A look at teen magazines - Seventeen

One of the many in the realm of teen girl magazines, Seventeen provides the usual articles and information that would be of interest to the mainstream. Information on the latest celebrity rumours, fashions and beauty products, movie news and quizzes and tips of a variety of topics but usually focused on relationships, style and the latest movies. Also included are gift ideas for family and friends, broken down by price brackets; however it is clear that these budgets are much higher than anything I was able to afford as a teen. Articles are short, with longer ones being interviews with a star, but this style fits its audience and reading style, enabling teens to read quickly and not demanding complete attention, allowing for music and talking with friends to take place. It is clear that the consumer push is very strong the magazine, as is usual, close to half the pages are taken up by adds for various products, with the majority being beauty products.

One can see the appeal of this style of magazine for teen girls, however other may find it offensive, demeaning or boring depending on their personality and view of popular culture. Finding magazines for these people can be harder, especially depending on the size of the community. It must also be remembered that teens will read more informative magazines such as Maclean’s, The Environmentalist or Scientific American. These magazines were in my household as a teen, and I would flip through and read them often. No matter what the case or background area of the librarian, an understanding that there are people who like the stereotypical teen magazine, as well as the ‘educational’ adult magazine and they should be acknowledged and fulfilled in the library setting.

WWZ- Chronicles of the Future War

World War Z is the second zombie book by Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks which is in the form of a graphic novel. His books are a large part of the rise in the popularity of zombie culture and talks between people of how to prepare for the coming war.

WWZ is set up in the style of the author having interviews with people that have survived the zombie war, starting from the first doctors that discovered the virus and were told to hide it from the public and continuing as the war developed. Other interesting accounts include one man talking of seeing a bridge blown up behind him, saving those on his side from the hoard of zombies, but killing those still human that were trying to escape; and a blind man in the forest who’s highly developed sense of hearing and smell allowed him to survive and kill many zombies. The final interviews deal with the end of the war and the rebuilding of society. Throughout, it is clear that the biggest question one faces is whether to save oneself or help others and possibly parish.

Throughout the amount of detail about the war and the different experiences that the author creates is immense, it is a world that few can understand or fully invest in, but for those that can it is a great read. Those that have knowledge of the subject from Brooks’ past book will see many elements of survival through the interviews, as well as faults and mistakes made by those that didn’t. It is clear that there are those out there that are preparing themselves for this coming war, using these books as reference. The scarier part is that there are those out there looking forward to it.

Book talk- Across the Nightingale Floor

Cory Doctorow on 'The Hour' - a blog on the author instead of the book

Last night I was watching The Hour, as Morgan Freeman was on, an interview I knew would be interesting, being one of the more highly respected actors of our time. Although it was a good interview, the interesting aspect was that Stroumboulopoulos’s second interview was with the author of one of our next novels, Cory Doctorow who wrote ‘Little Brother’. He was not on to talk about his materials or latest novel, but to talk about the issue of copyright and the internet.

In the introduction about him, it is explained that Doctorow’s materials are all available free online, as he feels that this is the way to both increase how many people have access to his novels, as well as taking a stance on the copyright laws that currently exist. He said through the interview, that having his novel free online has not hindered his sales, but feels they have increased them, as not all people will read the entire novel online or on the computer, instead reading some, enjoying it, then purchasing it. Having over 90,000 copies in hardcover print of ‘Little Bother’ helps to prove this fact.

Doctorow’s main issue with the copyright laws that exist, even with online purchases or items such as the kindle, is that there is no ownership involved in the material in question, and the licensing agreements one is forced to agree to make it impossible for the consumer to have any legal standing no matter what the case. Another topic that was discussed was the penalties for breaking copyright laws, using the example of France, where if one is ‘accused’ of breaking online copyright laws three times, they, and the household are banned from the internet. The key here is that there is no proof needed for the ban, only an accusation, and there are talks about implementing this in Canada.

Bringing this interview into the realm of YA, Doctorow’s views on the internet and copyright would be very appealing to teen’s, increasing interest in his novels, especially the fact that one can access them online. Although legal in this sense, in my opinion for teens it is not the fact that it is legal or illegal online, but that it is online. As well, he appeared on a talk show that would be more appealing to YA’s then other news/talk shows, and although Stroumboulopoulos’s career on Much Music may not be known to YA’s, the live audience at the show displays that he is in touch with this generation. At least for me, this increased my interest in the upcoming novel, without even hearing about it. For YA’s this may work as well, show the author in an interesting light and connecting to the issues of their generation, barely mentioning the actual novel but managing to bring readers in.

