An up-to-date spot for library staff serving youth around Wisconsin to find relevant news, events, and resources. Links should be correct at the time of publication. If a link is incorrect, please contact the blog administrator within a month of publication. Links on older posts may have changed.
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In a startling and insightful piece, Kelly Jensen over at Book Riot explores the role of adult readers of YA lit defining and boosting the genre more than teen readers do - especially on social media. She also dives deeply into the issue of white gatekeeping of the literature and the damage this does.
She writes: "Despite the fact young adult books are “for” teenagers, it’s rarely teens who are shouting the loudest about those books. They’re reading them, but they’re not necessarily the ones making the most noise about books in the YA “community” on social media."
Join thousands of librarians on August 8 for the eighth annual SLJTeen Live! virtual conference without leaving the comfort of your home (or reference desk).
This FREE, daylong event will feature high-profile and up-and-coming YA authors talking about their latest titles for teens. You'll also have the chance to get advice from innovative librarians tackling timely issues relevant to your teens and services.
This year’s theme is Knocking Down Doors. Find out more and register HERE.
Recently, Angie Thomas was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly, where she discussed her best-selling book The Hate U Give and her thoughts on the recurring resistance her book has faced since its publication.
Many of the adverse parties are concerned about the graphic depictions of drug use, police brutality, and the regular use of explicit language throughout the story. Thomas responds as such:
“When you say ‘Black Lives Matter’ to three different people, you get 30 different reactions,” Thomas says. “There are so many misunderstandings. There’s the assumption that it’s an antipolice book, when the fact is it’s anti-police brutality.” She continues, in regard to the language: “There are books with way more curse words in them, for one. And two, there are 89 F-bombs in The Hate U Give. But there were 800 people killed by police officers last year alone.”
With the film adaptation being released in select theaters this month, the book and its story are likely to be a topic of conversation for quite awhile.
And speaking of the movie, have y'all seen the trailer?!
When a beloved YA author/illustrator/editor gets accused of sexual harassment or assault, or abuse of power, what should librarians do with their works? Keep them on the shelf? Remove? Open discussion with teens regarding the content of the material versus the author's life choices? This is a thorny situation all the way around, but there have been some great blog posts discussing different elements of the problem and various ways to respond. Check out Kelly's take over at Stacked HERE and AASL's thoughts in this post HERE.
