Peep Secret

After reading Peeps: A Candy Coated Tale by bits and pieces all week, who can blame me for peep-azizing my words at every chance? It’s infectious! The book is using a humor model that gets its laffs (strictly opposed to laughs, mind you) from pounding one conceit over and over. In this case, it’s inserting or overlaying the word peeps into text already familiar to the readers.

Do I know how to sell a book, or what? Thanks, Eileen, what a way to make a goofy book that only wants to be consumed at the same rate as the eponymous candy (i.e. limited) sound as dry as an animal carcass in Death Valley. It’s always death to overanalyze why something’s funny. And this book was funny – spotty in parts, but a hoot, overall. It’s a great example of a library book, in my opinion as well. Gimmicky hardbacks are not a good value, especially humor. They get dated so quickly. Then they just rot in your house.

Do we even need to discuss why this book would be appealing to teens? It’s got a bright, textural cover that sparkles, it’s spoofing our media, celebrity-obsessed culture, and there are pictures of CANDY on every page. Here’s your go-to for a resistant reader, at least while it’s still popular…

Now Postsecret appears to have some staying power. Except at Brooks Library. Despite the catalog’s claims to its availability, it is, sadly, not actually on the shelf here in Brattleboro. And I was so excited that for once my local public library had something I needed for this class. I spent a lot of time at the blog and at amazon.com reading reader comments. Being only able to read the blog made me wonder if perhaps I wasn’t reading the primary text, after all, since the project started online and the book is a best of the web selection.

Could this be the first example of text being online first and then becoming a book? It certainly is a good example of the case for online format as opposed to a book. The blog gets updated all the time and it’s free. The book’s content doesn’t change and it’s…not free. But it looks better on the coffee table!

Anyway, back to the staying power of this phenomenon. This concept is endlessly fascinating – there’s no limit to the amount of secrets that can get posted. It’s very timeless, too. I think it would have been popular in any era. It reassures readers who find others with similar fears and concerns. It makes us realize how similar we are to one another.

“The World is So Full of a Number of Things….

...I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” This little two-line poem from Stevenson’s A Garden of Child’s Garden of Verses has been an increasingly current refrain in my head as we get deeper into our course syllabus. Now that we are halfway through, I feel like checking in on what we have talked about, in terms of what teens like to read and do, and what it means. First of all, I think I am reminded of the Stevenson verse because it’s clear that these days, not only are there many, many new ways to express yourself, use your time, and just generally entertain yourself, they all tend to be interesting, remarkable, and stimulating.

Youtube, Myspace, blogs and blogging, online gaming, digital media content, not to mention the explosion of young adult literature titles in a number of genres presents an enticing smorgasbord of diversions for everyone in western society. And they feel permanent. I don’t think the next generation will say (as they start looming a new rug or something) “Remember when everyone spent so much time online writing essays and sharing photos?”

This is no CB Radio, folks. And that’s why I think there’s resistance from some parts of our society (in our case, school librarians) who feel threatened by the torrent of new ways to amuse and educate oneself. Personally, I don’t feel the need to get involved with all of these new media right away. I’ve often told myself: “I’m also not going to make it to The Louvre today, either.” It’s a combination of too much of a good thing and not enough time at the moment to explore it all. I think folks who get anxious about where all these new entertainments will fit in should remind themselves of two things: 1.that they don’t have to participate, but 2. those who do are not necessarily missing out on an opportunity to translate a little Greek.

The word Quality keeps coming up. Quality time, quality reading. First of all, who defines quality? I checked out Mary Bell’s link to the newspaper article about teen reading on the rise, and the parallel rise in the quality of teen books. (Thanks, Mary. Here’s a website I found because of the article you posted. I also added it to the resources page on our wiki.)

The article opined that the quality of young adult books in the 80s and 90s was dictated to by corporations and big chain stores. Not surprisingly, this was an era of low-quality literature. Think Goosebumps and Sweet Valley. Personally, looking back on this era, I think our mainstream culture was at a low point, and these kind of books were a product of a society generally going slack-jawed. Previously, editors and librarians were the gatekeepers of young adult books and both maintained a different, higher standard. They defined the entire genre of young adult reading. But speaking in only the broadest of terms, it seems that most material that made it past these guardians of taste was often unappealing to the target audience. And to add further injury, there wasn’t much of it, either!

It can never be a bad thing to have many, many options when it comes to reading. We need light-n-breezy books, as much as we need the made-you-think books. It’s not an either/or equation. Having Goosebumps in the collection does not mean that The Odyssey has to go.

I think school librarians need to support classroom teachers by finding ways to present “canon fodder” in more appealing ways. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. If a student thinks Wuthering Heights is boring, someone forgot to pump them up by telling them how creepy the Moors are, how dark, handsome and wild Heathcliff is…c’mon, we have mild necrophilia in this book, and kids think it’s boring? We cannot blame the book, or the uninterested reader for this one.

