A Popularity Contest (or Give 'Em What They Want)

Tip of the day: See what your library is doing for Teen Read Week (October 14-20)!

Summer is over and the YA books at my library that were checked out by teen readers all season are making their way back onto my shelves.

Based on the displays I did over the past three months, what were the types of books checked out the most?

Here they are, from the most popular to the less popular, though the books know I love them all.

1. Dystopian. I put up a display of "If you like The Hunger Games, try these" books in preparation for my showing the The Hunger Games on DVD -- and the shelves were cleaned out daily. A mix of light sci-fi made its way onto this display too and was very popular. While I am close to done with reading new books in this genre, I think the teens still love it because they haven't been reading them as they were released all year; they were catching up this summer. Is there room for more on the shelves? It will take a unique premise for me to buy them as they come out in 2012/2013.

2. Paranormal Romance. Zombies and angels and mermaid oh my! Like with dystopian, I have no shortage of titles to put on this shelf featuring these creatures, but the teens seem hungry for more. And I have to say, the mermaids went super fast, even though in my opinion, those are the stories that feel the most similar to each other. With Amanda Hocking's new mermaid series, I'm sure these books will continue to go out even if new titles wane as publishers are filled up.

3. Even More Paranormal Romance. The vampires didn't fly out the door the way the faerie books did (I had them paired together), but they still hold appeal to the teens.

4. There Be Ghosts. To promote my ghost hunting program, I pulled books I loved that have ghost hunters and just creepy ghost stories. Unfortunately the program had to be cancelled for lack of registrants, but the books were still popular.

5. GLBT Fiction. I love that these stories, mosty contemporary YAs, find an audience. There are some awesome titles in this category.

6. No More Bullies. Novels about bullies, the bullied, and the affects of bullying again primarily feature contemporary YA plots, and again I like seeing these titles checked out amongst the otherworldly books.

7. Realistic Historical Fiction. To promote our Civil War 150-Year Commemoration Week at the library, and then to promote a Veterans Memorial Essay Contest for my town, I did a display of books that take place during pivotal points in American history. I think maybe one book was checked out. Historical fiction that depicts reality without any paranormal or fantastical elements are a very hard sale right now.

What books have the teens you know been clamoring for?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Dystopian Fiction Overload? (or Reality Bites but That's What Life Is*)

*with apologies to Limp Bizkit

Tip of the Day: My library won the area's Library of the Year award! Click here for details! Thanks to everyone who nominated Brighton Memorial Library. You rock!

I just read a YA book where:
--the main character is under house arrest on and off over her life
--phone lines are government controlled, only available intermittently, and rarely available for international calls
--the internet is highly monitored and all modems must be registered with the government
--outsiders are often forbidden from entering the country, and citizens are often not allowed out
--those who sneak information about the country/government outside the borders and are caught are subjected to imprisonment, physical torture, and death
--those participating in peaceful protests against the government are subjected to imprisonment, physical torture, and death
--disease runs rampant
--citizens are poor and powerless to overcome their situations
--the government spends millions on its lavish capital while the citizens starve in the other cities
--elections are rigged

Is this the latest dystopian novel on the shelves at B&N?

Nope. It's not even fiction. It's the story of Burma in the 1980s-present as presented in CHAMPIONS OF FREEDOM: AUNG SAN SUU KYI by Sherry O'Keefe (Morgan Reynolds, 2012).

I read this book to review it for VOYA, knowing nothing about Suu Kyi or Burma when I picked it up. I reached the end where the author compared Suu Kyi's world to that of George Orwell's 1984, I thought, holy crap. This horrific reality IS real for so many people across the globe.

So the next time you want to write about a government-controlled world but you keep hearing that dystopian fiction is overdone (I'm definitely reaching "full" on my library shelves), pick a country where this issue is a reality. Write about the real world -- even if we wish it was not so. I would totally read and buy those books.

Will I write them? I was very inspired by Suu Kyi's story, but would need to do a ton more research about a country that I just touched upon. Perhaps some day. Until then, I want to read more. Get writing! :)

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Wait, What's Dystopian Again?

Tip of the Day: I have an article about story in the Winter Rhemalda Opus. Check it out at http://opus.rhemalda.com/.

There are so many dystopians on the market these days, the word is losing its meaning. Check out this Goodreads list named Dystopia! It's kind enough to provide a definition: "no singular catastrophe may have occurred but things have somehow still slipped into a horrid state of paranoia and oppression."

I like that definition a lot. Unfortunately both history and modern politics provide us with ample states where paranoia and oppression rule. So when looking at a dystopian, the question is how does this compare to Stalin's Siberia or modern-day North Korea? A shortage of consumer goods and rampant disease do not a dystopian make. Hunger and pestilence are humankind's eternal companions. We keep them at bay for only short periods of time throughout history. In other words, a dystopian requires more. It's a heck of a lot easier to research history than to create an entire world.

Looking at the list, we see people arguing over what novels are really dystopian. Catch-22 is on the list. Nonsensical power structure that leads people who follow the rules to death? Check. Rules that bring about extreme paranoia and oppression? Check. And yet isn't it historical fiction? It's a novel about a specific place and time in history. 

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is on the list too, and I'd like to protest that. It takes place in the future, and horrible things happen to some specific characters. But in general, society seems to be a kinder place with great advances in medicine and education. Look, bad things have to happen to your main characters or nobody would read your story. But that doesn't make it dystopian.

Here's a tough one: Watership Down. Dystopia? I don't know! Horrible things happen to several societies of rabbits. Each society has a particularly awful way of dealing with life's harshness. There is a way out, but it comes with a huge price attached. The stakes are life and death. Of course, it's about rabbits in a field in England. What do you think? Dystopian or not?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages