19 Minutes

This was my first experience with a Jodi Picoult novel, and I’m not sure I would really seek out another one. This book was extremely difficult for me to read (thus why I am posting on a Friday night). I can see that is a well-written book. Picoult does a great job with character and plot development. The flashbacks give very need insight to a story like this one. The feelings of all of the characters involved, from Josie and Alex to Peter and Patrick and everyone else in the novel, don’t seemed far fetched or too over done. In fact it is some of the reality that is almost too hard for me to bear. With the first flashback where Peter is on his way to the first day of kindergarten and has his new Superman lunch box (that he is so excited about) taken from him and thrown out the back of the bus, I had to pause and put the book down because it was too much for me emotionally. I am still having a tough time with the image in my mind writing about it in this blog posting. It makes me feel so bad for him that I feel like crying. I can remember having some similar experiences growing up and I find that now I have a serious soft spot for kids (real or fictional) who are picked on or feel really different.

As far as recommending this book to teens, I probably still would despite my own personal feelings. It deals with a lot of relevant feelings and emotions that they may be feeling about the stereotypes and labels people receive in high school whether they want them or not. Also, with so many shootings and weapons at high schools and colleges in the news since Columbine, I feel like as a librarian, I would need to be open to talking about the subject and the various subjects that surround tragedies like one in the book. This is a topic that kids need to feel like they can talk with someone and be open about their feelings. I feel like the messages in fiction and reality is the same again and again, teens want to be listened to and shouldn’t be bullied for being different. It doesn’t mean that every teen or young adult is going to do what Peter did, but I feel like adults need to try to be aware of what is happening with the teens they are working with and that teens and young adults need to aware of how they are treating each other. I feel like Picoult does a good job with a really difficult subject.

My Talk With Teens

I focused on the Greenfield Public Library for my librarian interview, but most of my teens are from the Northampton/Florence area. According to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the Greenfield Public Library serves a population of 17, 834 people. They are open six days a week (closed on Sundays) with late hours Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday staying open until 8pm. They have just added a section especially for teens and offer IM via four different search engines such as Yahoo! and MSN as a way to contact a librarian. The page on their web site for teens is a little bland, but there is some good information there if a teen goes there, including a list of websites that a teen would be interested in from Myspace.com to StudyTips.org. They also have an anime club that meets once a month for two hours where teens can watch the latest anime films and talk with other teens interested in some of the same things they are. There is a graphic novel display for the kids who are interested in graphic novels and manga to check out the library’s collection. The list of graphic novels and manga in their collection is also on the teen page of the web site.

I talked with my friend Jess, the Information Services librarian at Greenfield Public Library. After taking several classes with Jess and getting to know her personally, I know how much she works with teens and how much she respects them. Jess and I sat down at Panera before taking in the movie Step Up 2 (my version of a thank you note) to talk about her dealings with teens and how she supports their reading interest. Jess typically works the reference desk during the week, but it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t work with teens. She says that she tries to get out from behind the desk as often as she can to ask a teen if the need help looking for a book or other materials that they be looking for before they approach her at the reference desk. She says that many teens come into the library and then sit a desk with nothing to do or read. Jess takes this opportunity to deliver books like The Guinness World Book of Records, Ripley’s Believe It or Not or back issues of Rolling Stone to their tables just to thumb through while they are sitting there. She says that most teens will start looking through what she has given them and sometimes they will take them out of the library. Either way, she feels like it is a way to open communication between her and teens in the library without being too intrusive.

Jess had to write this paper last semester and interviewed a librarian who worked in school as well as some of the students who went to that library. The librarian was reluctant to even greet teens as they entered the library. When Jess talked to the teens about their experience with the librarian, they said that it was hard to talk to her and noted that she never greeted them. This had a huge impact on Jess and she says that she makes a conscious effort to say hello to every teen that walks in the library. She feels that this has opened the door for conversations she has with teens and made them feel more comfortable to go up and approach her with reference or other book questions. She wants teens to feel like they can talk to her and to feel like the library is a good place for them to come.

