WEEK 3 YA Firsts: Readings

Coats, Karen. “Young Adult Literature: Growing Up in Theory,” in Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature, eds. Shelby A. Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso and Christine A. Jenkins, New York: Routledge, 2011: 315-29. IMS stack NO LOAN PS121.H22 2011

-"... there remains a sense that YA literature is a house you pass on the way, and not a destination in and of itself. It may be because YA literature is in fact the literature that I would prefer to read even if I didn't make a living doing so that I would argue strenuously for a shift in this perspective .. I would like to see more critical conversation emerge that treats YA literature as a destination literature, rather than an in-between phenomenon that is useful for pedagogical applications and/or diverting entertainment before readers enter into the more serious work of studying capital L literature" (Coats, 2011). 

I have read dozens, if not hundreds, of "adult" books over the years, however, I always find myself drawn back to YA. 

-"... and today's adult librarians and reviewers come to disdain the repetition of the same themes, characters types, and conflicts, looking instead for something fresh" (Coats, 2011).

While I do love YA I, as a reviewer, do realize that it does have its flaws. I would like to see fewer love triangles, less generic dystopians, and overdone paranormal beings (ie. vampires and werewolves) and more along the lines of CINDER by Marissa Meyer, THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by Michelle Hodkin and THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Katja Millay. 

Zusak, Marcus. “Point of Departure,” in Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature, eds. Shelby A. Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso and Christine A. Jenkins, New York: Routledge, 2011: 330. IMS stack NO LOAN PS121.H22 2011

-Being an avid YA reader, almost exclusively a YA reader, both of these papers resonated with me more than I could have ever imagined, Karen Coat's especially. Both authors were able to articulate ideas and thoughts that I have thought countless times over the years.

- I cannot even begin to tell you how many times over the years I have had to defend YA among not only my peers, but some of my best friends, many of them of the opinion that "YA doesn't count." 

-Some parts of the papers which really spoke to me were: 

-"I think I can safely say that without Young Adult literature, I wouldn't be a writer; I certainly wouldn't have written the books that I have- because as a teenager I was fairly typical in that I kept a lot of what I felt to myself. I didn't talk to a lot of people about what I truly wanted or believed, or how I wanted things to be. In the end, I had those conversations with books. And they were young adult books" (Zusak, 2011).

While I may not be a YA writer I can relate to Zusak's sentiments. For as long as I can remember I had wanted to become an anthropologist- get my masters, my doctrine, the whole nine yards. However, as I went further and further into my undergrad I realized that, while I loved anthropology, it wasn't my passion, that my passion was, in fact, YA literature. It was this passion that encouraged me to pursue a MLIS. 

WEEK 2 Teens, Reading and Libraries: Readings

Snowball, Claire. 2008. “Teenagers Talking about Reading and Libraries.”Australian Academic and Research Libraries 39(2): 106-18. Available via Western Libraries from EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete.

-After taking LIS 9004 I must say that it was nice to actually see the process of conducting a study in action, especially when conducting focus groups ("Focus groups were held with high school students in order to gather data on teenage reading habits and their views on reading, libraries, and graphic novels" pg. 107)- I would have liked to know what sorts of ethics were involved in carrying out such research with minors as this was something that we debated a fair bit with our LIS 9004 final project.
-I thought that it was interesting that Snowball made note that, "... research suggests encouragement by any significant adult in a child's life can replicate the above mentoring effect of a family's reading..." (pg. 109). While I have always been a reader (if you give me the opportunity I will consume a couple in a day) I can't really say that there was anyone growing up in my life who I may have inherited this from. I'd love to see more research as to where children may develop their love of reading from.
-I felt that Snowball was almost confused as to why school libraries are more often used than public libraries are, however, I can understand why. Prior to becoming a post-secondary student, especially as an elementary school student, my class would visit our school's library multiple times a week to check materials in and out. As such, I rarely needed to visit my public library as I already had all of the books that I needed when I went home each night (the only time that I frequented my public library was when I needed materials for school projects and, even then, oftentimes I could find this information from my school library).
-I can understand why the student participant were confused as to whether or not the internet equated with reading- I think that it's one of those things that many of us take for granted and give very little thought to.
-Finally, I thought it interesting how great of an impact graphic novels had on these students. Personally I have never felt any inclination to pick up a graphic novel, but after reading this study I think that that is something that I will have to rectify.

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

-When I first started reading this paper I must admit that I was initially flabbergasted- I didn't agree with the suggestion that youth are often negatively represented in the media. However, as I read further into the paper and began to process it more and more I came to realize that that is often the case. Watching the nightly news I can only think of rare instances where there is a positive news story about a London youth (for instance, a youth putting together a toy drive for needy children/ families at Christmastime), whereas I can think of countless instances of youth being represented in a negative light. As I have said before, all cannot be held responsible for the actions of a few.
-I was also flabbergasted by the finding that youth are very rarely given a voice in the media- after all, who better but a youth to talk about youths? As we discussed in class, we, as non-youths, should not talk about our teenage years to teenagers (ie. "Back when I was a teenager...") as we are no longer on the same level that they are and we can oftentimes come off as patronizing or condescending in doing so- so why does the media do this?
-Bernier mentions, "Young people may also avoid a library populated with librarians and other unfamiliar adults because they might feel that all adults regard them antagonistically and with distrust" (pg. 163) and unfortunately I do fall within those ranks. For instance, I very rarely visit libraries on campus as, time after time, I have had a negative interaction with the librarians, them treating me as if I were stupid/ talking down to me, as if I am being a nuisance by asking them a question, and so forth. However, I visit my public library quite frequently, being on friendly terms with all of the staff, having worked alongside them in the past. 

"New Adult"? YA? What's in a Classification?

Right now there is a great conversation happening over on Twitter about the difference between "New Adult" lit (a newly emerging literary genre) and YA lit. Follow the hashtag #readadv to follow along (or check out Sophie Brookover's Sortify page for a transcript of the conversation)!

YA Dominates

TIME Entertainment recently named John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, a YA book about 16 year old Hazel, who is battling cancer (though which is not your "typical cancer book" according to the author), as the Top Fiction Book of 2012. TFiOS beat out such titles as THE CASUAL VACANCY by J.K. Rowling, WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE by Maria Semple and BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel for the title.

You can add TFiOS on Goodreads HERE.