Thursday, May 10, 2012
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Kriska Daltonhurst, The Teen Services Coordinator at the Louisville Public Library in Colorado, took time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for us (thank you, Kriska!). We are thrilled to get a librarian's perspective on what's really hot in teen literature and how publishing trends are perceived on the readers' end of the spectrum.
1. What teen books fly off
the library shelves?
This
is probably not very surprising, but I haven’t seen a copy of the THE HUNGER GAMES (and its sequels) in person for at least the last year. I think I caught a fleeting glimpse of THE SCORPIO RACES before it went out to satisfy its hold list queue, and I
personally didn’t even make it into the top ten hold spots for Rick Riordan’s
newest volume because the readers were so quick to get their names on that
list. I have held my position for almost
six years now, and in all that time, it is still a rare treat to spot a copy of
THE BOOK THIEF on the shelf.
2. Which
genres/authors/series seem to be most popular with teens right now?
3. What trends have you
noticed over the last few years?
I
think the biggest trend I have noticed in the last five years is that when I
came into this job, it was all about the vampires. Yes, sparkly vampires to be most specific,
but really, anything “vampire” back then would do. Then came the werewolves, fairies, pixies,
angels, and mermaids. A lot of this
trend towards paranormal romance really isolated male readers, but they seemed
to make due with their high fantasy and mythological urban fantasies. But I was very glad when THE MAZE RUNNER, THE HUNGER GAMES, and other books like that began gathering interest. And boy did they ever! Within the last two years, the
dystopian/post-apocalyptic genres have exploded (no pun intended).
4. What differences do you
see between books that younger teens (11-14) and older teens (15-19) are
interested in? Do they read different authors, genres, topics?
The
younger readers, both boys and girls, are very much into fantasy worlds and
adventure. Some of my most popular
series for that age range include THE WARRIORS by Erin Hunter, ARTEMIS FOWL by
Eoin Colfer, the BONE graphic novel series by Jeff Smith and anything by Rick
Riordan. They do not often reach for
realistic fiction, unless it is high action adventure, like the Alex Rider or
Young James Bond books.
5. What do you notice about
the differences between male and female teen readers?
6. What do teens complain
about the most in YA books? Anything they ask to see more of?
They do not like their intelligence
to be insulted. If the book has logical
weaknesses, or the characters do something so far off the map from where
previous character development has led them, the readers WILL notice. I hear complaints about how “So-and-so did
this incredibly stupid thing, and it was just so there could be a sequel.” They really hate the obvious sequel
ploys. And nobody likes it when the dog
dies.
Right now I am getting a lot of
requests for “more books like The Hunger Games.” That is great because I love the genre
myself, but these trends always seem to get to the point where the books are
coming so fast and furious trying to ride on the train of popularity left in
the wake of the original, that the quality of writing is really going
downhill. I just read a book (that shall
remain nameless) that was so horrid, it made me swear off the
post-apocalyptic/dystopian genre for as long as I can. The same thing happened with vampire novels
and paranormal romance after TWILIGHT became so wildly popular.
7. Do YA readers request or
check out many books on CD? What about kindle or ereader loans?
Every
time a school vacation period comes around, my audio-book collection
vanishes. During the school year, it is
pretty slow to circulate, but when families are getting ready to pile into
their vehicles to take vacations and road trips, those are in high demand--especially if it's something that can be enjoyed by the whole family, which is quite a
challenge! We just recently began
circulating several Nooks, but our current loan rules prevent anyone under 18
from checking them out, and they are so new we don’t have really accurate circ
stats to share yet.
This may be a lot different at other libraries, but in mine, there is not a lot of interest in the non-fiction collection. I seem to have a population of fiction readers and when they do ask me for specific topics, they are looking for fictional accounts that deal with things such as World War II, starting school, losing friends and self-harm. From my replacement costs, I can surmise that the heavy duty “serious issue” books like Ellen Hopkins's CRANK novels, GO ASK ALICE or Patricia McCormick’s CUT are always being lost and replaced. So I think that says something about how popular they are, and I hope that when they do not come back to the library, they have found a home with someone who really needed a connection with that particular subject matter.