When Jess does have a reference question from a teen, she brings them around the desk so they can see what she is doing while searching. She makes them an active participant in their reference question and talks with them about their needs. She also doesn’t always use the “traditional” sources when helping teens find books that they may be interested in. She has used tools like Library Thing and other library’s teen book lists to find resources for teens looking for a particular subject that Jess may or may not know a lot about.

I think the one thing that Jess struggles with is getting teens into the library and letting them know what the Greenfield Public library has to offer. She says that they have movie days in the summer to get more teens into the library, but the turn out has mostly been adults. She feels that the library is “still under utilized by teens.” She also worries that teens won’t be able to find what they are looking and won’t ask. She admits that it is nice that the teen section is close to DVD section. But since they have changed the location of the teen section and the graphic novels, teens can sometimes not find what they are looking for.

There are also learning challenges in Greenfield and the literacy skills are low. She feels that reading doesn’t have to mean reading “with a capital R.” She thinks that students may not think of themselves as readers because they don’t like or don’t read texts that the school provides. She thinks of reading as any form of text from cell phone text messages to works of literature.

Interviewing Jess felt a little bit like cheating. I know her and I know that Jess is going to do everything she can to make the library a welcoming place for teens to come and just be. She takes working with people very seriously. She wants to help and be a person that people can turn to; that is the reason she became a librarian and why she is going to school. Jess’s perception of teens and their reading habits don’t differ from what I learned from the teens I interviewed. She wants to understand them and help them but is always aware that she is not one of them and doesn’t try to pretend she is. She is open about not knowing about something and wants them to learn together. She seems to know just the right amount of communication to make them feel welcome and comfortable with her without being over the top and appearing insincere. She wouldn’t impose her views on teens about what they should be reading. I think she is very aware and will be helpful to any teen that she works with in the library.

I interviewed five teens about their reading habits, likes, dislikes and what they thought reading was. It was interesting because four out of my five teens have parents who work with me at the magazine. These are kids who live with parents who think reading is really important and have created an environment where kids are encouraged to read. I interviewed three teens in person and the other two wanted to be interviewed via email. The other challenge is I have known three of the teens since they were young kids in grade school and I’m friends with their parents. The one thing that bonded us was that this was my homework assignment and they seemed to think of homework as something that only young people their age have.

I was surprised by how each child defined what reading was to them for this assignment. They all admitted that they read all the time whether or not it is a sign or a book or an email or text message, but some of them didn’t think that would be something I would want them to note on their reading logs. They thought because it was a homework assignment that they should try to stick to the traditional forms of reading. One of my teens asked after he had filled out his log, had I wanted him to note “all the song titles he had read on his iPod when listening to music.” Another teen said “she knew I had meant anything but this was for school so she took it seriously and wrote down books and stuff.” There was only one teen, and I think it was out of desperation because she had been skiing most of the day she filled out, who asked could she include all the signs she had seen while skiing and could she make it an “all day thing” because it was what she was doing all day. She didn’t want her log to look “too empty.”

When I asked the teens what had surprised them about their reading logs, I got answers ranging from “Nothing really surprised me about my reading habits, because I know I spend a lot of time of Facebook” to “Yes. I was at school all day. I thought I would have read more.” The teens I talked to were more concerned with whether or not I was surprised by their reading logs. I think they may have looked at this like a homework assignment for them and wanted to know if I thought they did a good job. One teen was a little surprised that I “accepted” Myspace.com and music magazines as reading. He said he wrote them down because he didn’t read any books and didn’t want his sheet to be blank and he didn’t want to “cheat” on my homework. Even though I had explained the reading log to all of them, it seemed that they couldn’t let go of the fact that it was homework for me and they didn’t want to let me down. I ended feeling bad that they felt so much pressure to do a good job for me. I would probably try to figure out a way to make this seem important that they complete it without letting on that it was a school assignment for me if I were to do this again.

