Reading Spaces

YALSA's new research agenda

The YALSA Research Committee has put forward 4 priority areas for research:

Priority Area 1: Impact of Libraries on Young Adults

Priority Area 2: Young Adult Reading and Resources

Priority Area 3: Information Seeking Behaviors and Needs of Young Adults

Priority Area 4: Informal and Formal Learning Environments and Young Adults

For full details see: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/research/researchagenda.cfm

What many of us have been saying at least since the NEA 2004 report: Young People Are Reading More Than You by Hannah Withers and Lauren Ross, in McSweeney's

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/young-people-are-reading-more-than-you

Breaking News: And Tango Makes Three is the most challenged book in US, again

No surprise there, but I was (kinda) surprised to see Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian on the list. Of course, super popular books like Twilight and The Hunger Games are on the top 10. In fact, 7 of the top 10 most challenged books are YA novels, and when you add Parnell and Richardson's books, that makes 8 for books for young people. But, perhaps, the oddest addition this year is Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed. As this Associated Press release tells us,

"One curious addition was Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich's non-fiction work about how difficult it is to live as a waitress, maid or Walmart worker. The book is cited for offensive language, drugs and as "inaccurate."

I just finished reading Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Undermines America, I wonder if it will be challenged too? To my mind, it's potentially more controversial than Nickel and Dimed. I highly recommend both titles.

Over at I'm Here, I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read, Lee Wind has issued a reading challenge to his readers -- Read the Top 10 and protest these challenges! I've already read 7 of the 10 but have added Lush, What My Mother Doesn't Know (ok -- I read half of it) and Revolutionary Voices to the pile of things to be read.

Review: Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love

This 2010 DC Comics (Vertigo) publication, riffs off of the original Fables series created by Bill Willingham. The cast of creators for Cinderella: Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer). As a reader, I find this series deeply satisfying and wholly suspend disbelief to engage with parallel Fable worlds with all of the intrigues and power struggles as various Fables attempt to assert dominance or to protect the autonomy of their kind. In this stand alone bio of Cinderella were learn more of her origins and learn that she's certainly more than her current persona as "globe-trotting gadabout" -- she's Fabletown's greatest secret agent. And in this story, she's on assignment in Dubai, where she meets another spy-assassin, Aladdin, representative of the Arabian homeworld. Together, they seek to stem the tide of magical items disappearing from their worlds, worried about what the effects would be if these items made it into mundy (i.e., human) hands.

Recommended to those who like fairytales with a twist. And with 5 more Cinderella titles on the slate, there's lots more where this came from!

 

Library Gaming Special Edition of Teen Librarian

take a look at this UK update on gaming in libraries in the context of youth services.

(by way of YA Library UK)

New article on book trailers: ALAN Revew

ALAN Review Fall 2010: feature article on booktrailers: from the ALAN blog:

"The first featured article “Not so innocent: Book trailers as promotional texts and anticipatory stories”, written by Denise Davila, was published in the Fall 2010 issue of The ALAN Review.  In her article, Davila proposes that book trailers, produced as part of the official promotion of a published YA book, “can be viewed as a texts and cultural artifacts” in and of themselves.  Her article also includes the findings of three different research studies in which college undergraduates respond to promotional book trailers."