WEEK 2 Teens, Reading and Libraries: YA in the News

After reading Anthony Bernier's article, Representations of Youth in Local Media: Implications for Library Service I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive to see how London youth would be represented in the media. As Bernier states, "Thus a clear pattern emerges of the coverage of youth in these communities. One the one hand, poor behavior is exaggerated, frequently without evidence, and extrapolated across the entire demographic group, followed quickly by projections of public policy implications. One the other hand, socially positive behaviors and other factors that better contextualize social behaviors are ignored. Further, youth are nearly erased from the record as socially positive civic agents and sources" (Bernier, 2011). However, I am happy to see that the article that I chose, How, London? Downtown Needs More for Youth, looks at London youth in a quite positive light.

In this article author Randy Richmond suggests that the city of London would do well to "bulk" up its downtown, as it is where most youth instinctively congregate to, due to everything that it has to offer- culture, bus terminals, train stations, and its connection to university and college life. Richmond concludes his article by stating, "If we could have an ongoing replenishment of youth in this city, it would revitalize the entire city" (Richmond, 2012).

What I take from this article is that London youth play an instrumental role in not only in the city's downtown, but in the entire city. I think that this article is a nice contrast to Scott Taylor's Students Aren't Even Back in Town Yet... where Taylor explains that John Scott-Pearse, owner of Club Rouge on Piccadilly St., closed his doors last year to all London students- as Bernier would explain, blaming the whole for the actions of a few (Taylor, 2012).

What this article suggests to me is that it would perhaps be beneficial to the London Public Library (LPL) system to focus its attentions on catering to those youth who exploit downtown London. Currently London's largest library, the Central Public Library, is located downtown-ish (On Dundas). However, I am unsure of what this branch specifically  offers in the way of programming, if any, for this specific population. In catering to youth the LPL could perhaps notice an increase in patronage which may aid it in the way of funding(LPL recently announced that its budget was cut $500,000, leading to both hours and collection development cutbacks).

Sources

Bernier, Anthony. 2011. Representations of youth in local media: Implications for library service. Library & Information Science Research 33(2): 158–167. 

Richmond, Randy. "How, London? Downtown Needs More For Youth." London Free Press 26 September 2012. 

Taylor, Scott. "Students Aren't Even Back in Town Yet..." London Free Press 27 August 2012.

Week 2 Teens, Reading and Libraries: YA Book Review

The above is the Entertainment Weekly's review of DIVERGENT by author Veronica Roth (Brissey, 2011).

As a fan of Veronica Roth's DIVERGENT I must admit that I was initially quite taken aback by this review, one reason being that it tells you little more about the book, that it is essentially a rehash of its its synopsis: 

"In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her"). (Source)

Additionally, I was taken aback as the reviewer gives the novel a B+, what could perhaps be considered an "average" rating, yet they only give two reasons as to why- that it's "... flimsier and less nuanced..." than THE HUNGER GAMES. As both a reader and a book reviewer myself I want more substance in a review. I find "flimsier" and "nuanced" to be both hollow words- how is it more flimsy than THE HUNGER GAMES? In the characters? In the world-building? In the overall writing? How is it more nuanced? Is Tris a mirror image of Katniss (she isn't, by the way, Katniss has always been bad-ass where Tris slowly develops into a physically and emotionally strong character)? Or in the world-building (I would personally consider THE HUNGER GAMES to be more so a post-apocalyptic novel, while DIVERGENT to be more so a dystopian  .Therefore it makes it difficult to compare the two, THE HUNGER GAMES takes place in a ravaged Panem, while DIVGERGENT takes place in a futuristic Chicago). 

Also, over the last year or so I have come to dislike the comparison of  any book to THE HUNGER GAMES (or TWILIGHT) as I have found that, time and time again, books which have no relevance or similarity to the two are compared to them, making the comparisons meaningless (for instance, Kiera Cass's recent debut, THE SELECTION, was marketed as "THE HUNGER GAMES meets the Bachelor"- yet the only similarity between the two books was that THE SELECTION was also a post-apocalyptic novel). Neither THE HUNGER GAMES, nor TWILIGHT, were unique and therefore I do not believe that they are books that we consider to be "exemplary YA".

I would have loved to have seen this book reviewed as how CANADIAN REVIEW OF MATERIALS suggests, with an eye to such detail as: "Is the book part of a series? Is the mood sustained? Does the narrative flow easily? Will it have a wide or limited appeal?) (1996)- not unlike that by Wendy Darling or Tatiana. 

That being said, I do appreciate how Entertainment Weekly generally followed VOYA'S Review Guidelines (albeit in a different order): "Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Publisher, publication date." However, I do think that it would have been useful had they also included information such as the book's price, page number, and ISBN.

Overall, I give Entertainment Weekly's review of DIVERGENT a C-.

Sources

Brissey, Breia. 2011. Divergent. Retrieved from http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20609141_20484977,00.html. 

Canadian Review of Materials. 1996. Considerations for Your Review. Retrieved from http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/reviewers/considerations.html.

VOYA. 2012. Review Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.voya.com/reviewers/review-guidelines/.