Teen Fiction

Next semester I am taking a class about young adult services in libraries. I'm really looking forward to it, so I hope that it's good. The instructor sent us our reading assignment already, so I've been trying to get a head start on it. We have to read 22 teen books, five of which the whole class has to read and the rest we get to pick from various lists and genres. It will be interesting because I'll have to read books that I probably wouldn't ordinarily seek out for myself, plus some that I've been meaning to read. I just finished the second one today and I have a stack from the library that I need to sort through to figure out how they fit in to the list.

The first one that I read was called Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's about a 9th grader who has a secret that she refuses to tell anyone about and slowly isolates herself from others until she finally has to speak out (hence the title). It sends a really strong message, but without being too preachy. The character was really likable and seemed like an authentic teen. It reminded me a little bit of Mean Girls because of how it portrays high school of broken up into cliques and because of the intelligent protagonist who loses herself, but eventually realizes that she should just be herself, even if other people don't like that. Unlike Kady in the movie, Melinda doesn't join the popular clique or any clique really. She mostly keeps to herself and refuses to get emotionally involved with anyone. By the end, there's some hope that she might start to form friendships, so that was good.

The one that I just finished this morning is called Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden. It was written in the early eighties and is one of the first teen novels about lesbian relationships, particularly one with a happy ending. I really enjoyed it, even though it feels a bit dated and the characters don't seem like today's teens. It's really pretty sappy as far as the love story goes, but they also have to put up with being caught and judged for who they are and the books sends a strong message against doing that to anyone. The book also contained an interview with the author, which was very interesting, because she had a similar relationship in high school and she and her partner eventually were able to marry and have been together for over 30 years.

I'm not sure what I'll be reading next.