What Are They Reading for Fun?
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compiled by Marlene Charnizon -- School Library Journal, 10/26/2009 3:49:00 PM
Tom Spicer, Arlington Heights Memorial Library, IL:
For those teenagers who need more romance-y type fantasy, well–here in our suburban Chicago library they’ve been devouring L.J. Smith’s “The Vampire Diaries” series (HarperTeen) and burning through Ally Carter’s Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Hyperion, 2009). And everyone’s keyed in on what’s happening in Suzanne Collins’s Catching Fire (Scholastic, 2009).
James Kennedy, author of The Order of Odd-Fish (Delacorte, 2008), recently visited our library. He set up a “Dome of Doom” and screamed ritualistic insults from the book, making his audience laugh hard. We purchased 30 copies of his book and haven’t been able to keep any of them on the shelves.
When I booktalk at high schools, I use a couple of Alex Awards nominees: Hannah Tinti’s fantastic, pitch-perfect The Good Thief (Dial, 2008), an adventure set in Colonial New England, and David Benioff’s suspenseful World War II novel City of Thieves (Viking, 2008), which have been getting a good response.
Laura Amos, Newport News Public Library, VA:
In keeping with the current desire for vampire and horror tales, we get a lot of requests for Darren Shan’s “Cirque du Freak” novels (Little, Brown) as well as P.C. and Krstin Cast’s “House of Night” (St. Martin’s). Our teens are also reading Stephen King and clamoring for Suzanne Collins’s Catching Fire (Scholastic, 2009). Popular authors who are consistently recommended by one reader to another include John Green, Meg Cabot, Libba Bray, Sarah Dessen, and Lauren Myracle. Also in demand is Sapphire’s Push (Vintage, 1997), which was adapted into the new feature film Precious. YA nonfiction requests include Zoe Trope’s Please Don’t Kill the Freshman: a Memoir (HarperCollins, 2003) and two titles by Sarah O’Leary Burningham, How to Raise Your Parents: A Teen Girl’s Survival Guide (2008) and Boyology: a Teen Girl’s Crash Course in All Things Boy (2009, both Chronicle).
Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT:
We are a medium-sized urban library with a diverse population, including many families from Poland and Puerto Rico. Many teens want to read realistic urban fiction about life’s daily struggles. Paul Langan’s “Bluford High” series (Scholastic), Kimani Tru books, and biographies like Nic Sheff’s Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines (S & S, 2007) have been big hits. As for vampires, “Twilight” fever (Little, Brown) continues, and L.J. Smith’s “The Vampire Diaries” (HarperTeen) is almost impossible to keep on the shelves. These trends are balanced out by a huge graphic novel following that includes Yuna Kagesaki’s “Chibi Vampire” (TokyoPop), Masashi Kishimoto’s “Naruto,” Tite Kubo’s “Bleach,” and Yukiya Sakuragi’s “Inubaka” (all Viz Media), and Miyuki Kobayashi’s “Kitchen Princess” (Del Rey).
