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.
1 comment:
First of all, Salem's Lot and The Shining - oh my gosh! But, I would never read those today. I'm much more of a scaredy cat now compared to how I was as a teen and college student.
Good point about not having to read everything, but being open to having materials that might not meet personal preference. It's not about the librarian, it's about the teen. Just don't fake booktalk something you haven't read. When a teen asks me about a book I haven't read I say, not sure read it and let me know.
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