So many wonderful books get tossed aside because they are being introduced in such stagnant ways, with such useless requirements like pop quizzes and unoriginal essay assignments. On both sides of this quality vs. junk debate, both parties are misguided about the other’s value. Instructors and school librarians who dismiss so-called junk reading seem to feel it’s necessary because it threatens the existence of established classics, and those who don’t like classic/canon fiction think its dull because there’s no one to present it in a way that would help teens find out why its so wonderful. And then, just to make it extra fun, sometimes junk is truly worthless, and canon fodder is truly boring.

I realize this blog entry has been very broad and general. I think I used to feel threatened by what I perceived to be low-brow reading material but after my children’s lit class last semester, and now this class, I don’t think it’s an either/or issue like I used to.

Lord Loss-I Read It With My Eyes Shut

First of all, this class, with its reading syllabus, has really facilitated my understanding of what it means to be a teen librarian, in terms of reader’s advisory services. A bland overstatement, to be sure, and an obvious one at that, but recall my reaction to V for Vendetta. I was disturbed by the violence and questioned whether teens should bother reading it, because I felt the plot was too complicated. It’s not that I don’t think either of those things anymore, but now I realize there are other ways of perceiving a book’s value for teens, and furthermore, my personal values take a backseat to what teens value and desire in a young adult fiction collection.

Also, I had simply forgot that teens love horror fiction. My own teen years was when I did all my Stephen King reading, between 14 and 17 or so. I loved it all, from The Shining to The Dead Zone, King wrote about people I understood in frightening scenarios that wouldn’t let you go. I still think about It and The Stand sometimes, so vivid were those plots and characters. So, I approached reading Lord Loss with a much different perspective than I had V…also, it was a book, so I was able to read it oh-so-quickly. And I did read it very gingerly as well, skimming violent descriptions and jumping ahead to read the ending before returning to rest of the book. I always do that with assigned fiction reading that doesn’t personally interest me.

Which brings me to the only point I want to make about this book: I realized that I won’t have to always actually read genres of books I no longer care for just to be a teen librarian who can respond to the needs and interests of all my patrons. There’s Wikipedia and the like for background/plot spoilers, which makes for faster reading of any title or genre that you want to get a handle on. I don’t have to wallow in each and every book to get the salient points about the characters, plot, and writing style. I feel I have a firm enough grasp on Lord Loss to recognize when a patron would enjoy the book.

Also, another thought I had while reading this book: I plan to make sure I read the first book of any popular horror genre series, and after that, just check in with the patrons who are its most ardent fans and find out how the rest of the books are.

I love the Largo Teen Room...I Swear!

During my spring break visit with the in-laws at their winter retreat in Largo, Florida, (near Tampa) I checked in on the class blogs because yes, by the middle of the week, I was sort of getting antsy about what was going on in my real life. I got inspired by Baily’s blog post about the teen room she visited in Arizona. It reminded me that I should see what a Florida library had to offer its teens. I was actually expecting a lot, because I read somewhere last year that many of the top public high schools in the U.S. are in Florida, and in particular, the Tampa Region. To me, it seemed that if one public service was flourishing for this age group, that other public services like the library would be as well.

And as it happens, the city of Largo has just built a new library. Now I knew I had to go see it since I wanted to confirm what I predicated I would see: a Borders/Barnes and Noble-inspired public facility. I was not disappointed. The brochure I got had an introduction from the library director that expressed her hope that the new library would become “the living room of the community.” Judging by my impression, the building design affords this town every chance, from the café set up at the main entrance to the large amount of sofas and sitting areas placed throughout, the Largo Public library was inviting and relaxing as any carefully created living room.

But! (there’s always a but). My first impression of the outside of the facility was marred by the jarring sight of a police officer taking away a young person in handcuffs. My mother-in-law, always a sucker for the salacious, asked some kids sitting on a bench watching the proceedings if they knew what was going on. They said they heard from someone else that this person was being arrested for trespassing. I refused to inquire so that’s all I know. But it seemed a sad sight, and not a very welcoming one.

Upon walking in and spying the previously mentioned café, I saw two pierced and eye-liner-ed emo kids (a boy and a girl) sitting at a table. I introduced myself, explained why I was visiting, then asked them if they liked the library, and the teen room in particular. They said they loved both. However, when I asked them if they felt welcome there, they said, “No, we get yelled at a lot.” Then they both said they don’t care, they come anyway. I admired the pluck, but not knowing exactly why they were getting yelled at, I didn’t commiserate. Maybe I should have asked, but I didn’t feel like taking up anymore of their time. Turns out I would get a possible clue later, anyway.

On to the teen room upstairs. By anyone’s standards, this is a fantastic-looking teen room. It was spacious, affording lots of different social scenarios: cozy, private areas with bean bag chairs, a meeting room, a work room behind the circ desk, a bank of six PCs with flat-screen monitors (all being used at around 4:30 on a Monday), tables with stools. The color scheme was a royal purple with different shades of brown throughout for contrast color. Very Starbucks-like. There were lots of Manga posters (Fruits Basket!) and photo collages of past Teen Room events.

