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April 9, 2012 by Karen Jensen, MLS

Why YA? Now it’s your turn

April 9, 2012 by Karen Jensen, MLS   3 comments

Earlier this week I wrote a post entitled Why YA? in response to Joel Stein’s proclamation that adults should only read adult books.  To date it is my most viewed post.  It has also received the greatest amount of feedback, publicly and privately.  So many of you have written me and talked about various YA books and how they changed your life.  And many more of you talked about how important it is for adults to be able to engage meaningfully with teens about the things that matter most to them.

So I thought we would take the dialogue and turn it into a regular feature here at TLT and give you the chance to voice your opinions and share what ya means to you and what books, exactly, you think that adults should be reading – and why?  I hope that you will participate.

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Here is how it will work:

Write up a guest blog post in a word document and send it to me via email as an attachment to kjensenmls@yahoo.com.  Talk about a specific ya title, why yas like it, what it means to you, and why you think adults should read it.

Include in your email a brief bio as you would like it to appear on your post.  You can use only a first name if you would like.  Also, please include a head shot if you would like.

Don’t worry about book covers, I can find and add those easily.

This isn’t really about Joel Stein.  It’s about adults talking meaningfully about the ya literature that moves them.  It is also about teens talking about the books that move them – teens, please feel free to share what books you love and why you think adults SHOULD read them.  And it’s about bringing adults and teens together in meaningful ways because we have so much to give to one another.  Plus, ya literature is amazing.  Well, most of it.

I’ll post updates as I receive them.  Hope to be hearing from you all soon.  Happy reading.

Filed under: Why YA?

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Aneeqah says

    April 9, 2012 at 3:10 am

    I'm definitely going to be participating in this! But the problem is, which book?

  2. Sra says

    April 9, 2012 at 6:43 am

    Fiction does change lives.

    I had an intense experience after reading the Hunger Games.

    We usually take stuff for granted. And all of us, at least once, have had that momentary revelation where we realize how good we have it, and promise to remember it more often. Then we forget and move on.

    But this time was different. Way deeper. Because of it, I can't read the book or watch the movie without remembering, very poignantly, that I am not starving to death. I have food. Clothes. Blankets. Living space.

    And since I work in a library too, I see the book on the hold shelves every day. It's become a daily reminder to me to appreciate how good I do have it.

  3. Michelle says

    April 9, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    I think this is a great idea! I got my book club (non-library folk) interested in YA lit after a few suggestions and now they pop up in our reading list as suggestions not only from me.

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