Welcome to the Dark Side

Now that the Christmas insanity is over, I'll be back to blogging on a more regular schedule. Today I was on the NY Times homepage when the following discussion caught my eye: The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction.

Has anyone read this yet? I found the arguments to be nothing new, nor the contributors to be anything but the regular mix of popular young adult authors and english professors who have published books/articles on the subject. Their explanations as to why 'dark fiction' has become popular made me feel like I was sitting in my young adult literature class discussing the reasons why teens read fiction let alone dark fiction. Naturally the contributors referred to classic, popular, and notorious works of young adult fiction which the standard well-read Times reader would be familiar with or at least have heard of.

Could the Times not find a young adult librarian to participate in this discussion? Who else would be better to ask than an expert in the field, the very people who are there on the front lines assisting and seeing the choices teens make in regards to what they want to read. I'm hoping someone out there who is currently a young adult librarian will respond to that discussion.

Straight Science Fiction

Last week while I was sitting at the Circulation Desk a teenage girl came up to me and asked for help finding a science fiction book to read. The kicker was, her teacher absolutely refused to accept anything but straight science fiction and absolutely, positively NO crossovers into such genres as horror or fantasy. This left me scratching my head for a minute.

Which it shouldn't have.

I mean how many of you automatically thought of Douglas Adam's Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game? Because I didn't. At least not at first.

Fortunately I'm not the only one at my library who reads books from the young adult section; my co-worker S. happened to overhear the girl and suggested those, along with a couple others: practically anything Scott Westerfeld, Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox, and a couple of ones from the adult section which I don't remember now.

The girl ended up checking out Westerfeld's Uglies and I was left with the realization that here was a genre amongst Young Adult Fiction which I was sorely lacking in experience. This is something which must be remedied so I'm asking whoever is out there to send your recommendations my way. It doesn't have to be 'straight science fiction' as this girls stubborn teacher was insisting (so it can have cross-over appeal) but it does have to be written for or something that appeals to a young adult audience.

I can't wait to hear your recommendations!