The Sassy Librarian: Adolescence

Adolescence

Showing posts with label Adolescence. Show all posts

Public domain image via Pixabay

While I enjoyed all my sessions at the ALA Annual Conference (woo-hoo, Chicago!), the best program I attended was facilitated by the fabulous threesome of Kelly Jensen, Sophie Brookover, and Liz Burns. These outstanding librarians took time out of their busy Monday morning to present "New Adult: What Is It & Is It Really Happening?"

YA with Sexy Times

This fun and information filled session gave me enough to ponder over the course of a few posts, but one of the stand out points made by Liz Burns in particular was the idea that right now, New Adult is currently synonymous with Contemporary Romance starring the 18 to 24 age group. She made a point of saying that this growing genre was more than just "YA romance with sexy times added" but instead included elements of living away from authority figures, beginning to conceptualize the independence that comes with college or living independently, while also exploring sexuality and relationships in a more frank and explicit way. It's all about forming an identity as an adult, and you really can't do that successfully until you start living away from home.

No judgement was offered by the panelists regarding this trend, but it was suggested that the genre might gain more legitimacy when readers (and librarians and publishers) began associating it with other genres, broadening the scope of the label. I think this is actually the usual stigma against romance and when you add in more explicit sexual content, someone is going to get their panties in a bind about it, but I understood what she was saying. As much as I hate it and I feel it's very anti-woman (if men were the predominant readers of romance it would be a mark of an intellectual mind to have your shelves filled with it), the public has trouble thinking young adults (or new adults) falling in love has any kind of value. Luckily my days are largely spent with the intended audience, so I can enjoy like-minded enthusiasts who do think this is valuable topic!

Liz actually went on to say that the much bigger issue surrounding the perceived legitimacy of New Adult was the fact so much of it is currently self-published, with the accompanying poor editing this entails, but she imagined that as publishers finally opened their hearts and wallets to the authors with books to sell, the quality of the work should rise accordingly.

But for now, I wanted to make the point that there are certainly books and series which fall outside of contemporary romance (and do not have two eighteen year old laying down with each other or embracing with plenty of skin showing). Here were a few ideas that came to mind.

New Adult Beyond Contemporary Romance

So what books might fit the definition of New Adult but fall outside the realm of Contemporary Romance? Here are a few that were discussed at the ALA session or that occurred to me would feel right at home in this category.

Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost and it's immediate sequel, One Foot in the Grave, is fabulous urban fantasy paranormal romance, with the nineteen year old Cat Crawfield, the half-vampire offspring of a woman raped by a newly turned vampire, bent on teaching herself how to kill the undead. She does a pretty good job of it, too, but finds her world derailed when the incredibly hot and deadly 300 year old master vampire Bones, catches wind of what she's doing. While I would call the entire series urban fantasy, the first two books really fit the New Adult category. The romance with Bones is on equal footing as Cat's acceptance of herself and the fight between good/evil and the first book does NOT have a happy ending (I recommend getting both of them if you're beginning to read this series to prevent a bad case of agita). The sensuality level is very high, but it's extremely appropriate as Bones was a professional male prostitute before he was turned (and the man has skills, let me tell you). Their sexual intimacy is a big metaphor for Cat breaking down the walls she's built to protect herself over the years and vital to the storyline. So "neh" anti-sexy times contingent!

Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl series has several of the New Adult markers, and clearly Dell Publishing is smart enough to know this as they have rewritten the introduction on Goodreads and elsewhere to this series to include a reference to "fans of Beautiful Disasters." The Ivy League college setting, the protagonist's struggle to define herself and often fight for her education amid the demands of the secret society to which she belongs and finally the drama surrounding various mysteries and her romantic entanglements put this firmly in the New Adult genre without being contemporary romance. Peterfreund even comments on her blog about how she was contacted by numerous would-be new adult writers eager to hear her tips since this series was so clearly New Adult, yet she makes a point of how she has purposely focused on writing about younger teens or about late twenty something, specifically because the New Adult market wasn't robust enough to support sales of literature for this age group.

