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Teen Read Week: It Came From The Library!

Teen Read Week has arrived, and this year’s theme, It Came From The Library– Dare To Read For The Fun of It, is a perfect fit with our mission here at MonsterLibrarian.com. And so I’d like to share with you the inspirational artwork created by our own Bob Freeman in honor of the occasion.

It Came From The Library

 

I have to say, it has a much more threatening  and ominous feel than the stuff YALSA created. Wouldn’t this make an awesome bookmark? Visit YALSA’s Teen Read Week ning here and our own Teen Read Week page for 2012 here, and check out our Pinterest board for Teen Read Week 2012 here for more reviews and resources, and make sure to come back soon– we’ve got a guest post from Kenneth Oppell, author of This Dark Endeavor and Such Wicked Intent, coming up!

Posted on October 14, 2012 by , Reply

YA Fiction: Too Many Girls?

It’s common to hear that the reason boys don’t read is because they don’t want to read “girl books”, and that there is a tilt in publishing, writing, and marketing toward books for girls and by women. In fact, there is a book published by the American Library Association called Connecting Boys with Books (a second edition was published in 2009) which makes the argument that boys are drawn to “boys’ books” and specific genres, and that libraries need to make special efforts to meet those needs in order to close the literacy gap. Ana at Lady Business has written a very interesting (and very long) post called Gender Balance in YA Fiction. What’s great about this is that, while it isn’t comprehensive, it’s grounded in solid data, and provides a list of further reading at the end.

What Ana did was look at the award winners from 22 book awards that include YA fiction and categorize the books according to the gender of the protagonist(s) and the gender of the author(s), and draw some conclusions based on that. From her data it looks like there are more male protagonists than female protagonists in YA fiction award winners, which is pretty interesting. And there are more female authors in YA award winners than there are males. But Ana suggests that the difference in percentages is not enough to be significant (She also broke down the data for specific awards and THAT is pretty interesting, if you want to look at it).

Ana’s research doesn’t mean that there isn’t a literacy gap, or that boys aren’t reading predominantly “boys’books”. But the assumption that this is because there aren’t enough male protagonists in YA fiction, or males writing it, clearly deserves more examination. Ana says she addressed the question of whether interests are gendered in her MA thesis, and her research showed it didn’t. I think that’s true(although obviously my experiences are anecdotal). One reason this site was started was to provide choices that could attract reluctant readers, who are frequently boys… but I have encountered so many girls and women who love scary books and horror fiction that I don’t think horror can be described as a gendered interest (although I’d love to see statistics on the readership of horror fiction). And I have also helped boys find cookbooks, animal books, drawing books. and fairytales. To me, it suggests that this is a social issue, and a difficult one. How can we(and by we I mean everybody) get boys to read all kinds of books, and respect and encourage their interests, whatever they are? That, I think, is the question.

Ana did not include the YA category from the Stoker Awards in her analysis, She has said she’s open to including information on other YA awards. It would be great if someone from the HWA could provide her with the information, which could help inform her research.

Posted on October 10, 2012 by , Reply

All Hallow’s Read: Give a Book This Halloween

All Hallow’s Read is a “new” Halloween tradition established by author Neil Gaiman, who suggested on Twitter a few years ago that we all give someone we love a great scary read on October 31st. After all, why should gifts wait for birthdays or Christmas? I love this idea.

  I’m not the only one, by far. But in particular, a number of authors have decided that All Hallow’s         Read is a great opportunity to not only give the gift of fear to the ones you love, but also to share it with other people who might not be so lucky. Ten authors have banded together for a blog tour– Fiction Frolic for All Hallow’s Read— to encourage people to donate books to the nonprofit literacy organization Books for America, based in Washington, D.C., between now and October 19.  Donating books will enter you in a giveaway, but who needs a reason to share their love of reading?  Here are the details about the giveaway and about donating books, sent to me by the authors participating in the Fiction Frolic. I hope you’ll decide to donate!

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Help Raise 1,000 books for charity and enter to win $200, signed books and swag!

We are excited to share about an ambitious blog tour—Fiction Frolic for All Hallow’s Read—where ten authors from several genres are working hard to raise 1,000 books in three weeks for Books for America.

From October 1st to 19th, donate a new book (or books!) and earn extra bonus points in a huge giveaway that these authors are hosting.

Two winners will each receive the following PRIZES!          a Rafflecopter giveaway

$100 Amazon G.C.
5 signed books from the authors hosting the event
A swag bag
Plus—in honor of All Hallow’s read, gift a signed copy of one of our books to a friend!

With a total of $200, 12 signed books (including the gifted books) and major swag, what better way is there to raise books for charity and celebrate All Hallow’s Read?

Each author participating is also donating signed copies of their books to Books for America, an awesome charity that is officially sponsoring their event and excited to be involved with All Hallow’s Read. In 2011, Books for America donated more than $800,000 worth of books and materials to DC area schools, shelters and dozens of other educational programs and organizations.

The authors are blogging throughout the event at The Fiction Frolic Blog.
• 10/1-5 Read about how books shaped their love for reading and writing.
• 10/8-12 Read their scariest, funniest or craziest Halloween experiences, or learn about their favorite Halloween themed book or movie, or favorite work of “dark” literature.
• 10/15-19 Enjoy some flash fiction, short stories and novel excerpts.

So donate, share, and look for daily ways to enter to win. Donate to charity for bonus points!.

This event is sponsored by:
Eleanor T Beaty, author of the YA paranormal Veiled Mist
Brewin’ author of the supernatural horror, The Dark Horde
Andy Gavin, author of the fantasy horror, The Darkening Dream
Laxmi Hariharan, author of the YA fantasy, The Destiny of Shaitan
Kimberly Kinrade, author of the YA paranormal thriller/romances, Forbidden Mind & Forbidden Fire
Richard Long, author of the supernatural thriller/horror, The Book of Paul
M.C. Mars, author of the mind-bending novel, Burner
Melissa McPhail, author of epic fantasy Cephrael’s Hand
Sheryl Steines, author of She Wulf & Days of First Sun
Pavarti K Tyler., author of the Lit Fic Shadow on the Wall and the erotic horror Consumed by Love

Posted on October 9, 2012 by , 1 comment
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