Week 7 - Not Just for Teens

Assignment 1 –

The flowchart was interesting, if narrow in focus. It seems there are more teen books and teen readers beyond The Hunger Games.

Assignment 2 –

Who is Buying Teen Books? According to the Christian Science Monitor article, new market research shows that 55 % of those buying teen books are older than 18 and that 78% of those were buying the books for themselves. In The Next Big Thing on YALSA’s The Hub, the post is also discussing that market research. I’m really not surprised by this information and have in fact long held the belief that teen books were read by older readers. Teen books are popular among librarians and with the recent popularity of several movie tie-ins, the hype grew, but the actual readership hasn’t really changed. I understand the popularity of The Hunger Games, but also think we should be aware of other genres which are just as popular with readers. It seems as those this narrow focus is a disservice to many of our readers and a hindrance to successful readers’ advisory. I enjoyed reading others’ thoughts on this and commented on Sandy L’s and Monty’s blogs about their thoughts with regard to teen.  

Assignment 3 -

I followed Stacked and Forever Young Adult. Stacked is a review blog created by librarians. While the primary focus is book reviews, they also review other formats such as audio books, music, and zines. I would definitely return to this blog for information about teen materials and adult books for teens. It is updated regularly and also includes interviews with authors. Forever Young was less helpful. It is a blog for YA readers who are a little more A. It’s an interesting premise, and of course falls in line with the market research discussed above. And while it is a fun site to look at, I don’t think it’s one that I would return to on a regular basis because its book emphasis was not strong so not a go-to work-related site. 

Assignment 4 -

Harlequin Teen offers titles for teens in a variety of genres, including contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi, historical and romance. The list of titles can be sorted differently, but I think the most helpful is to sort by publication date – newest to oldest. Since Harlequin has so many titles they cover a wide range of genres, so I couldn’t really pick up on any trend, although most seemed aimed at female readers. I also looked at Teens/Penguin Young Readers. This was a more involved page and the main focus was Sarah Dessen, whose newest title was just released. I don’t think this is a marker of a trend, more a push of one of the publisher’s most well-known and lucrative authors. I did like the fact that Penguin offered lists of upcoming titles, e-samplers, and teen apps.