Reader's Advisory & Teens

It takes a lot for a teen to approach a librarian and ask for a recommendation, and you have to make the most of your window of opportunity. (I just attended a Teen/Tween Reader's Advisory workshop yesterday, and this point was reiterated over and over again.) They become frustrated or discouraged faster than younger children and will more often than an adult mumble, "forget it" and go look for something themselves.

A delicate topic can be even worse. The kids want the information quickly and discreetly. Teens who love realistic fiction are often "trying out" the topic as it applies to their own lives, so it's important to have what they need. Fiction quickly becomes dated, and nonfiction is often too preachy, too babyish, or not comprehensive enough.

With a Teen collection, it's much easier for me to keep on top of my titles and know suggestions off the top of my head than it would be if I were in charge of, say, an Easy Fiction collection. My Teen collection, though larger than many, is relatively small. But I do find it a challenge to keep current on certain genres - fantasy and science fiction, in particular - and I don't just get asked questions about Teen books. I work at the Children's Desk, and I get questions about everything from board books for babies to teen romance novels. Keeping up with it all is a little daunting.

I do use a lot of the resources like Novelist, but my favorite "cheat" is Amazon.com. I use both the Listmania and the Suggested Purchases features on that site to fins books to recommend to kids. I'm in the process of working on two projects specifically for teens: one is the Teen Topics Resources (which is my LATI project and which I will go into greater detail about another time) and one is a series of TAC-generated booklists with genres that kids respond to (not just "mystery" or "historical fiction" but more like Listmania: "Coolest Vampire Books" or "Best Love Stories." I'm hoping those will help to fill the gap for our teen services.