Talk to teens

This past month, I spoke to teens and their librarian in the school library where I work. According to the school’s website, “This Regional High School is a six-year regional high school which enrolls over eight hundred students and serves five rural towns. The mission of This Regional High School Library Media Center is to provide students, faculty and administrators with the material and resources necessary to support the curriculum and instruct students to be skilled, effective and ethical library users. The library also provides an environment that encourages learning, both for intellectual and personal development.” Students are allowed to visit the library throughout the day as their schedule allows, usually during study halls.

The librarian, Librarian, told me that it is impossible to generalize to say what teens like to read, especially where there is such a large age range from seventh through twelfth grades. However, she has seen teens enjoy characters successfully overcoming problems; they usually do not like unhappy endings. Some specific interests include fantasy and realistic fiction; only a few prefer non-fiction and it is not as popularly chosen for pleasure reading. Those that do choose non-fiction are usually boys, and they do not tend to read as much as the female population. By age, more middle school students are reading than high school students.

She feels that the favorite medium for teens’ pleasure reading is online. A recent Frontline episode about internet activity of teens reported a teen being surprised that they are expected to read a book for class; there is no time and the teens would prefer to use Sparknotes, or similar synopsis websites. Additionally, teens spend a lot of time reading in MySpace, instant messaging, and texting. At this point in their lives, reading for pleasure might take a back seat, but patterns are already set. Those who are already readers will continue to read, others do not want to make the time to read for pleasure. They are more social, and reading is not their recreation of choice. Teens also like to read magazines.

Librarian supports the reading that teens do by continuing popular series, and looking for new books that will appeal to teens. She is willing to bend constrictions, and offer more service than other public schools might, specifically a larger fiction collection. Most students have a difficult time getting to their public libraries due to limited hours, and transportation issues in this rural area. Of course there are restrictions, and Librarian cannot have every book a student might like; but she will work to make them available from the local public libraries.  She goes to the local library, and picks up books ordered through interlibrary loan.

Librarian struggles to support teen reading in relation to budget, appropriateness, and the age range. The biggest struggle is budget! Librarian also has to be aware that the content needs to be appropriate for a school, and that each title could stand up to a challenge. While she is not personally bothered by sexual content, that is what usually bothers others the most, and she tries to look at each book from others’ points of view. Additionally, seventh graders and high school seniors read different material. Parents of seventh grade students might not want their children to read the books that interest a senior. But that is a choice for the parents, not the library.

Was she right? Only teens can tell, and they did. I passed out approximately 30 reading logs to students entering the library, and received 5 completed logs back from them. I interviewed those that returned their logs, and showed recommended books to them and other library students. I began by showing the reading log so that the students could remember what they had read.  I asked each student the following questions:

1. What surprised you about your reading habits?

2. What do you tend to like to read?

3. What don’t you like to read?

4. Have you read any of the books in front of you? If so, what did you think?

5. Which of these books would you read? Why?

6. Which of these books would you definitely not read? Why not?

Only one of the students I interviewed was surprised about her reading habits that she had recorded over a 24 hour period. Student A told me she was surprised she had read so much in a day without picking up a book. Most of what she had read was assigned, except for message board and instant messaging.  One honors student, Student B, told me he already “knew he read a lot.”

When I asked the students what they liked to read, each of them told me a genre of book. Interestingly, although they wrote on their reading logs that they read emails and instant messages, no one told me that they like to read electronic material. Students at This Regional High School like to read sports fiction, mysteries, fantasy, adventure, magic, romance, non-fiction history, mystery, manga, graphic novels, fiction, mysteries, and “anything.”  The students told me they do not like to read scary books; non-fiction; romance, poetry, cartoons; “most of the stuff we read in school; I’m not into the classics we have to read in English class;” “plays and stuff for English;” and articles about famous people. The librarian was right; we cannot generalize about what teens like to read. Student A told me she used to read more, when she had more time, before she was forced to read novels in class. When she reads at home, she falls asleep. She has been reading Wicked all year due to her lack of time; she is the only student who mentioned that she did not have enough time to read for pleasure. 

During the interviews I had books out for the students to look at. The titles came from YALSA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers over the past three years, and this year’s Best Books for Young Adults. The titles are

· Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

· Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline Cooney

· Glass by Ellen Hopkins

· The Secret Life of the It Girls by David Lubar

· What my Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

· Freak Show by James St. James

· Rooftop by Paul Volponi

· The Last Days by Scott Westerfield

· The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

· Maximum Ride the Angel Experiment by James Patterson

· Peak by Roland Smith

· Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

· The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

· White Darkness by Patricia McCaughrean

· The New Policeman by Kate Thompson

For the students who would not return a reading log, I included some graphic novels, as they are the reluctant readers.  The students saw:

· Robot Dreams

· American Born Chinese

· Alichino

I asked all the students their opinions about the books, and they were very mixed. Student C would not read any of the books with black covers because they look scary. Student B was not interested in any of the books because he already has a pile of books to read at home, and the books by Sones, Westerfield, and St. James “look like high school-y type things just by the cover.” A few reluctant readers would read some of the graphic novels; many people said they would not read them at all. Most of the girls were interested in books by Hopkins, Anderson, and Sones, but not all. Most of the boys would not pick up those books. Student D, who prefers to read non-fiction, was the only one who said he would be interested in reading Peak, and that was the only book of those that he showed interest in.

Overall, it seems that Librarian has a fairly good idea what students like to read. She is right that it is impossible to generalize, as with any group of people, what they would like to read. She did specifically mention fantasy, which Student B told me he likes to read. Several teens were attracted to the realistic fiction titles that relate to teen lives. Librarian also expected that the teens spend a lot of time reading online, which is reflected in their reading logs.  One student did tell me that she likes to read books where the character overcomes problems!

By taking the time to talk with teens specifically about their reading, I got to learn more about their habits.  I was not very surprised at the amount of material teens read. I see that many do not take a lot of time to read books for pleasure, but see the same majority spending a lot of time online. I unfortunately learned that the graphic novels were not more popular; I had been hoping to add them to our collection. I was surprised at first that the quick picks for reluctant readers were not more popular. However, the students that chose to complete the reading log are not reluctant readers. The reluctant readers refused to take a reading log. They were the ones interested in the quick picks.  Apparently, quick picks for reluctant readers are not for everyone.

As a result of these focused conversations with teen students, I will be able to build a collection that keeps them reading.  For now, I will continue to promote the books in which any of the students expressed interest, and appreciate their reading at whatever level they are reading.