Prep School library to contain no books

In an recent article, it was announced that a prep school near Boston is ridding their library of all their books, replacing them with a 'learning center' that will include lap-top ports, more subscriptions to online materials, digital readers and other multimedia devices.

While there is a need for technology, this is a big step for a library to take, and many issues arise form not having any books available to students, for both research and reading purposes. Being in this program, many of us have come from a history of a love of books, seeing the future as a combination of physical and virtual information.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/04/a_library_without_the_books/?page=1
Thoughts?

Readers Advisor Online: a Professional Resource

Readers advisor online, teengenreflecting
http://www.readersadvisoronline.com/lu/RAmaterials#T40829-link


This paid subscription site is an excellent tool for librarians to use in order to understand reading preferences and styles of users. The site has a specific section talking about materials for teens, in which many of the different genres of novels, including mystery, adventure, Christian fiction, multicultural fiction, romance, fantasy, sifi, historical fiction, graphic novels and articles on serving teens and issues. This is important, as the site talks about these same genres in general on the site as well, (usually in more detail) but talking about teen appeal is important. Having the resources to learn about the genres in detail is also useful as many teens do not only read YA materials, so understanding current and future appeal factors of the genres is needed. Throughout the site one finds links to other resources, awards in the genre, important authors as well as a history of the genre. A highlight of this source is that it is very reputable; all contributors have degrees or experience in the field, with many having published books on the subject of readers advisory.

As well as the section giving information on the genres, the site offers a blog and searching capabilities, giving one the opportunity to look further for materials that may be of interest to teens, as one can limit the search to their age group or by genre if wanted. The site’s ease of use also allows for librarians to have the resource available for teens who wish to look for materials alone, something that many wish to do. In looking at the site, teens may themselves learn more about their reading habits.

Overall this site offers a great amount of detail on a wide variety of genres, themes and appeal factors for teens as well as adults, making it an excellent professional resource for librarians to use for information on Young Adult materials as well as teen readers.

Review: YA's reading social networking sites instead of books

It is now common knowledge among librarians and those interested in YA reading habits that teens are not only reading books in today's world, as the internet has given a new form of reading, and in some cases the sites that are viewed or read are done through social networking sites such as Digg or Stumbleupon. Do to this, a closer look at what these networks can offer teens is needed.

Website: www.stumbleupon.com
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Around since 2001 StumbleUpon is a social networking site that allows users to ‘stumble’ through websites, blogs, news articles, games, web comics and anything else that can be found online that are connected to their interests. A free application added to ones browser, the user when signing up checks off their interest areas from a long list of topics. Once done, the user can click the Stumble! button on their browser and they are taken to a site based on their interests. Users can ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ the site, and over time the application learns and refines the websites based on this. Users can also have friends lists, recommending and sharing sites with one another, and can add new sites to stumble by giving it a small review. Having this application allows users to discover sites that were unknown to them, as well as bringing more traffic to personal sites not found through a google search. Although a social and fun application, more academic sites can be stumbled upon if one lists it as an area of interest. Very addicting, once a user adds this application they will find themselves saying ‘just one more stumble’ far into the night.

Website: www.digg.com
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Digg.com is a site that anyone can visit, seeing a list of the latest and highest rated websites that users have ‘digged’. Websites are separated into different categories for easy browsing. User voting deems where on the main page, or separate category pages the websites will be found and although the voting can carry some bias the site would appeal to YA’s for this very reason especially as many of areas are about teen cultures and news but also some science and business categories which could be browsed for school or personal interest. The website allows visitors become as involved as they would want, either just browsing the sites or voting and discovering new sites. The popularity of Digg, and other sites like it are visible as many websites will have a ‘digg’ button, hoping that visitors will click it and possibly bring the site up in popularity on dig.com. Although a fun site to browse, it has less spontaneity then StumbleUpon as one has to visit the site instead of hitting a button on the browser.

Zombieland- making light of the zombie war

This last weekend I (finally) went to see Zombieland, a hilarious movie set during the zombie Apocalypse, set around four main characters, only know by their hometowns, one sees the lengths they have to go to survive, and the rules they follow, in a mockingly serious way. With cameos by Bill Murry, and many pop culture references, the movie gives something to the older teens or 20 somethings watching. The movie continues the idea of zombies being able to sprint after humans, and evolution seen throughout the many zombie movies that have been released over many decades. The movie can be taken as pure entertainment to some, and a debate over the visualization of the zombies by the more serious, something for everyone.
keep watch through the movie for the zombie kill of the week

resouce blogs for YA materials

blog: YALSA
When first looking at the blog, there were many things I noticed right away, the majority of the page was taken up by the most recent articles and postings, and on the right hand side there was a tag cloud, other teen/YA materials blog links, twitter links, author and achieve list for fast access. All these links on the right hand side display that librarians accessing the blog want quick access to the areas/postings they are most interested in.

