"New Trend in Teen Fiction: Racy Reads"

MSNBC follows the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in reporting on how "racy" teen fiction has become, featuring -- of course -- "Rainbow Party" along with "Teach Me", "Claiming Georgia Tate", and teen series fiction like Gossip Girls.

Read the story or watch the video segment here (Click "Launch" to watch).

Says one parent, “It’s either fantasy or smut — and that’s sad.” Huh?

Another quote: "One mom who unknowingly bought her daughter a book about a prostitute said, 'I was more shocked with the fact that I allowed her to read it… that I didn’t even know she was reading it.'"

So maybe Mom should have paid a little more attention? Gosh, how tragic that parents might have to at least read the back cover before handing a book to their kid.

Part of the problem is that the segment interviews mainly 13-year-olds, ignoring the upper end of the 13-18 age range. I also found it interesting that the 13-year-old girls interviewed were all decked out in full makeup, hair, and clothes that made them look much, much older than their early teens. Clearly these are girls in a hurry to grow up. Is it any surprise, then, that they want to read about sex and scandal, just like adults do? If we as a society want kids to stay kids longer, that's an issue that goes much deeper than what kinds of YA books are getting published.

Podcast #4: Interview with Joel Shoemaker

For this podcast, I interview Joel Shoemaker, a middle school librarian and past president of YALSA, about his experiences reviewing books. If you've ever read reviews in School Library Journal, VOYA, or another review source and wondered about the people behind them, here's your chance to get the inside scoop. If you're interested in writing book reviews, or do so already, Joel has great suggestions on how to get started.The complete podcast runs about 30 minutes.

Here are some links related to the podcast:

School Library Journal's checklists for reviewers (scroll down and look for "SLJ.com Xtra" on the right-hand side of the page.
Apply to be a reviewer for SLJ.
Read SLJ's book review policy statement.

If you haven't subscribed to the Teenlibrarian podcasts yet, here's the feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Teenlibrarian

You can also listen on your computer by clicking on a link to the audio file. I'm linking to all of the podcasts from the teenlibrarian.com home page. The list is underneath the listing of most recent blog postings.

If you like the podcast or have suggestions, please post a comment to this blog item or call the audio comment line at (206) 333-1877. I'm also looking for authors, teen librarians, or others to interview. If you're doing an innovative library program for teens, I'd like to talk to you!
Find out how to become a VOYA reviewer and how to submit articles.

This American Life -- Rock Concerts in the Library!

Scroll down to Image Makers8/5 -- Episode 294 -- to listen to the following story using Real Audio:

"Act One. Dewey Decibel System. Alex Blumberg tells the story of an audacious act of rebranding done by a group of people who aren't normally thought of as very audacious: public librarians. In Michigan, they've started staging rock concerts in libraries. The band that's been thrown into the experiment – The High Strung – couldn't be more perfect for the job. (22 minutes)
Song: "Shut Up In the Library," by Barry Lewis Polisar"

Podcast #3: Interview with VOYA Editor Cathi Dunn MacRae

Now that the worst of my recording problems are resolved, I'm pleased to announce my third podcast, an interview with Voice of Youth Advocates editor Cathi Dunn MacRae. She talks about how she became VOYA's editor (almost by accident), gives a behind-the-scenes look at the magazine, and describes some of the new features in VOYA's future. The focus of interview is on how teen librarians can get published, from book reviewing to submitting articles. For anyone interested in submitting their work to VOYA, adding professional publication credits to their resume, or just getting free copies of new books to review, this is a great resource.

For additional information, be sure to read VOYA's newly revised Submission Guidelines.

Also, Cathi e-mailed me after the interview to say that she would also like to mention a new article series she's starting in October, called "How Can We Help?" It deals with how to support teens handle personal problems. As she points out, librarians often form close relationships with teens, and then find out about their problems and want to assist them. How much support and intervention can we provide? The first article is an interview with an a nationally known adolescent psychiatrist, who has written a book about depression in youth. Cathi is looking for teen librarians who would like to share their experiences in this area. If you have something you'd like to contribute, she can be contacted through the VOYA web site.

My thanks to Cathi for doing the interview, and also to Greg Schwartz of Open Stacks for his technical advice and his kind words of encouragement. If you haven't listened to his podcasts on all kinds of library issues, give them a try -- you'll be hooked, as I am. He is definely leading the way as far as library podcasting.

Sex, Drug Deals, and Drama -- My VOYA Article

This is a bit of shameless self-promotion, but I was very excited to see my article for Voice of Youth Advocates -- on African-American urban fiction -- online today as a PDF with a gorgeous cover graphic. The latest issue focuses on minority teens in the library.

Another article in the same issue, by Linda W. Braun, talks about emerging technologies to use with teens in the library. She writes about wikis, RSS and podcasting, and Skype -- three technologies I'm just trying out on the Teenlibrarian website. Also covered are text messaging, tagging/folksonomies, and Creative Commons. A wonderful article, with a list of resources at the end that will be handy for anyone trying to keep up and learn more.

This American Life

Be sure to listen to This American Life the week of Aug. 5-7 (check your local listings). One segment is as follows:

"An institution with the least cool image imaginable attempts a drastic makeover, with the help of a Detroit rock band."

That institution is, of course, the library. The show looks at a rock concert held in a Michigan library by YA librarian Bill Harmer. I'll post a link to the RealAudio version after the show airs.

Article about teen librarians in PAGES

Here's a great article about library services to teens in the online edition of PAGES magazine. It begins:

"They're hip, young, and loud, far more likely to be shushed than to shush. Some are pierced and tattooed, but most look subversively mainstream. They share a passion for libraries and teenagers-and the radical belief that the two belong together. Against a backdrop of a surging youth population and young-adult publishing boom, a new breed of librarian is targeting teens with funky websites, unusual activities, and cool places to crash that are all their own."

Those interviewed include VOYA editor Cathi Dunn MacRae and teen librarians Dawn Rutherford, Tricia Suellentrop, and Jennifer Hubert.

Ann Brashares on "Rainbow Party" and Book Ratings System

A good article in the opinion section of the New York Times on Sunday by Ann Brashares, author of the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series, on whether we need a rating system for young adult fiction. At first I was worried that she was endorsing such a system:

"'Rainbow Party' is not contraband in any obvious way. It's published by a children's division and sold in bookstores' young adult sections, which are usually in or adjacent to their children's sections. By its look, title and placement in the bookstore you would have no idea what you were getting. And you should at least know.

So what's the best way of telling you? Should publishers put a ratings system in place? It seems to work effectively for movies and electronic games. It's a fairly simple solution. If a book has obscenity, sexual content, drugs and drinking and violence, publishers could put an M for "mature content" on the cover."

But read a bit further and you'll find that she discusses the implications and how impossible to it would be to do it. Her insights and suggestions are good ones, and I'm glad she's not caught up in the hysteria sparked by this one book, "Rainbow Party."