They all seemed to like reading different things. One girl really enjoyed fantasy books, while her sister said that she really only read mysteries. One boy was obsessed with music, especially Bob Marley, so he spent most of his time reading music magazines and talking with his friends on Myspace about Bob Marley. Another teen did the majority of his reading via the web on his reading log, but when I asked him what he liked to read he gave me my favorite answer of all the teens I interviewed, “Mainly fantasy, Sci-Fi, realistic fiction, and French Classics involving a singer, a viscount, a Persian, and a hideous dude who lives in the catacombs of the Paris Opera House.” And finally, I had one teen that liked reading anything. She said that it didn’t matter as long as she could read it. Knowing my teens a little, I thought more of them would read graphic novels or comics, but there was only one who read a comic during the time of the log.

I tried to make sure that I choose different types of books from the YALSA lists. I think the easiest way to write this is to give the book name and title, the link to the Amazon page and then give some of their comments below. I will say that none of my teens had read any of the books on either list. This was all new to them.

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

The Arrival
http://www.amazon.com/Arrival-Shaun-Tan/dp/0439895294
A few of them thought that this was interesting (a very popular word for all the teens when describing these works), but only two said they would read it. Three of them said that they don’t really read comics. But they were all sitting together and often times seemed to share opinions about the books, only varying slightly in their assessments. One teen said that she thought “it was really neat how they gave the story from the point of view of the immigrants with the made up letters.” She had never really thought about what it would be like not to know the language. And another teen said, “Sure, the sense of not fully understanding sounds cool.”

Before I Die
http://www.amazon.com/Before-I-Die-Jenny-Downham/dp/0385751559/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204598182&sr=1-1
One of female teens were shocked that this book was about a girl who wanted to have sex before she died. I also felt a little worried when I gave this book to look at because I work with their parents and know some of their views on talking about sex when their children are so young. The teen that was a little shook up by the sex part of it and didn’t think she would want to read it because she couldn’t relate. While another one of my teenage girls didn’t notice or didn’t feel the need to acknowledge the sex part of the book, or didn’t notice it all, responded, “Oh my gosh. It looks so sad and like sentimental and a lot about relationships and the people in your life, I would cry but I love tear chokers like this.” One teen boy had an interesting response, “Sounds like a book that can get you really attached to the character, only to watch it all go up in flames, so it would depend on whether or not I’m in the mood for a tragedy.” It was not a response that I expected from a teenage male. While the other one teen boy thought the cover was “too girly and why would I want to read a book like that anyway. I’m not a sick girl and I don’t know any.”

Samurai Shortstop
http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Shortstop-Alan-M-Gratz/dp/0142410993/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204598299&sr=1-1
One of the teens loved this cover and was very excited to read this book. He said, “I would totally read this. I’m so into baseball and the whole samurai warrior thing is so sweet. It looks interesting.” One of the girls thought it looked “interesting” and she liked the “real life” part of it, but she didn’t think that she would read it. One of the other teens said that she would read this despite not liking baseball. And one teenage girl had some stronger feelings about it, “this looks a bit boring. I’m not really a baseball type and in fact I want to fall asleep whenever someone starts talking about it so not a good book for me, although the whole suicide ritual thing looks intense.”

American Born Chinese
http://www.amazon.com/American-Born-Chinese-Gene-Luen/dp/1596433736/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204598376&sr=1-1
I was very interested to see how the teens would react to this book because it was on this list and had won the Printz award as well. One teen male said, “Seeing as I love everything about the orient, I would read this.” This was also his response to Samurai Shortstop. One teen girl said that she would read this despite not liking graphic novels. Another female teen said that she wouldn’t read it. She said that she has a hard time reading graphic novels because she gets too distracted by the pictures. She “likes books that are just text.” My third teenage girl said she was going to “have to go and get this.” It looked really interesting to her. One of the teenage males didn’t really feel strongly one way or another about this book. “I’m not sure about this book. It’s about a teenager guy, which I can relate to but I’m also not Chinese, so I wouldn’t understand this part.”