Looking at the tag cloud, it was clear that one of the main areas of interest is the ALA Annual, as well as virtual worlds and other teen oriented areas. The blog, although having a professional tone and theme, try’s to cover the two sides of what librarians are looking for, ALA news as well as teen news. This seems to be a common theme in YA professional resources.

I was surprised with the amount of audio postings, both talking about books, games and virtual worlds popular with YA’s. It was also interesting to see that YLASA provides some online courses librarians can take as well as the latest news of what talks are being held at the next ALA conference in YA materials. Although the blog does of have great deal of information, there are also some more light-hearted and humorous posts which are very nice to discover. With the high number or authors, as well as the possibility to comment on articles, this blog allows people from all areas to connect, and in looking at the information page I was very interested to find out that they allow postings by teens as well as librarians as long as they are approved by the blog members. The demographics of the blog are much larger then I had originally expected.

Although some of the postings, such as the blog looking for new authors/monitors and other job opportunities do not apply to me, at least now, the blog does offer some use and will be worth while looking at every so often, especially once in the job force.

Notable american authors seminar readings

required readings

1. An introduction to 10 YA authors in the US Kathy Latrobe and Trisha Hutcherson

World Literature Today, Vol. 76, No. 3/4 (Summer - Autumn, 2002), pp. 68-73 available via jstor database

Looking at some of the more modern American authors, but whose books are still held in higher esteem. The article introduces the author and their importance to YA as well as some of their novels.

2. Easing the pain of classics

Katie Porteus YALS journal, summer 2009 16-18

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=6&sid=49538f34-b4b9-4385-9ae4-14f5079e1404%40sessionmgr4

This article looks directly at common high school English books, and ways that both teachers as well as librarians can make these materials more accessible. Although not purely American authors being discussed the idea of modernizing classics is important.


recommended readings

1. Should American canon be discussed in the public library? The selection of classic American authors in one book reading clubs

David C. Kupfer Library Philosophy and Practice 2008

The article brings up the issue of if librarians should encourage the reading of classics, or the ‘proper’ books people should read, which many times are the books discussed in high school. Although the article does not address the YA issue, many of the ideas are transferable.

http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/kupfer.htm


2. A new take on an old tale Classic literature in a graphic format

Michele Gorman, Library media connection april/may 2008 p 53

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=6&sid=2a001451-33d7-4b6a-bfb1-a4615f4d0620%40sessionmgr10

A continuing growing area of turning classic books into a graphic novel, a great way to get teens, especially males to become more familiar with these stories in a quick, visual format.



3. A Classic Argument

Younker J. Martin. School Library Journal. Aug 2007 vol 53 is 8

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=2&hid=6&sid=e990a7d0-7ac2-4595-9ba0-634753139dc1%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=tfh&AN=26207808

Looking at the question of whether teens should be reading the classics or if the newer popular novels suffice


4. Transnationalism and Classic American Literature Paul Giles

PMLA, Vol. 118, No. 1, Special Topic: America: The Idea, the Literature (Jan., 2003), pp. 62-77 (via jstor)

This article looks more at how the history and culture of the US has shaped literature, helping to show why this ‘genre’ developed,


5. American Character and the American Novel an expansion of the reflection sociologly theory in literature

The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Jan., 1981), pp. 740-765

Published by: The University of Chicago Press (via jstor)

A longer article, but covers a lot of what the classic American book relates to, although not predominantly YA lit, many of the books discussed are common to read in high school.

Class Novel 1 ‘Outsiders’ but sharing a common connection

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Based around a 14 year old boy (Ponyboy) who lives with his older brothers in the poor area in a small town . It is made clear early on the Ponybot is very intelligent, with a chance to continue his education and leave the town. They are all a part of a gang, known as greasers. The main antagonists in the story are the Socs, or the rich kids in town, fights are a regular occurrence. After one fight, a Soc ends up dead, and Ponyboy and a friend flee the town to avoid arrest. At the end of that week, the church that they had been staying in catches on fire, they had not been present when it started, they found out that some young children were inside, and rush in to save them. Ponyboy escapes with a few burns, while his close friend is seriously injured, dyeing in the hospital after hearing that the greasers had won the last big fight with the Socs. During all of this Ponyboy begins to talk to a few of the Socs, finding out that they are like him in many ways, just wanting to get away from the town and hating the animosity between the groups. Ponyboy is hit hard by the events of the last weeks, however the book ends on a higher note of hope of his brothers helping him deal and becoming closer. The end of the book ends with Ponyboy beginning to write about the events for a paper for his English class.

