Sunday, July 28, 2013

Week 7, Assignments 1-4

June 3, 2013
As we are all aware, there is a large amount of crossover between teen and adult fiction readership; therefore, it is helpful to be familiar with current titles and trends in teen literature. We all know about Twilight and The Hunger Games, but what’s next? Is it all just vampires and arena battles? Let’s spend this week finding out.

 Week 7: Assignment 1Take a look at the “What to Read Next” flowchart from the Lawrence Public Library (also available in PDF format.)

This is perhaps one of my favorite resources so far on the Be More Bookish journey. I have copied the charts for personal and readers' advisory reference and have already used them to offer new recommendations.

Week 7: Assignment 2
Read any two of the following short articles. Post comments on your blog, and make comments on two colleagues’ blogs.
I selected YA Comes of Age and New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak or Valued Subgenre. I found the New Adult article offered some clarification as to the nature of a term we've encountered more often this year. While I can't say that I think the moniker "New Adult" isn't potentially confusing for customers, I can see the particular usefulness of it as an in-house term for pinpointing those materials which might hold particular relevance and appeal for college-age readers and beyond - a readership which the author notes has contributed to the boom of the YA readership and is now starting to "age out." I found this to be a thoughtful article that provides some useful clarification as to the relevance of the term "New Adult," or at least its role in retail and marketing. YA Comes of Age did not impress me nearly as much and seemed to be more of a rehash of that which we have already observed about YA trends.

I opted to post to John Curreri's blog and to Karin Kinzel's.

Week 7: Assignment 3
Choose any two of the following blogs/websites. Follow them for a week. Post comments to your blog regarding who is writing it, who is the intended audience, is it successful, etc.
I decided to follow Forever Young Adult and Stacked.
I love the description of Forever Young Adult, as a site for those who are "a little less Y and a little more A." I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the site: its book reports, its commentaries on upcoming movies and shows based on popular YA series, and even its throw-back mentions to some notable adult fiction with crossover appeal. I'll definitely keep this one on my radar.
One of my favorite features of Stacked is how balanced the posts are. Stacked kept my interest by incorporating a variety of different article formats, including interviews, one-sentence book reviews, in-depth reviews and personable commentaries on trends in YA lit. 


 Week 7: Assignment 4 Choose any two of the following teen imprints and spend some time on their websites. Blog about any trends you find in either current or forthcoming teen fiction.
I opted to explore several of the links before settling on Little, Brown Books for Teens and Teens/Penguin Young Readers.  
Little Brown Books for Teens was moderately useful. I can't say it will stay on my radar in the same way that say Forever Young Adult will, but I explored it and enjoyed the way that the categories were mixed together yet tagged with subject-related icons (Books/Authors/For Fun/Community). The Books and Community sections provided some interesting forecasts of upcoming teen reads, but overall it was less informative and a little less well organized than some of the Be More Bookish resources I've reviewed recently. The For Fun category in particular could stand some improvement.
Teens at Random was considerably more useful and appealing overall. I appreciated the layout and found the categories to be comprehensive and well-organized. I found the mini-sites to be a whimsical touch and felt it was an effective way of keeping tabs on the latest news/publications, etc. in current teen series' without cluttering the main page with articles and news flashes.  I'll find the Minisites link and the Most Viewed Books  to be continually useful as the year progresses. I've already used the Minisites in readers' advisory. I do hope that they repair the link "Books for Boys," as when I tried to explore this potential goldmine it was inoperable. I'll keep an eye on the website in hopes of utilizing that particular feature soon. 
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