Twilight
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Saga-Book-1/dp/0316015849/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204598418&sr=1-1
At least one of my teens had heard about this book and planned on reading it. One of my interviews that was via email said, “I’m not even going to follow the link for this one. I’ve actually been meaning to read the entire series (Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse) because they’re all extremely popular among my friends.” I had one female teen who was very into Fantasy books, so I though she would really be into this book, but she said “I’m not a very big fan of the supernatural and vampire things, so I wouldn’t like this book but the cover is so misleading.” It seemed like the teens were either really excited to read it or didn’t want to read it all. This book evoked the strongest opinions that the teens had about any of the books that were on the list.

YALSA Quick Picks for Young Adults List

Class Pictures
http://www.amazon.com/Dawoud-Bey-Pictures-Jock-Reynolds/dp/1597110434
I expected the teens to really like this book, especially the males I interviewed. One of them did, he said, “It looks good. I think it shows a lot of individuality and I think that is interesting.” The other male surprised me and reminded me that while the common thought is most teen boys are more interested in non-fiction, not all of them are. He said, “Probably not, as I’m not too into nonfiction.” The teen girls were all interested in the book and thought it “looked really cool.” There was one girl that had a really interesting comment. “ I like the photographs a lot. I think that they can sometimes tell more than words. It shows the diversity of high school students and challenges teenage stereotypes.”

Quaking
http://www.amazon.com/Quaking-Kathryn-Erskine/dp/0399247742/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204583292&sr=1-1
This was another book that all of teens had a really positive response to which really surprised me. It wouldn’t have been a book I would have thought they would all like. They all thought it looked like something they would read. One teen girl said, “ It sounds interesting. You always get the perspective from the people who are popular but you never get the perspective of people who are challenged.” Another teen girl was hoping that she could learn something from the book, “ I’m interested in her facing challenges with bullies. I want to read it because I want to find out how she does that.” I was surprised that both the boys would read this especially because the cover looked more geared towards girls than boys. One boy said, “Sure, Sounds like a good, suspenseful political thriller.” The other teen boy was less enthusiastic but still interested in reading it. “ It is about a girl and I’m always cautious about girls because they seem different and I can’t relate to girls. It seems good thought because she is facing challenges. I like conflict in a book.”

Emily the Strange: The Lost Issue
http://www.amazon.com/Emily-Strange-Lost-Issue/dp/1593074298/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204583623&sr=1-1
This is a book that I thought all of teens would like. Again, I was totally wrong. Only one of the teens thought this book looked like something she would read. She said, “ It looks strange (and then giggled) but I would still give it a try. I think that it might be interesting.” Other teens were less receptive. One teen said, “ a book about a weird girl and her weird friends. I can’t relate to it.” And another teen said, “It looks strange and cynical. It’s about weirdos and I’m just not a weirdo. It also looks a little creepy.” It seemed like the teens didn’t want to be seen as “weirdos” and they thought they would be if they said they wanted to read the book. One teen who was more diplomatic in his response still seemed a little turned off, “Possibly (it would depend on what mood I’m in), because it might be a little /too/ strange”

The Sleeper Conspiracy (2 books)
Sleeper Code
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeper-Code-Tom-Sniegoski/dp/1595140522/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204583786&sr=1-1
Sleeper Agenda
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeper-Agenda-Conspiracy-Part/dp/1595140530/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
Two of my teens felt tricked by the covers and said they would have never picked up the books because of it. They thought the books were going to be more about gadgets and very boy-oriented. They were surprised when the read the descriptions and they appealed to them. One of them was pulled in because they were thrillers and sounded like they would be filled with action. “They sound like a movies more than a books.” One of the male teenagers was interested in reading them but thought, “the covers looked too much like Spy Kids.” The other male teenager sounded like he thought they would be great books for him. “Let’s see, Suspense + mystery x life being a lie=good book” My teenage girl that seemed to like almost everything I presented her with thought they sounded “ really cool and interesting.” She said she would definitely read these books.