This book would appeal to young adults as it deals primarily with teens, there are few adults present in the book, and only play secondary rolls or are only mentioned. The novel shows that teens can live and operate by themselves, with no need for authority, a common meal includes chocolate milk and cake. The language when the boys talk to each other is very simple and full of slang, with being ‘tuff’ and ‘tough’ being words of praise. Another connection that some teens may find is the close connection between brothers and friends, their understanding of each other far surpassing what any adult or parent could ever understand.

In the notes section of the book, it was surprising to find out that the author was female, and she had began writing the book as a teen, as the subject material of the books as well as the language gives the allusion that the author is make and experienced some of the events, which is true to a degree, as the author witnessed a boy being beaten up by a rival gang while walking home one day. It is easy to see why this book fits into the YA firsts category as well as it creating into a movie later on.

YA geared professional journals

Title: Young Adult Library Services online 2004-2009 (available through UWO portal)

This journal, published quarterly, provides young adult librarians, or librarians in general with some of the latest news in the area, looking at both librarian oriented news, such as YALSA, and book news such as issues with censorship and the freedom that now occurs, dealing with YA reference questions which may differ from the questions asked from adults or young children, as well as looking at some of the latest movies out for YA’s, other cultural news, magna and graphic novels as well as social issues such as bullying.

The journal tries to cover all needs of librarians, giving them the knowledge in the profession that they need, as well as YA culture news as this is very important to librarians dealing with the age group. It is important for them to stay on top of new immerging trends in books, movies, games and the internet. Although it is not an issue that la librarian would like to see, having articles about bullying are useful for librarians to possibly notice the signs, and in some cases may be able to steer teens towards materials or people that can help them.

With the wide rage of material that this journal covers, it would be very useful for public librarians as well as school librarians to subscribe to, as well as being useful to librarian students interested in YA materials. The wide range of the journal displays how wide ranging the materials in the area are.

YA materials in a bookstore

For the course materials I voyaged to a chapters in the city, offering me the perfect opportunity to look at an area of the bookstore that I usually avoid at home. In this chapters, the teen section was at the back of the store, consisting of two back to back shelves off of the main isle. Further into the store was the children’s section, as I find it usual to have it near by, be it for families not wanting to spread out to much or just a general consensuses that as the age groups are close so should be the books. Although I have never been in this particular chapters, I found the area easily even though the signage in the store was lacking.

The are its self was quiet small, and as expected there was a decent sized twilight merchandize set up displayed, as well as a table of the books in front of the area. As well, there was another vampire series displayed on the shelving to try and sway teens in the twilight fandom in. There were no other shoppers in the area while I was searching for the books, not surprising as there seemed to be few/no teens in the store, most people were in their 20’s or older as well as a few younger children.

As mentioned, I usually avoid the teen area in other bookstores, and it was ever I place I really looked to books as a teen. Many of the books I wanted were given to me, either from a list I had come up with by looking online, or by family browsing and choosing. As well, I tended to read above my age group so many of the books offered in the area did not appeal to me.

I also realized that the teen and humour and sports sections were close together, something very similar to the chapters/indigo I frequent at home, giving options to the age group about the genre of fiction they are looking at. It could very well be a way for teens to be looking at novels but easily turn around and look at comics if friends came around. In thinking about the indigo around home, I can think of many changes ever time, including a large security standing/walking around in the evening possibly to deter loitering, as there was a movie theatre across the hall (as the indigo was in a mall) and the indigo was a popular place to meet and hang out before the movie. This security guard disappeared once the invasion of teens had left for their movies, leaving the rest of the shoppers to browse in peace as the teens tended to be quite loud.

Overall my visit was a success as I found the materials, and the strong presence of retail merchandise was something very noticeable, but if it draws teens or young adults into the section then it is worth it.

Wecome!

As needed for a mlis class, this blog is being created, mostly to rant and rave critique books I come across and read for classes and just random musings in general. I personally tend to read historical fiction, but expansion into other genres is something to work on.
enjoy!