. I'm not a big fan of the direction the storyline has taken, but I'm also not one to spout off opinions unless I have read the book for myself.

One article contemplated whether or not the negative reaction to Breaking Dawn would translate into poor ticket sales for the movie of Twilight set to arrive on screens this fall. I sort of doubt it. Most of these young girls are pretty forgiving and they long to see Bella, Edward and Jacob on the big screen. I'll most likely go see the movie just to see if the director 'fixes' a few of the problems I had with the characters. Characters do change when they are translated from book to film and I wouldn't be suprised to see Bella get some much needed backbone.

I will post again after I've read the book.

changing times

The library director forwarded an email from our state library association. The email discussed the trend to include video games in the collection as a way to reach out to the YA crowd. Now, when I was the YA person, we'd had video games at a few events, I think they were Harry Potter games and tied into the event's theme which was Harry Potter! I never planned an event based solely around gaming, but articles in the journals I read started to suggest this as a way to get the teens in the door besides when they had a required reading assignment.

My successor held a guitar hero contest last spring. Best attended YA event the library ever had. She stopped counting at 140 kids. Amazing turnout and we both realized that the vast majority of kids neither of us had ever seen before. It brought them out in droves.

Spurred on by this huge success she applied for a local grant to purchase games, a system and a flat screen tv. The grant request was denied. First time a library request was given the thumbs down by this group.

I hope her next move is to approach the Friends about giving her the money for this. Now we just have to convince them it is a good idea. Hard to change minds sometimes about the evolving nature of a public/community library. Long gone are the quiet days of scowling librarians 'shushing' everyone in sight.

What follows is a brief bit of the email the director sent me.

"To our surprise, the video game trend is endorsed by the Chicago-based American Library Association, which recently got a $1 million grant from the Verizon Foundation to develop a national model for library gaming. Eighty percent of public libraries allow video games on their computers, according to a 2007 Syracuse University study, and 13 percent have separate game stations such as Nintendo, Wii or Xbox.Libraries are no longer just about literacy, if they ever were. They've evolved into social and recreational centers that mirror the communities they serve. Large- type and audio books for aging Boomers. Computer literacy lessons for seniors. Free wi-fi for students. Multi-lingual resources for immigrants. Cultural enrichment courses for everyone. The video games are targeted at the hard-to-reach young adult demographic that is too busy or distracted (temporarily, we hope) for things like books and newspapers."

On another front, one of the blogs I visited on a very regular basis has gone dark. Dwight Wannabe has hung up the blogging towel. Dwight is a talented blogger and writer. I don't attempt to make my blog anything like what he served up on a daily basis. His presence will be missed.