I found the chart from Lawrence Public Library to me useful and interesting. I am a fan of the Hunger Games and teen dystopias, so this gave me some new titles to try out, such as Legend by Marie Lu.
Assignment #2:
YA Comes of Age - Publisher's Weekly (Oct, 2011)
I really liked the point in this article about how moving teen books away from the children's area helped increase the popularity of this genre. It was also funny to hear that librarians aren't the only ones tired of paranormal titles, but editors are as well. The article was spot on about the growing subgenre of Dystopia, as it continues to be extremely popular a year and a half after this article was published.
The Next Big Thing - YALSA; The Hub (Oct, 2012)
The stat which stated that 55% of teen books being purchased by customers 18 years and older (78% purchasing for their own reading) was definitely surprising. While it is easy to see that teen books are becoming increasingly more popular among adults, I was a little surprised that the number was as high as it is.
I commented on Julie Brophy’s blog:
I would not be in favor of a marketing push for a "New Adult" genre. It seems like a lot of teen books have increased in violence and romance anyways, so the delineation between Adult Fiction and Teen Fiction works fine. Introducing a new term would just make things more confusing for customers. I was happy when BCPL changed from Young Adult to Teen, so New Adult it not something I would be a fan of.
I definitely agree that pop culture and bestselling adult authors writing teen novels have played large roles in the increased popularity of the teen genre. I have seen an increase in the amount of adults asking for pop culture titles such as Twilight & Hunger Games, and teen titles by James Patterson, John Grisham and Kathy Reichs over the last year or two.
I also commented on Cayce Hoffman's blog:
I couldn't agree more, the term "New Adult" seems like a silly marketing ploy, similar to "Young Adult" which we recently just changed to teen because it is more relatable. I think the increase in popularity has more to do with pop culture and adult writers choosing to target the teen genre, then successfully marketing it to "New Adults."
Assignment #3:
Stacked
This website consists primarily of teen book reviews written by librarians. It contains guest author appearances, video clips, and a helpful read-a-like tool called "You also might like." This is a useful website to refer to when looking for popular teen titles or discovering similar reads.
John Green Books
Teen author John Green's website is essentially a YouTube conglomeration of video blogs of him and his brother Hank from their YouTube Channel, Vlogbrothers. The videos seem comical and touch base on topics such as Intellectual Freedom, animals, and life experiences. John Green's YouTube channel is extremely popular and he is also active on Twitter and provides book reviews for the New York Times Book Review and Booklist.
Assignment #4:
Harper Teen & Teens/Penguin Young Readers
Many of the trends with popular titles and upcoming releases in the teen genre revolve around the subgenres of paranormal and dystopia, many of which seem to be written in series. After exploring the Harper Teen website, just about every title listed in the "Top Books" and Bestseller's pages was either paranormal, dystopia or part of a series. The same trends were true of the Teens/Penguin Young Readers website, as many of the titles listed in the "New Releases" section fell under one of those three categories. Another trend that is becoming more popular would be that adult fiction writers are branching off and writing in the teen genre because of its popularity.
Count me among those tired of Paranormal titles. I do wonder at what point the market will be saturated with all the Dystopian titles forthcoming. At some point will another subgenre take over? We'll see.
ReplyDeleteI agree Justin the numbers appear to be high in The Next Big Thing: Adults Reading Teen Literature. It surprised me as well. Do you think part of it is because there are many crossover writers such as Grisham, Patterson, Picoult etc writing for teens and adults want to read them as well? Or do adults just like that dystopian stuff? I haven't a clue!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't so surprised from the numbers. I have many friends who are fans of YA fiction because of nostalgia and the simpler writing style along with really entertaining plots. Perhaps the broader category makes the books more accessible-people who wouldn't venture into the sci-fi section find books with similar themes in the general teen section. IMO the movies and shows that originated as teen books have promoted the books to a broader audience and created that buzz that can't be ignored
ReplyDeleteHey Justin,
ReplyDeleteI'm also in agreement that we don't need another collection for New Adult. However, there's a broad range of kids and adults out there reading teen lit now, including big bunches of very young middle schoolers, and I feel that we libs owe it to our customers to be informed about the more racy and violent titles.