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9. How do you as a
librarian gauge what is and isn't appropriate for particular students? Are there any age
restrictions for books dealing with sensitive topics like violence or
sexuality?
It is not up to me (or any other librarians in my library) to determine what is
and isn’t appropriate for students; it is up to the student and their
parents. I try to purchase materials
that are in high demand, will gain readers and attract new ones, that are about
exciting or needed subjects and in popular genres. I use reviews in publishing periodicals and
if I am in need of an “age range” to give, for whatever reason, I rely on those
given in the reviews, especially from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers
Weekly.
There are times when the
childrens’ librarian feels something is inappropriate for her collection and we discuss it and decide whether or not to move it into the teen collection. And I
have bumped a few items up to the adult collection for the same reason. But by doing so, we are not removing the
items or making them inaccessible to any of our patrons, we are just trying to
be thoughtful about the age groups using each section of the library.
10.
What have you observed from teens that others might find surprising
in regard to their reading choices?
Historical
fiction really seems to be on its way out, and, related but also separately, no
matter how many awards a book may get, if it doesn’t have a good enough “hook”
for teen readers, they just will not read it.
I call these “librarian books” in that a whole bunch of librarians loved
it and gave it awards, but it has not been checked out at all in the time I have
owned it.
About Kriska...
Before I became a librarian I held a variety of jobs, such as pre-school teacher, technical writer and movie expert. I have collected comic books almost my entire life, am obsessed with dragons, own a hearse, love riding my scooters and motorcycle, and met my husband while playing Dungeons and Dragons in college. Being a teen librarian is my dream job, but one of the best moments in my life happened when I got to meet The Aquabats!
Thank you so much for your insights, Kriska! This has been a really interesting interview. And thanks to all librarians out there.... you rock!
IP
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Stephanie, Ingrid, Sarah & Kristan — we read, write, discuss and celebrate Young Adult lit.
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9 comments:
Fantastic stuff! Very telling about "librarian books," and especially how realistic fiction isn't appealing to certain genders and age groups.
Great questions, Ingrid!
I love this post! I work at a library (trying to work my way into teen) and our library has very similar trends. The whole reason I actually read the Hunger Games had to do with the fact it was always on the hold list.
Nice interview. It's always great to learn from someone who works one on one with readers on a daily basis.
The award note is so true - at least, in my experience. Awards really don't guarantee readers. Myself included, sad to say.
Love this, it was very interesting. Also totally agree about the awards thing, whether they be for teen or adult books. I have to admit, sadly, that I stayed away from Jellicoe Road for so long almost because it had won the Printz. That sounds so bad, but even now, in my mid 20s, I tend to find award books boring more often than not.
"And nobody likes it when the dog dies."
True that!
Fantastic and insightful interview. Thanks, Ing and Kriska, for all the great information! It's good to hear that younger readers are into fantasy -- I feel like that genre doesn't get enough props in YA -- but on the flip side, a shame to hear that contemporary/realistic YA has a more limited audience. And ESPECIALLY sad to hear that boys tend not to read female protagonists (while girls don't mind male ones). And as many have already remarked, we should all be checking into those award-winners more!
Sarah: Yep, the "awards" books not being as popular with some teens was very telling.
Samus, interesting that these trends are similar to your library's. I wonder how universal they are...
Ashley, Jellicoe Road is on my TBR list!
All of these insights into teens' reading tastes are great. Thank you again, Kriska!
Just popping back to say that JELLICOE ROAD is SOOOOOO GOOD. Like one of my favorite reads. I didn't pick it up because of the award, though. Word of mouth. xx
As a writer of (20th century) historical fiction, I always find it so depressing to see such a dearth of current quality YA historicals, and to always be in the minority when I take part in a contest or bloghop. I always preferred historical, contemporary, and literary books at all ages, child, preteen, teen, and adult, instead of genre fiction.
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