I was shelving over in the teen library today and I was overwhelmed by all the materials available. When I was growing up (which wasn't too long ago but things change so quickly) there was not really a genre for teenagers. There was Judy Blume and that was about it. Now there is so much available for so many reading levels and interests. I like to think that adults and their older kids are reading together and some dialogue is happening, because a lot of adults seem to like the young adult genre.
I sort of skipped from younger books to adult mysteries. I remember picking up a Mary Higgins Clark book in the sixth grade. Once high school rolled around, I was in honors and AP English, so I read the books for those classes, and in college I read just about every genre of literature for my English major. I wish there had been the teen/young adult genre when I was younger. I am reading these books now in order to make up for lost time, I suppose! I read The Book Thief last winter and it was so excellent. Another good one was Life as We Knew It. Teenagers now seem so much more worldly than they were ten years ago, and literature has adapted to them. It sounds old-ladyish to say it, but I hope they appreciate all the materials available now. It will be interesting to see how things change in the next ten years.
Ex libris,
Marissa
No comments:
Post a Comment