Full Metal Alchemist: Volume 1
http://www.amazon.com/Fullmetal-Alchemist-1-Hiromu-Arakawa/dp/1591169208/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204584104&sr=1-2
This was another book I thought everyone would like or at least be interested in, especially because of its television presence. Only one teen said that she would read this. She said, “I really like the show and I’m excited to find out that there was a graphic novel version. I feel like I should have known.” All of the other teens did not like this choice. One teen that interviewed via email went so far as to use caps and text symbols to really let me know he did not want to read this book. “No, because I _/*HATE*/_ Manga.” The other teen male thought, “It looked like it was for nine year olds.”

I learned a great deal from this assignment. I was very careful about the books I picked for my teens. I tried to pick books that I thought they would like and be interested in. I knew that not everyone would like every book, but I was surprised at how often I was completely off the mark with my choices. And I was very surprised by how many of them did not like graphic novels. I thought they would be a big hit with most of them. I know now that in order to recommend books to teens or anyone for that matter, I really need to get a better understanding of what they like to read and what they don’t like to read more than general statements like “I like fantasy novels.”

I also realized that most teens are not anti-reading, they are just interested in what they are interested in. It was amazing to me that they were really receptive to looking at all of different book choices I had selected and that they would give most of them a try. I think that is the most important part of encouraging teens to read is to give them choices. Let the decision be theirs. They were all surprised that I said, “ You don’t have to like this just because I picked it out.” After I said that to all of them whether face-to-face or electronically, I felt that initial responses changed a bit. They took a little more pleasure in letting me know what they thought of a book even if it was negative. Actually, I think they may have had more fun giving the negative feedback than reasons why they would read a book.

Overall, it was a fun experience. I enjoyed talking to them about books and the things that spun off of our books talks. They seemed to get more comfortable the more we talked which made me more comfortable. There was a part of me that felt bad about having them take time out their busy schedules to help me with this assignment. It made it hard for me to start the conversations with them about the books and their reading habits. I felt like I was interrogating them about things that were too close to school-related topics and that I may inadvertently turn them off to looking at new books. But by the end, we were all laughing about the books and their comments.

The Book of Lost Things

I’m worried that while a teen interested in Fantasy/Suspense would definitely enjoy this book, they would have some difficulty finding it. When I went to the bookstore to purchase my copy for class I went to the Teen Section of the store and couldn’t find anything at all by Connolly. I remembered then that it was a book for adults that teens would like so I went to the adult fiction section and still struck out. I found one book by John Connolly but it seemed nothing like the book I was looking for. The description online made it seem like it was a Fantasy novel, so I traveled into that section of the store and still could not find it. I finally had to go to the help desk and ask them if they even carried the book. They did and I was whisked over to the Mystery section of the store where I found the book right away because it stood out from all the rest (except for Nocturnes which had a similar jacket design). Overall, had I not been in a situation where I needed to get the book for class, I may have given up.

Once I did have the book in my hands, I really enjoyed it. I love this type of book; the type that melds together the land of the fantastic and fairy tale with real life and real issues. This is my genre. As a teen and an adult, I found myself drawn to books like this like, Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire, and Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley. I found it a little slow to start, but then suddenly I was immersed and looking for clues left by John Connolly about what Fairy Tale he was referencing and twisting to fit his own story. I found myself getting a little creeped out at points in the novel from the beginning when David begins to hear the books talking to him (though the description of the voices of his therapist’s books is hysterical). Even though I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I am hesitant to say that I would recommend it to teens. I think that if a teen that had my similar reading preferences then I would, but it would be a book that I would recommend after a thorough reader’s advisory interview or a long-standing relationship had been built.

Normally, I don’t check the reviews on Amazon.com. I did this time only because I had such difficulty finding this book. One review read as follows: “I hated this book: This book is horrible. It started out okay, then kept getting worse and worse and worse, and then I kept reading to see if it would get better, and it didn’t. Worst book I’ve ever read. An employee at Border’s recommended it to me because I liked The Thirteenth Tale. I still can’t look at that man the same when I go in Border’s. What was he thinking?” This review speaks to all my fears of recommending a book I loved to the wrong reader. I have to say that after reading this, it changed my mind on whether or not I would recommend this book to any teen.

