Let’s (Not) Get It On: Girls and Sex in Young Adult Literature
This article from VOYA is getting a lot of attention on children’s literature lists (it appears online as a pdf file, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to read it.) The article demonstrates the lack of positive sexual situations for girls in modern teen novels. Sadly, no one on the lists has been able to come up with many examples of positive sexual encounters either. It seems that there is an agenda to keep girls from thinking of sex as anything but a burden or worse a desperate situation. Boys are seen as constantly wanting sex and girls as the defenders of their virtue. What does this say about the novels that we all consider cutting edge? Where are the novels that would definitively destroy the standard that teenage female sexual desire is forbidden? Hopefully they will be written and published soon.
Month: February 2004
Female Coming-of-Age Stories
Vandergrift’s Coming-of-Age Stories
This site is from the School of Communication Information and Library Studies at Rutgers. It provides a list of powerful titles about girls coming of age. Many of the books on the list are adult books, making it perfect for older teens.
Amelia Bloomer Project 2004
2004 List of Recommended Feminist Books for Youth
From picture books to books for teens, this is a refreshing perspective on children’s books. The list has plenty of titles not on other recommended book lists.
NY Times Children's Book Reviews
The Animal Hedge and Other Children’s Books
The New York Times Sunday Book Review offers this group of reviews of new children’s books, including The Amulet of Samarkand.
Next Harry Potter Movie
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Take a look at the freaky wanted poster for Sirius Black and watch the trailer! The movie will be released on June 4th.
The Battle of Jericho
The Battle of Jericho by Sharon M. Draper (0-689-84232-5)
Jericho is a teen who just wants to have a girlfriend and belong. When he is invited to pledge to the Warriors of Distinction, he is thrilled. But as the pledging week continues, Jericho is drawn deeper and deeper into a dark web of hazing.
This is an important book for teens to read. The voices of the characters are authentic and the pace of the book brings the reader along with the characters, building the tension and horror at what is being done. Where is the line between teasing and hazing? What should a person do? The answers are not easily found here, but the path to the answers is.
Recommended for teen boys. The tension and fast pace will let more reluctant readers enjoy the novel too.
Chatrooms Still a Danger
BBC NEWS | Technology | Children ignore net chat dangers
Well, it seems that kids are not getting the message of chatrooms being dangerous places to frequent. According to the study, 60% of children do not realize that the person they are chatting with might not be who they claim to be. One expert in the article says that children may be enjoying the danger, so telling them about it being dangerous may be feeding their usage. That seems to be in direct conflict with the 60% figure.
But in any event, the children are still chatting and ignoring the danger. This is something that even in our tiny library we have had problems with. We had a teen girl give out her personal information, including her phone number in a chat room. She started getting calls from men across the country. She knew of the dangers, but yearned for the attention. Luckily, it stopped with just the phone calls.
Kids Software for Public Libraries
School Library Journal – Essential Software
SLJ has a list of ten pieces of software recommended for public libraries. Our library has about half of them, and they are good ones! I will have to look at purchasing the other five.
See YA Around
See YA Around
A great name for a really wonderful site for librarians who work with teens. The site is filled with creative programming ideas, book lists, forms, handouts, and information on creating a teen space at your library.
Waking Brain Cells 