Historical fiction is where New Adult hits a roadblock, largely because the cultural definition of adult has varied throughout time. Yet if we dissect the markers listed above for the genre, there will undoubtedly be historical fiction or other genres with historical elements that fit this category. One series that immediately came to my mind was The Agency series by Y. S. Lee. In the first novel, A Spy in the House, Mary Quinn is seventeen and has graduated from her training at Miss Scrimshaw's (where she has been groomed to be a spy). Posing as a companion to a spoiled young woman gives her the entrance she needs to the suspicious parties in question, but a keen-eyed and handsome engineer becomes first an obstacle and then an unlikely ally. While the burgeoning romance is a strong plot element, far more compelling in this series is Mary's posing as "Irish" when in actuality she is half-Chinese. Originally condemned to death as a child by the arcane Victorian justice system, she wrestles with her identity and the confines of society which would eagerly dictate her future. I love this series (so much so that purchased the third book in England since it came out months ahead of the US date and had it shipped to me) and it's readily apparent how the quest for identity makes this series - which I believe takes Mary up to about age 20 or so - New Adult.

Finally, it was mentioned in the session that all too often New Adult has become synonymous with "white, college bound" protagonists (even the books with the hero being the underground MMA fighter who also has a band - but that's for another post!). Yet, a close examination of "street literature" or what is also called "urban fiction" puts it firmly in the New Adult category. These young men and women are usually finished with high school and are in the process of negotiating their future in a gritty urban setting. African American and Latino characters are the norm and crime and poverty motivating factors for behavior and choices. Authors like Nikki Turner, Ashley Antoinette Snell, and Deja King are incredibly popular. Often, the protagonists are determined to make something of themselves or help their families, often while defining what real love looks like.

I'd be interested to hear what other people feel fall into New Adult but are not contemporary romance. What is out there that would appeal to this transitioning age group?

Just when I thought the first half of my YALSA Preconference was worth its weight in gold (the academic research presentation and then the author panel on using 2.0 tools), we have a snack break and I get this - an amazing brownie and cookie with free sodas and water. Hello! I didn't know we were going to get food to say nothing of kick ass food (thanks, Embassy Suites hotel). This was extremely well timed considering I had come to the preconference 2 hours early so I could get a front row seat, specifically for this part of the preconference, because I was just so totally psyched to be in the same room as John Green and David Levithan, authors of the recent book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson which I enjoyed tremendously!! This meant forgoing lunch and simply eating a slightly stale trail mix packet from the hotel gift shop but it was worth it to be up front. Life does play these funny little tricks on you - I was now in the position of trying to eat oh-so-ladylike my gihugic brownie (it can be a word if I want it to) and every now and then I would wedge too big a piece in my mouth, sort of choke a little and have chocolate crumbs all over my face - which of course my two heroes sitting up front could witness all to easily because I was sitting 10 feet from both of them.

Also new to me on the stalker radar was the delicate art of talking someone's picture (that's my water bottle cap in the front of the picture) so you can text it to a few of your closest teenagers so they can text-shriek, "I'M SO JEALOUS!! HOW CLOSE??!!" back to you. So I now I had chocolate crumbs and a smug expression on my face; I'm sure it was super attractive. But it turns out that despite my unbelievably high expectations of my two fave authors, they actually exceeded them. Their part of the preconference was entitled "The Future of Reading" (John Green's recent School Library Journal article had the same title) and it turns out that these two individuals were more than capable of tackling such a weighty topic.

Both authors just plunged into the topic, demonstrating a comfort with each other while showing the idea of how teens are reading is something they have both mulled over on more than one occasion. John used David's project of 39 Clues as something revolutionary in the world of reading, albeit for a slightly younger age group. For those of you without a tween in the house, 39 Clues is a multiplatform reading experience that engages readers and gamers by intertwining book reading and online gaming. Kids have to read the book to research how to play the game and players are rewarded by seeking out extra information on their own. The story is essentially no longer limited to a 200 page book, but instead presents thousands of pages of reading to young kids and they swallow it whole. It is obviously working since the site, sponsored by Scholastic, has over 1 million registered users. Both John and David emphasized that it was a false distinction to separate readers and gamers, but that's exactly what so many educators have attempted to do. The negatives are obviously that this is a very expensive project for the publisher and also demanding on authors. John Green felt that the amount of collaborative writing necessary for this project also makes people uncomfortable as so many readers enjoy buying into the romantic notion of one person writing a fabulous novel by candlelight in a basement, but if it helps kids read and is a compelling story, than obviously we should go for it!

