Books Y'all: Week 7: Not Just for Teens

Week 7: Assignment 1
Take a look at the “What to Read Next” flowchart from the Lawrence Public Library (also available in PDF format.)

Week 7: Assignment 2
Read any two of the following short articles. Post your thoughts on your blog.

New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak Or Valued Subgenre? Publisher’s Weekly, Dec 14, 2012

I'm trying not to have a cynical reaction to "new adult." This article points out it is a term invented by marketing teams to sell books to people who aren't quite old enough to be adults but not young enough to be "young adults" either. It's a silly name and it seems to me that slicing up readership into subgenre after subgenre just leaves you with a smaller pie of readers who are unwilling to read outside their designated sections. A good book is a good book, and the way we compartmentalize by genre and subgenre is kind of exhausting. Not to sound like a college freshman, but what does genre even mean, man? "Catcher in the Rye" isn't in the young adult section! "The Lord of the Rings" isn't in the fantasy section! But really these genre tags are mostly harmless and meant to help readers find what they want to read or mean to avoid. For instance if there were a "Matt Hickey" section I'd at least be curious to see what other Matt Hickeys like myself are reading.

YA Comes of Age Publisher’s Weekly, Oct 3, 2011
I totally feel what this author described as "paranormal fatigue" in popular culture. Between True Blood, Twilight and every zombie thing the paranormal genre feels played out for the moment. But when the author followed up that statement by predicting that dystopias will be the "next big thing" I had to check the date that this article was published. A-ha! 2011. That was two Divergents, three Hunger Games, one The Giver and a Maze Runner ago.

Choose any two of the following blogs/websites. Follow them for a week. Post comments to your blog regarding who is writing it, who is the intended audience, is it successful, etc.

I liked the School Library Journal blog. Maybe it's because of it's charming title ("Someday my Printz Will Come") or the fact that this is one of the few blogs on the list that don't review episodes of Pretty Little Liars, but it seemed better written to me than the others. I especially enjoyed reading Shannon Hale who shared some stirring thoughts about gender and marketing. Her books have girls on the covers and most of them have "princess" in the title. She's noticed while visiting schools and bookstores that the only students invited to these events are girls. It's generally assumed that boys aren't interested, or worse, shouldn't be interested in the opinions of a female author. Read this account of one of the few boys who came to her reading:

"Once the other students were gone, three adults still remained. [The boy] was still clearly uncomfortable that we weren't alone but his question was also clearly important to him. So he leaned forward and whispered in my ear,

"Do you have a copy of the black princess book?"

It broke my heart that he felt he had to whisper the question. He wanted to read the rest of the book so badly and yet was so afraid what others would think of him. If he read a "girl" book. A book about a princess. Even a monster-fighting superhero ninja princess. He wasn't born ashamed. We made him ashamed. Ashamed to be interested in a book about a girl. About a princess--the most "girlie" of girls. I wish I'd had a copy of The Princess in Black to give him right then. The bookstore told him they were going to donate a copy to his library. I hope he's brave enough to check it out. I hope he keeps reading. I hope he changes his own story. I hope all of us can change this story. I'm really rooting for a happy ending."

I don't know Shannon Hale's work (I don't read girl books, jk I feel cheap now) but this post was sobering. Fiction expands empathy, especially in children. As librarians, teachers and parents we have an opportunity to aid this process or hinder it. By instructing children about who NOT to empathize with we can do serious harm.

Choose any two of the following teen imprints and spend some time on their websites. Blog about any trends you find in either current or forthcoming teen fiction.