Week 13 Prompt Response

In 2005, I began working at a public library and within a few months became the head of children’s and teen services. I set out to read as much YA and juvenile fiction as I could and fell in love with both. I had a front row seat to the Twilight craze and the Hunger Games popularity. We regularly had adults looking for YA books at our library, and our collection was Ah-Mazing (takes a bow for collection development.) I am always ready to recommend a YA title to adults; in fact, I often have a hard time not recommending at least one YA title to adults because I just have more experience with those titles. My go-to question in this type of RA conversation would be “Are you open to the idea of any YA/young adult books?” If they are, great, if not at least for now I won’t annoy them with YA suggestions.

New Adult literature is not a “genre” that I am yet well-versed in. I see the usefulness of it as a step beyond YA for those young adults who don’t want to read YA anymore (although, I think anyone can read good YA). The ability to differentiate between books about teens and books about young adults ages 18-26 is now a must, and being familiar with the most popular authors and series is something I will pay more attention to. I am anxious now to get my hands on a few titles so that I can explore the nuances of NA beyond the misconception that it is just about sex (Cataldi, 2015). NA Alley talks about the importance of honesty in these titles which translates to honest dialogue and family relationships as well as the coming of age themes that define much of the “genre” (Family-Ties in New-Adult Fiction).

In terms of graphic novels, I did not grow up with the format and didn’t ever get into comics, but I have come to appreciate them. When I read Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (as the first adult graphic novel I read in its entirety), I found that I enjoyed the format for the first time as a way to read/tell a complete story. The library I worked at had an incredibly robust and popular collection of graphic novels and manga, divided into Y, J, and Adult collections. Each collection was well-used and promoted. I did most of the collecting for the juvenile graphic novels and found it to grow in popularity as we added more variety to the collection.

I have no problem recommending graphic novels to a patron of any age. I think they should be included in cross-format displays and reading lists as a way to encourage patrons to give them a try. Peoria Public Library partners with their community to choose a Peoria Reads book each year, and for 2019 that book is a graphic novel, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast. One the goals of Peoria Reads is to “Increase opportunities for discussion between youth and adults” and the format of this book is a vehicle to accomplish that (2019 Peoria Reads!). The title is a National Book Award Finalist and a NYT Bestseller. This is a perfect example of how a public library can introduce a well-reviewed graphic novel to their patrons and community.


References

2019 Peoria Reads! (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.peoriareads.org/goals.html

Cataldi, E. (2015). Betwixt and Between. Library Journal, 42-44.

Family-Ties in New-Adult Fiction. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.naalley.com/2013/07/match-5-lucas-1-vs-trent-17.html