The Rose That Grew From Concrete

I was excited to read the one book that has been on the reading list for several semesters without being replaced. I wanted to try to figure out why it would be so important to read and would I think that this would be important for teens to read.

After reading the works in The Rose That Grew From Concrete, I feel like I can understand the answers to both my questions. Again, this work would have some of the appeal that Freedom Writers did. Tupac Shakur writes the poetry during his teen years, expressing the feelings that a teenager would experience during that time in their lives. Obviously, there are going to be things that make Tupac different from teens because of where he grew up and how. I think this would be true of any teens work. Life is different for everyone, but there are also similarities that are true for most humans. I do like that each poem is written in his hand complete with random designs and markings along side a typeface version of the same poem. The handwritten portion makes the book feel like it is someone’s private diary and thoughts, almost like I’m invading Tupac Shakur’s privacy. The typeface version made me feel like it was ok to read this, someone had given me permission to enter Tupac Shakur’s world. Also, his use of numbers in place of words pre-dates the language of text messaging, but like Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List, I feel like the language is familiar to teens that would be reading it today.

Poetry is something that most children are introduced to early in life with nursery rhymes, children’s songs, Dr. Seuss and other forms that parents encourage the children to read or listen to. Shel Silverstein and authors like him somewhat bridge the gap between pre-school when we are drowned in poetry and jr. high and sr. high school when poetry becomes William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Blake for kids in their teen years because of school curriculums, but he can become a guilty pleasure or too young for the reader. Poetry suddenly becomes all about iambic pentameter and rhyme schemes and the mechanics of poetry rather than the feelings behind the poems. The Rose That Grew From Concrete is a poetry collection that could be and should be taught in the classroom. It is well written poetry that explores many of the mechanic of poetry teachers would like a student to understand when it comes to poetry, like rhyme schemes and such.

I tried finding similar books that could accomplish most or all of what The Rose That Grew From Concrete does, but I was unable to. There are other places where teens can find poetry that they may be able to relate to better than the poetry they are fed in school like Teen Ink Magazine and their book series, or books written in verse like Girl Coming in For a Landing by April Halprin Wayland or A Wreath for Emitt Till by Marilyn Nelson. I was unable to find a book of collected poems that I thought was a good as this book or that I thought teens would enjoy as much.

Is America Getting Dumber?

I know that this has nothing to do with our reading for this week, but I wanted to share this segment that was on the Today show this morning. I stopped to watch it just to see if they were going to discuss the reading habits of American teens and if they thought that contributed to “America Getting Dumber” Instead it was author, Susan Jacoby and one of the producers, Noah Oppenheim, from the show promoting their books through a discussion about what their thoughts were on the topic. I felt like they touched on some of the discussion we had in class about how people define “reading”. Please watch the video before you read anymore.

It was interesting to hear the discussion between the two authors and Matt Lauer concerning technology and reading online. Ms. Jacoby had moments of appearing as a staunch traditionalist when it came to what she considered “reading,” but it was difficult to get any substantial feeling from Mr. Oppenheim. He seemed to be playing it a little safe. Ms. Jacoby seemed to only compromise her views as the interview was winding down and her time was being cut short. Also, her examples of what she considered technological tools seemed to be computer-focused without being specific. It lead me to believe that she was not that technologically savvy herself. This made me think that it was her not understanding the new technological tools out there that made her somewhat dismissive of them. Overall, I thought the piece was interesting and relevant to the issues surrounding the perception of teens and their reading habits.

Freak Show

I absolutely loved this book! It was one of the first books that I have read in a long time that made me laugh out loud in a good way, not the cynical “this is ridiculous” way. Lines like, “Lying on a mattress stuffed with gravel. Trying not to cut myself on the sheets. (Estimated thread count: three.) absolutely killed me. And the moments when Billy would address things like the reader reading the inside flap of the book made it so easy to really feel connected to him. He seemed to be sitting right beside while I read his story.

