Comments on: Adult Nonfiction for Teens

By: Meghan

Meghan — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:33:18 +0000

My own experience as a public librarian has shown it’s easier to get teens to read fiction. I’m not saying that’s true for every librarian, teacher, or parent. The non-fiction that my teens read is also generally True Crime, memoirs, or biography. Statistically, Alex has given awards to memoirs and biographies which, I think, reflects the experiences of committee members working with teens. In my opinion, Alex is a list of books teens will want to read and not books *we* want them to read. In my experience, it’s the rare teenager who is going to pick-up a book about religion or philosophy for pleasure reading.

I agree that STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST is an excellent example of non-fiction with appeal to teens. Since we don’t know what the 2013 committee has nominated, we won’t know whether or not they agree.

Finally, I think most Alex committees try not to have a “quota” in mind when creating their 10 winners. So, if there is non-fiction that rises to the top – great. If the excellent books with teen appeal are overwhelmingly fiction, then that will be reflected in the list of winners. I don’t think we should expect a certain number of any kind of book on list of adult books with teen appeal. If you look at the vetted lists, I think you will find non-fiction.

By: Mark Flowers

Mark Flowers — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:07:19 +0000

Hmm. Interesting points. I’m reluctant to agree with the characterization of nonfiction as “homework” for a variety of reasons, not least among them that for many people (including many teens) nonfiction is the primary type of reading them do (the old cliche used to be that women/girls read fiction and men/boys read nonfiction but I don’t like those sorts of generalizations).

I’m also not entirely sure I agree with the point about broad appeal. I personally loved TALK FUNNY GIRL and didn’t like SALVAGE THE BONES, but I can’t see either one of them appealing very broadly even to adults, let alone teens. Whereas something very light like STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST has incredibly broad potential appeal to teens.

In general, I think the thrust of your argument is pointing to fiction as the default mode of reading for teens, and as I stated above, I just don’t believe that is the case.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:34:31 +0000

I think when you’re dealing with an award that speaks to teen appeal, part of the reason non-fiction doesn’t show up as often is because committees shy away from books that will be seen as homework or something to be read in order to write a paper. I think the committees look for books that teen readers will both relate to and want to read.

That being said, I haven’t read any of the books cited above. But a nonfiction book is going to have to be something very special to have the broad teen appeal I believe most committees are looking for. While all of us know a certain teen or class that would devour a book about literary criticism or the history of evolution, there are just too many great books that will have more widespread teen appeal.