I met with an assistant named Elaine. She was very proud of the new room and gave me a tour. The Teen Room runs lots of programs, the average attendance is about 20 kids, which impressed me. I later got a possible clue about what the teens get “yelled at” for when Elaine mentioned it had been a hard day, attitude wise with the kids, and that she had thrown out ten kids for “cussing.”

This teen room had a two large shelves loaded with Manga, and a wire rack loaded with PG-13 and under movies. Both items had a yellow sticker with YA written in red. There was also another four-sided wire rack holding pocket-size paper backs. The rest of the teen collection was just outside the physical teen room space, near the reference space.

This seemed like a good use of space-the popular Manga and YAL paperbacks inside, the permanent collection nearby.

As for Overdrive content, it’s clearly early days for this library. The teen room assistant confessed, abashedly, that she knew nothing about it. I went over to reference and asked if she had any teens requesting instruction, or otherwise expressing any interest in downloadable content. She said in her experience that had not been any. Then I looked at the available Overdrive content at the library’s website. There were a total of seven titles, only three were fiction, the rest were language instruction. It was not clear at all why these were exclusively young adult. So, there you have it, not a lot of demand, perhaps, because there’s practically nothing available that’s labeled Young Adult. There were 94 titles in the adult fiction, however.

I will bring the brochure and other materials from the Largo Public library created to keep teens posted about library events just for them. I will also bring in a six-page publication created entirely by teen patrons, Metro Largo.

1-800 I think I just killed someone

I just finished Paranoid Park and wanted to write my impressions down while the heavy fugue of the novel was still in my head, in the air, so to speak. This book really had a Hitchcockian “Strangers on a Train” kind of flavor. Some average schmuck suddenly finds his life turned upside down when he meets a sinister stranger. This is that kind of schadenfreude-type escapist fiction: “Thank god that’s not me! ” But of course that’s the whole point. No, it’s not you, but what if it was? Oooo, the delicious thrill of voyeurism, safe in your own bed!

And he was so terribly alone. There was absolutely no one he could go to. Our society just doesn't have an 800 number for everything. I really put myself not only in his place, but in the place of an adult that he might confide in. I couldn't decide which situation would be worse.

Maybe this was just weak character development on the author’s part, but I feel like this event is the most interesting thing that’s happened to this nameless kid. (I’m correct aren’t I? Did anyone else notice his name being used? Very Rebecca no?) He’s so bland, everything in his life is so ho-hum. Even his parent’s divorce, while emotionally affecting to a certain degree, is still being accepted without much fanfare on anyone’s part. Reader’s don’t even find out why his parents are splitting up. Just your basic white, upper middle class divorce, folks, nothin’ to see here…
Of course, the reader finds themselves rooting for him, caring about his anguish. But did he do the right thing, for society and for himself? I didn’t want him to get in any trouble for what happened, at all. One could use the phrase, “Get away with it”, but there’s no getting away, or doing away, with what happened. He’s a different person now. Traumatized and challenged with finding a way to live with it. He’ll never know if would have been any easier because he made the choice to keep it to himself. This ending reminded me of another recent homage to Hitchcock, Woody Allen’s Match Point. Just what did that antihero really get away with? Both characters are left knowing they are going to have personal demons camping out in their psyche for the rest of their lives.

Vanity, Thy Name is MySpace!

I heard a report this week about the rise of narcissism among college students. Right away, I connected the study to the Teen Content study we read for class this week. The Pew report didn’t give much analysis to all the data presented. The nut ‘graph: Blogging, Content creation and music downloading is on the rise. Teenage girls lead the way in use. Except with music downloading. But girls listen to more music. Okaaaaay. What does all this all this mean for teens? How are their lives changing because they have shifted their focus away from whatever it was they were doing before they started blogging, downloading music and creating content?

And what's the effect? I really wanted to know. I realize that all these Internet activities are fairly new so maybe we won't know for a few years yet. But consider the data that Jean Twenge presents. An excerpt from the CNN.com story:

"Twenge and her colleagues examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.
The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such statements as "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to.

The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982."

In addition, here's an excerpt from an intro to the NPR story that ran on the mid-day show Day to Day:
"In their study, researchers trace the phenomenon back to the "self-esteem movement" that began in in the 1980s. And, they say, young people's self-regard is fueled by current technologies such as MySpace and YouTube."

This report really got my attention, because it speaks directly to one of my main rants in life that I would like to share with any teen patrons I might have in the future: the stop thinking you have to be rich and famous rant. I instigated a little background research and in doing so, seem to have found my ideological kindred spirit. Postman's book Technopoly from 1992 is just what I was looking for to articulate my beliefs on technology and culture.

I’m not trying to be merely negative about new technologies for the sake of it. I just would like a bit of room to question new/emerging technology. Our society has a welcoming attitude about new technology that can be a bit overbearing. I was surrounded by cutting edge technology when I lived in San Francisco. I found most of the services and hardware I encountered to be just a solution in search of problem that wasn’t actually there.

So what will I say to the teens in my library who love blogging and myspace? Beware of becoming your own personal art project. The goal here is always looking outwards, sharing, and connecting.