I think teens would really enjoy his candor and honesty (even when he admits to lying to the reader earlier in the book). The book is completely from his perspective, which he is constantly reminding us of. I know there are parts of the book that are difficult to get through because the pain and confusion is so real and the anger and rage is so stifling. But I feel like teens (even ones not having to deal with bigotry because of their sexual orientation) would be able to relate to the feelings of trying to survive a new school, fitting in, making new friends, falling in love, or wanting to hide completely from the world. I feel like this is all brought together when Billy gives his speech at the pep rally about all teenagers being freaks. “We are freaks, because we’re teenagers. We are, by nature, oily, throbbing, mutating, misshapen space aliens.” I could go on because I love the whole speech, but I won’t for sake of space.

I know that there may be some apprehension to recommend this book to a teen because of some of the issues it discusses, but I think that most teens that read this book would find part of themselves in Billy Bloom.

YALSA Awards and Lists

I always feel a little bit funny when it comes to awards for literature. I waver on whether or not there are too many awards for books for teen and children’s literature. On one hand, I feel that it is important to celebrate great works in any format: audio, print, graphic, or film. If a work is exceptional, it deserves to be set apart from other works that may not be of its caliber. But I also think when there are too many different awards being given, it takes some of the weight of winning an award away. And in the end, I am not saying that people should only seek out award winning books when looking for something to read. I know I don’t.

What was interesting about the six awards listed on the YALSA website was that so many of them seemed to have come into place within the last ten years. And there were two new awards that had not even been awarded to anyone or thing yet: the William C. Morris YA Debut Award (to be awarded in 2009) and the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults (to be awarded in 2010). I had not heard of many of them until going to this site with the exception of Michael L. Printz award. I referenced the Printz award and American Born Chinese in a paper discussing the importance of graphic novels and comics in libraries. I will admit I used to Printz award to give the graphic novel weight to suit my needs. This is a perfect example of why I feel conflicted when it comes to awards and the number of awards being given.

I liked the lists that were offered on the web site. I started to compare some of the lists to each other to see if there were any books that were shared amongst these awards. I was especially interested in the Teen’s Top Ten list. I wanted to see how many of the books that teens had said were the best were on other lists chosen by adults. There were only three that I could find from the 2007 winners that made it onto these other lists: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfefer were on the Best Books for Young Adults list for the same year and New Moon by Stephanie Meyer was on the Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (it was the number one book on the Teen’s Top Ten). I’m not sure if three out of ten is good or bad. On one hand, it is great that there is any correlation, but on the other hand, I thought there should have been more books shared between the Quick Picks list and the Top Ten Teen list.

Dramacon

I should have made the connection when this book was assigned that the title was a play on Comic-Con. I didn’t figure it out until I got the book home and began to read. It was really fun to read a Manga book about a conference where Manga is celebrated and revered. There are many Comic-Con’s around the country, but I’m assuming this book takes place at the biggest of them all, the Comic-Con in San Diego. I’ve included a link to the site for the 2008 conference-taking place at the end of July. I have friend who have gone for the past couple years and are going again this year. It supposed to be absolutely incredible with Indy comic writer booths to booths promoting the latest Marvel movie. People come dressed in costumes of their favorite characters from comic books, graphic novels, movies, television as well as their own creations. That is just my quick plug for checking out Comic-Con.

Getting back to the book, I just wanted to say I enjoyed it. It took me less than an hour to read the whole thing. The extra “On the Set” comics at the end intrigued me. It was great to see the creative staff having fun with their characters and treating them like celebrities who were not real characters but just actors playing a role. I also thought it was an interesting approach to disconnecting characters like Derek from violent acts like his drunken attempted rape. In the last of the comic series, Revenge of On The Set, Christie says, “My co-stars are so wonderful-even Derek’s a total sweetheart off-camera.” It makes it seem like Derek is just playing an evil jerk. I don’t know how I felt about it. I’m can’t decide if it really does lessen the seriousness of it all or if it doesn’t detract at all.

