YA fiction | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Summer Reading Is Killing Me!

As the end of school nears (well, here it’s actually over) stories about summer reading loss and editorials in favor of a year round calendar start to make an appearance. Politics aside, research really does show that kids who don’t read over summer break actually backslide in their reading ability and skills. Enter the required summer reading list.

Here are a couple of books that appear on the the local high school’s reading list for kids going into their sophomore year of high school.

Night by Elie Wiesel
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier

Are these really books teens should read on their own? I’m not saying that tenth graders are unable to read the words, but the content is pretty disturbing. To be fair, the list also includes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and students are required to read only one of the books on the list (there are about 20), while they can choose the other. But still. Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide, discusses the problem of assigning a book like Night in his book- it’s a powerful book, but not a book I’d call recreational reading. I might be wrong, but I don’t think it’s likely to inspire recreational reading, either.

But there ARE a lot of great resources for encouraging summer reading. Your local library probably has a summer reading program (ours does- in fact, it has separate programs for kids, YA’s and adults), and if you or your kids aren’t intrinsically motivated to pick up a book and read, go sign up and you’ll usually get prizes for reading- free food, books, and so on. Generally the library has lists of books for different age ranges that can get you started.Don’t be scared to ask the librarian (a surprising number of people are).

There are also some fun websites with reading recommendations for kids and teens. I’ll just mention a few.Believe me, there are many!

Jon Scieszka, author of many awesome books for kids, has a great program called Guys Read, aimed at, well, getting guys to read. I love the categories of books on the site! You can’t not, with topics like “At least one explosion” and “Mysterious Occurences” stored in their vault. As a bonus, right on the home page, if you scroll down and look under “Let’s Get To The Books”, there is a list of “scary stories”. Guys Read actually promotes scary stories for kids! Go there, check it out, and then check some of those books out of your library.
James Patterson also sponsors a website intended to promote reading called ReadKiddoRead. While some of the booklists are outdated, the current reviews are great, and the site is geared toward creating an online community supportive of getting all kinds of kids reading. I’d say this one is aimed much more at parents and educators than Guys Read is, but it’s another resource with suggestions for all kinds of reads.
Finally, some good lists for summer reading choices for teens can be found through YALSA, the American Library Association’s division for young adult library services, particularly their “Best of the Best”.

Oh my gosh, it’s a flood of books! Kelly Gallagher would be proud. Pick a couple and read them on your own, or together with your kids, your family, your friends… Just do it. And have a great summer.

The “Ick” Factor in YA Fiction

A trend I’ve noticed lately in YA fiction, especially the paranormal titles aimed at teen girls, is something I call the “ick” factor.

When I’m reading a YA paranormal and all of a sudden I’m knocked out of the story because the situation is so wrong I can’t buy it, or because the characters are acting in ways that make me want to shake them…. usually, that’s because of the “ick” factor.

“Hush, Hush” is a great example of this. Nora, the narrator, intuitively KNOWS that Patch, who she’s been paired with for a school unit on human sexuality is creepy. She asks to change partners, and the teacher not only refuses, he singles them out in class and requires her to tutor her partner. This goes beyond just icky behavior to disturbing. And that doesn’t even touch on the way Nora starts to act when she is around Patch. He acts creepy. He’s a jerk to her. He even tells her he’s a threat to her. Yet she constantly puts herself in danger to be with him. “Hush, Hush” is a bestseller, so lots and lots of girls are reading about Nora and Patch. I’ll also say the cover art is amazing, and screams out “pick me up”! A lot of people obviously have.

But that’s just one outstanding example of the “ick” factor. Sometimes the “ick” factor is almost under the radar. I hate to pick on Jackson Pearce, but the age difference of five years between the romantically involved characters in “Sisters Red” (he’s 21, she’s 16)… well, frankly, most people who see a 21 year old getting involved with a high school aged girl wonder what’s up. I like “Sisters Red”, but the age thing bugs me.

Now, I don’t see this in all YA books. The Generation Dead books by Daniel Waters are great, with strong protagonists and organically flowing plots… I don’t get that icky feeling (even though many of the characters are zombies… THAT’s an accomplishment}. So I know those books, the YA books I can feel good about reading and recommending, are out there. The question is, are they finding their way to those voracious YA-I-loved-Twilight readers? I would hate to think that a lack awesome cover art and marketing are keeping good YA books from getting into the hands of people who would love them, if they only knew.

Suggestions, anyone?