Thoughts On--"Young Adult Literature: Growing Up in Theory" and "Point of Departure"

Karen Coats' article: Young Adult Literature: Growing Up in Theory, in providing a brief examination of the genre (what essentially amounts to a concise historiography), intelligently argues that Young Adult Literature deserves recognition in the literary discourse as a 'destination' all its own--rather than suffer "as an in-between phenomenon that is useful only for pedagogical applications" Does she succeeds? ...I think so, and rather convincingly. She achieves this in a number of ways, but perhaps most successfully in the manner in which she describes the history of Young Adult Literature to be one which is particularly deep and rich, and also significantly complicated. Her inspection of the controversies and difficulties of the genre are particularly convincing: how should the genre be defined/can it be defined? While these ambiguities can be conceived as weaknesses or pitfalls (those which should not exist in full fledged disciplines and which should exclude YA Literature from this category) I chose to interpret these as evidence of the contrary; I think it proves that YA Literature is complex and even dynamic, trademarks of all disciplines and active literary genres.

Markus Zusak's Point of Departure, where should I begin... I thought it to be very complimentary to Coats' article. More personal in nature, it imparts an opinion which seeks to bring creditability and a certain level of respect and stature to Young Adult Literature and its writers--"YA novels sit comfortably next to all great works of fiction". He makes this assessment highlighting the many difficulties YA writers face, citing the disservice that being classified a YA author, and the challenge of catering to the diverse YA audience.

Library Visit

So, I managed to make it down to a public library the other day; this is what I observed.

This was the first time visiting this particular library. I was somewhat surprised by its size, rather small by most standards; the place was, however, busy-a good sign. I made my way to the Teen Annex section. I was somewhat unimpressed with the size of the collection; it occupied only an area of shelves roughly 12 feet in length, included was a grouping of lounge chairs and a table, several computer workstations and a rather stylish faux house plant.

The collection itself was relatively diverse with an arrangement of the usual suspects of materials. Additionally, there were plenty of Graphic Novels, both of the 'domestic' sort, but also a bunch of magna. A small rack of magazines was also present, but they seemed to cater to wide audience-interesting subject variety nonetheless (science, geography, sports, fashion).

The Teen Annex area was basically void of any evidence of human activity expect for myself, an older gentlemen reading a newspaper (in one of the comfortable chairs) and the vociferous singing of a children’s activity session which was being conducted just 10 feet away in the children's section; they were singing some of my all-time favourites: head, shoulders, knees, and toes (it is an oldie but a goodie). I suspect the time of day was the reason I saw no YA's, I suspect they were at school. Additionally, it appears that the community itself in which this library is located is generally populated by the older folks, so I doubt that they receive too many YAs.

Reflection On: "Teenagers Talking About Reading and Libraries" -Clare Snowball

Citing the dilemma that "as children reach adolescents, they become less likely to read in their in leisure time and thus visit libraries less" Clare Snowball sets out in her aptly titled: Teenager Talking About Reading and Libraries, to discover the reading habits and perceptions of teenagers. She attempts this through an examination of 41 highschool aged participants; each teenager was assigned to one of a total of seven focus groups.
The article explores three basic concepts: Do Teenagers Read, What Do Teenagers Read, and Teenagers in the Library. Each area is covered rather well with great attention to detail and sensitivity to the issues; however, little in the way new insights are contributed -perhaps outside of that which was revealed in her discussion of graphic novels, the refusal of some teenagers to read from left to right as was required to do for magna comics. The article basically concludes that the diversity of the teenage reading habits and preferences are as diverse as the population of teenagers in general. Additionally, the argument is made that in order to stoke the interests of 'non-readers' and help encourage further reading among self-admitted avid readers librarians must be vigilant in promoting and providing young adults materials.
I must admit I did enjoy the authors discussion of what constitutes reading; it naturally got me thinking are some formats better than others, is not all reading created equal? In most cases I tend to agree reading is reading, except perhaps for that which occurs on instant messaging or facebook. The latter type of reading, although, it does engage the brain, it mirrors the pattern of speech far too much, I think, to be considered proper -especially as it is often riddle with abbreviations and spelling errors. However, I am not entirely entrenched in this belief.