Connecting with Teen Relcutant Readers

I was a little hesitant about the 109 pages from Connecting with Teen Reluctant Readers, but once I really dug in, it was great. I thought that there were a lot of really great ideas about how to connect with reluctant readers and get them interested in reading. I thought it was interesting how much the reading reinforced that comics and graphic novels were to be taken seriously and definitely count as reading. And while, the reading did say that they were not a “solve all” and wouldn’t work for everyone (because nothing could), they were not to be discounted when it came to getting reluctant teens interested in reading.

As an English literature major in college and a honors English high school student, I had been one of those people in the camp of reading fiction is the only thing that counts as “reading” until I worked for Disney Adventures magazine. Here is just a brief description of what Disney Adventures was before being closed down in 2007. It is a magazine for the “tween” reader that covered movies, music, fashion, sports, video games and comics. I had friends who were always reading comics and graphic novels, but I had never thought of reading them as actually really “reading.” There were just pictures with word bubbles filled with sci-fi babble (and I like sci-fi). It was after reading letters from our readers about their thoughts on the comics that we ran in our magazine that I realized comics and graphic novels were much more than babble. I decided that I needed to start reading comics and graphic novels, so I could better understand our audience and I could become better at my job. I started off with Preacher, a dark comic about a man who finds redemption through some pretty heinous acts and with some pretty unpleasant side kicks. It was a co-workers suggestion and probably not the best place to start. It wasn’t until a friend of mine, who letters comics, asked me to look over Johnny Hiro: half Asian, all hero and let him know how his lettering looked. And I loved it from beginning to end. I started reading more graphic novels and started paging through some manga as well. I even wrote a paper about cataloging graphic novels for my Information Organization class. I had finally understood that comics were art and well written stories meant for everyone not the stereotypical sci-fi nerd.

Another idea that came from the reading that I really liked was, Reading Fridays. This could be the reader in me, but I truly love the idea of reading for pleasure every Friday. It is a great way to overcome the excuse of “I don’t have enough time to read.” I wish that they had offered that when I went to school. It seems like such a simple solution. All students have to take English all four years they are in high school, so to have one class period a week where they got to read and take a break for all four years sounds great. And it would be different from Study Halls, which in my high school was used as an extra gym period or a super long smoke break for most students. It would be a class where the teacher is reading with the students and the structure of a classroom is still present. Also, it would be a break from the typical English curriculum and students wouldn’t have to finish the books they way the do for class. This seemed to be another obvious stroke of genius. Students are never told if you don’t like it then find something else. I think if that was the case, they would never read Shakespeare or Chaucer for the language alone.

After reading this material, I just want to get out there and start implementing some of the ideas I really liked.

Medicinal Coke?

I guess I can understand why Seventeenth Summer has been on the Booklist for as long as it has. Angie’s story is filled with emotions and fears that are probably not that uncommon to a teenage girl who thinks she is falling in love for the first time. It is fun to read what she is thinking but too afraid to say out loud. I find even as an adult, I have moments of thinking about things I would like to say but don’t. It is the window into Angie’s inner thoughts that could still make this book relevant. They are just slightly more innocent and naive than I would expect a teenager to feel, but it has been a while since I was teenage girl.

On the other hand, there were quite a few things that I thought really dated the book. The idea of kissing on a third date being somewhat scandalous was slightly amusing. I was trying just as hard as Angie to figure out what event Jack had thought may have offended her pure sensibilities. Also, the drinking age being 18 was another sign that this book was not current. The pressure for a woman to find a boyfriend or husband to make her complete was a little unsettling and very dated (at least I like to think it is). The remark that Angie’s mother makes about finding Lorraine a date to country club dance because Angie and her older sister both have them and it wouldn’t be right for the older and younger sister to have dates to the dance and not her reminded me of something straight out of Jane Austen. And then there was my favorite moment that made it clear this book was from another time. It is when Angie talks about how the Cokes are more medicinal tasting at one drugstore compared to Pete’s. I love the thought of Coke being different in one town depending on where you get it.

Overall, I was tolerant of the sugary sweetness and innocence only because I knew this book was written in 1942 (and thought came back to me on almost every page). I don’t know if I would suggest this book to a teenage reader unless they had an special affinity for romance novels.