The dynamic shifted into the two men asking each other questions (they were both excellent interviewers). David asked John to talk about his philosophy of using the web since he's done so much with his social network, Nerdfighters Made of Awesome, and his website which is home to his extremely popular video blog. Prompted by David, John spoke about how he always though his job was to intellectually engage his viewers and that video was such an accessible medium for anyone and fit his mantra, "Go Where the Readers Are." John wrote a novella "This Is Not Tom" which combines video clues online and reading in order for searchers to find the next part of the story. He said that teamwork was an absolute must to solving the story and a goal of his was to inspire collaborative problem solving. When David asked John if he was ever tempted to do a book combining video and a story since he was so facile in both mediums, John said that he wasn't, simply because he was highly satisfied with the novel as a comfortable and accessible medium for readers. Both men agreed that paper will be a continued option for some time, but that lots of other options will become available and be highly appealing for readers.

Now the format shifted into them answering audience questions. Here are my notes about the questions and their answers. Obviously I'm not a court reporter so my notes might not be totally complete but this is the gist of what they said!

Q: What do you think of fan fiction?

JG: I like it because those writers are readers and it's inherently non-monetized.
DL: And I've never met an author who had a problem with it. Publishers have occasionally had a problem, but not authors.
JG: It deepens "fandom" within that community, so there are a lot of good outcomes from it.

Q: What do you think the significance of the recent publisher ebook battle with Amazon.com versus the iBookstore from Apple?

DL: I'm going to have to sit on the fence for this one since I work for a publisher but a lot of the debate reminds me of a crazy Christmas price war on a toy everyone wants. Books aren't toothpaste.
JG: Ebooks have a lot of advantages, a big problem for publishers is the remainder system with all these books that have been printed and not sold.
DL: Publishers are really still figuring it out. Ebooks can save costs but there are other costs involved with producing them.
JG: I think we're sitting among an audience who knows the cost of getting books to kids, particularly for libraries and schools. (*smattered applause and head nodding from audience*)

Q: Do you see a time when libraries will be largely electronic?

JG: Digital divide issues will always be an issue; where does the money come from for the readers and computers kids would need for that? I think we're pretty far off before we are in that place.

Q: How do you use the internet to lure readers?

DL: Social networks are the life's blood of authors and publishers since they can energize communities prior to publication. It used to be that publishers did some promotion prior to a book but it was inherently limited. Now you can have millions of people pumped up before a book is released.
JG: I stole this technique from Lauren Conrad from The Hills who had trumped up interest in her books. (*audience laughter*) We live in a personality driven world.

Q: Are you planning on doing a spin off starring Tiny Cooper? (Note: Tiny is a very memorable character in Will Grayson, Will Grayson)

JG: (smiling) Possibly.
DL: (also smiling) There obviously a musical that needs to be written there.

Q: Do either of you envision something similar to 39 Clues for the YA market?

DL: It would be exponentially harder since the choices are infinite. 39 Clues is largely successful because of the educational buy in from educators and parents - this wouldn't be the case with a YA product.
JG: I can't emphasize enough how insanely expensive this process is. For someone with an established market - Stephenie Meyer, for example - it could work. Maybe I should call her?

Q: We are curious about how you co-write a book like Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Did you send chapters via email or use a special software?

JG: We didn't use anything more comfortable than reading the chapters over the phone to each other and occasionally a piece in email.
DL: Collaborative fiction is so much more popular now since 2.0 tools can make this easier. We didn't really use any of them, though.

If this is the future of reading, I'm buying. Thanks, guys!