More on Genres and Boys as Readers: Strategies for Booktalking

I spent a lot of the morning talking to a teacher about how her students should be blogging more... like 3 times per week. As I was talking, I thought to myself that I was a bit hypocritical as I have neglected this one. So, here I am.

I agree with everything GBN librarian said on the last post, but here are some more random thoughts on the subject.

First, genres. I agree that when booktalking it is good to be aware of the genre labels because it really is hard to get teenagers to branch out and try something different, and by mentioning that label, you could turn them off right away to a book they might otherwise really like. I was the same way in high school. My brother constantly read science fiction, but I refused to try it until I was required by a teacher to read 1984, and Brave New World. After that, I thought it was pretty cool, and realized that there were other things to read besides V.C. Andrews, Danielle Steel. Two other favorites of mine were The Thorn Birds, and Evergreen by Belva Plain.

I also think that at some stage in high school, many students are starting to think more about philosophical and psychological issues, and they start to read for more than just pure entertainment (although entertainment is always important! Maybe satisfaction is a word to add here though). At this stage it could be really satisfying for them to read outside their genre (My experience with science fiction fits this idea, and both of the books you mentioned--Ender's Game and The Golden Compass could too as they can be read on multiple levels. Hmmm....maybe the fascination with the afterlife fits here too--as with Elsewhere and Five People You Meet and Lovely Bones). So, I think many might be ready to branch out to another genre even though they aren't sure how to do so. Related to that, in this library there seems to be a phenomenon with older students (boys in particular) where they start to ASK for books that are philosophical (like Way of the Peaceful Warrior).

Some teachers actually require that students try different genres over the course of the year, so it is good to think about this when booktalking. I liked the phrases GBN Librarian listed, and I also try (with mixed results) to think of new and different ways of grouping books. Examples might be: "these two books are two that would cause you to redefine the concept of courage," or "both of these books are romantic" or "both of these books are about loyalty to friends" ....and then in those groups include two that are very different. (We could start a list--do any come to mind?). I guess the key is to hook them some how and sustain their interest in that title. That might involve not even mentioning any hint about the genre until the end. (We did this a lot with Twilight as you mentioned, and Blood and Chocolate.)

O.K., back to the topic of boys. In a previous post, I mentioned looking at some Cormier books. I have second thoughts about that posting and feel that I oversimplified boys' tastes....I don't want to stereotype. Here's a little story that caused me to stop and think about that posting. The other day, a boy in a football uniform came in and told us that he needed another book. He had already read Forever by Judy Blume, and Diamond Dogs by Alan Watt, and he was looking for something else. While I was talking to him in the stacks, a girl came along and said "Oh, Sebastian likes girly books." He was a little embarrassed, but it didn't stop him from being honest about what he liked. I think we gave him Tuesdays with Morrie, Fallen Angels, and Breathing Underwater, books that aren't normally thought of as "girly." I briefly thought about giving him Year of Secret Assignments because it is about boy/girl relationships, and would be more like Forever than the other three we gave him, but he seemed interested in the 3 in front of him and we felt like we should give him space. The point of this is that I need to remember that variety is important, stereotyping is all too easy, and kids might not be able to be open about what they really like or want. Christine Jenkins, in the YA lit class in my LEEP program, emphasized variety over and over again. Teenagers like all kinds of things. Include everything so that they are aware of choices.

As I write this I also have in front of me the School Library Journal from Sept. 2007 with a cover story called The Boy Problem. I think I'll read that next.

This is way too long. Future posts will probably be shorter, but hopefully I'll be posting more frequently, just like those reading students.

Boy Books

I agree that its hard to find young adult boy books that the boys actually like. It seems that they don't go for the problem novels like the girls do. Books like Breathing Underwater (about abuse), seem to be preferred by girls even though they have a boy protagonist.

My favorite books to booktalk for young adult boys are Acceleration by Graham McNamee, Black and White by Paul Volponi (we also have his newer one, Rooftop, which I haven't read), and Son of the Mob by Gorman Korman. Its good to keep in mind, however, that Son of the Mob has a lot of cultural references and irony that is hard for ELL students. I tried it with an ELL book group and had to give it up and switch to another title.

I've been interested in checking out some of the new Robert Cormier books, like Tenderness, The Rag and Bone Shop and Heroes, but I haven't gotten around to it. I think all three of those sound pretty disturbing, but they are very short. I think we're looking for those two things for our audience of reading students. We don't want to talk down to them and give them young protagonists and young themes, but we don't want to give them a 400 novel either. Did you notice when our colleague booktalked Paranoid Park? That sounded really compelling, and its another one I want to read because it seems to "fit" our/their needs.

I'd like to find more sports books for lower level readers. I liked Travel Team and the Feinstein Final Four mystery is supposed to be good, but the protagonists are so young. In my past life, kids have really liked the Lipsyte books (The Contender, for example), but I've never read them. The covers of the copies we have look pretty dated. Others we should check out are How I Fell in Love and Learned to Shoot Free Throws, and Keeper.

Nonfiction is another thing we should focus on more. Boys seem to like it. More on that some other time.

Reflections on a Booktalk from a New Librarian

I recently completed my first "professional" booktalk. I must say, it was quite exciting to finally use all of the knowledge I had been storing in grad school in a real school setting.

The positives:
1. Doing the booktalk in teams of 2 made me more comfortable. I had someone else to back me up, and I felt less "on the spot".
2. Encouraging class participation makes the booktalk more interesting. This may seem obvious, but it really helps to welcome questions from students and encourage them to offer their own opinions of the books you talk about.

The main problem I encountered was that I had a lack of books that would appeal to boys. There are numerous amounts of YA books that feature female lead characters. Where are all the boys?