Teen Central

I went to Teen Central today and was amazed by the depth and breadth of the collection that they have. It was very well organized, and the librarian was very helpful. I went at 8:15 in the morning, so there were no teens there, but I am sure that two hours later it would have been teeming. I look forward to going back there and reading different ya books as they are published, and am very excited to meet cecily tomorrow night

Visit with barry lyga

I really enjoyed our visit from Barry last night. He was interesting and told some funny stories. It was nice to learn about his motivation for writing this book and the other projects he is working on. I am really excited to see what he comes up with from the point of view of Eve.

Also,
have you noticed that a lot of the books take place in Baltimore, or the authors are from there?

Talking to Teens

I finally was able to talk to three different teens and got a very different perspective on what teens read and their motivation for reading. A lot of people feel that the reading habits that people form in their young adult lives, carry through for the rest of their lives, especially into their college lives.

Class with guest speakers

One of the things that I really enjoy about this class is the ability to talk with different authors about their books and their motivation for writing them. It was also interesting to see how the different authors deal with the problem of whether or not to publicize a book for young adults or for an adult audience and how the publisher is responsible for leading the author in the best direction so that the book has the most success.

talking to teens

One would think that in the summer it would be easier to find teenagers to talk to for this project, but in my community, most of the teens are away at camp for the summer and therefore it is difficult to find teens to speak to face to face. However, via phone many of them are willing to speak.

Reading List

It is so nice to be reading books about non-depressing topics for a change. Little brother is a relatively long novel, but really packs a punch and after getting through the first couple chapters, really draws the reader in.

Also eternal smile was a nice change with the three different short graphic novels all rolled into one.

community resources list

After working on this project I realized that my community does not have many resources available for teenagers at all. It is possible that because the majority of the students go to private schools, that they do not need to go to other places to get the resources they need.
Also there are no hospitals, because it is very easy to get to the closest ones in the main part of the Bronx and in Manhattan

The reading list

I am curious why so many of the books we are reading are about death,suicide, and horrible events that occur. It is possible that ya feel that by reading books about depressing things put their own lives into perspective. Or on the other hand, it helps them cope with their own lives, even when they are going horribly wrong. I would never have read any of these books as a teenager, because i would get nightmares after reading them, maybe i connect too much with the characters in the books.

First Class

After sitting through the first class I realized I do not know that much about pop culture for teenagers. The quiz was eye opening. I hope that I will know a little bit more by the end of the class.

Additionally, I liked the discussion about the different developmental assets and how important they are to the books that we are reading and how the different assets are important in the lives of real teenagers.