What Are They Reading for Fun?
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compiled by Marlene Charnizon -- School Library Journal, 11/19/2008 8:36:00 AM
Vampire stories? Sure. Gritty adult titles? Yes. Manga? Yes and no.
Karyn Storts-Brinks, Fulton High School, Knoxville, TN:
If it’s a series, a trilogy, about vampires, or some combination of these, we can’t keep it on the shelves. There is renewed enthusiasm for Stephenie Meyer’s titles (Little, Brown) in anticipation of the release of the film Twilight, and the newest favorites with “bite” are Rachel Caine’s “Morganville Vampires” books (NAL Jam), Amanda Marrone’s Uninvited (S & S, 2007), and Sebastian Rooke’s “The Vampire Plagues” (Scholastic). Manga is extremely popular, with Matsuri Hino’s “Vampire Knight” (Viz Media), Judal’s “Vampire Game" (Tokyopop), and the graphic novel version of Ellen Schreiber’s Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives, adapted by Diana McKeon Charkalis (Tokyopop, 2008), doubly so. Students who have enjoyed Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999) are now loving Jake Wizner’s Spanking Shakespeare (Random, 2007), Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (Penguin, 2007), and Perry Moore’s Hero (Hyperion, 2007).
Lorraine Wiener, Inglewood High School, Inglewood, CA:
At our inner city school, we have students who enjoy reading about gangs, drugs, or war such as Luis J. Rodriguez’s Always Running: Gang Days in L.A. (Touchstone, 2005) or La Vida Loca (Fireside, 2005), the Spanish version of Always Running, and Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member (Grove Press, 2004) by Sanyika Shakur. Students also like books about U.S. military history, the Vietnam War, how to draw, origami, and cookbooks. Manga is not allowed in the school district, nor do students request it. We have a vampire book club. The “Cirque du Freak” series by Darren Shan (Little, Brown), anything by Anne Rice, and of course Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga” are popular too. Struggling readers prefer the reluctant readers series published by Orca but also check out the above.
Leah Krippner, Harlem High School, Machesney Park, IL:
Our students come from families with small-town values, but their reading selections often embrace a more urban sensibility. Vampire books and manga, with Kaoru Mori’s “Emma” (Wildstorm) enjoying increased circulation lately, are as popular here as anywhere else, but more surprising is the worldly bent teens display in their other pleasure-reading choices. Gritty personal narratives are huge, including such titles as Reymund Sanchez’s My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King (Chicago Review, 2000), Kerry Cohen’s Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity (Hyperion, 2008), and James Salant’s Leaving Dirty Jersey: A Crystal Meth Memoir (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2008). Our readers also crave fantasy fiction like Juliet Marillier’s Wildwood Dancing (Knopf, 2007), and Brisingr, the third book in Christopher Paolini’s “Inheritance” series, rarely spends a weekend resting on the shelves.
