Volume 23, Number 2 (2004)

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https://hdl.handle.net/1805/1199

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    Cover
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Indiana Libraries
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    Table of Contents
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Indiana Libraries
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    Boys and Reading Motivation
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Woodson, Angie
    As a children’s librarian, I am painfully aware of how outnumbered the male population is at our library. The girls flock to the American Girls, Junie B. Jones, and Olsen Twins series. The boys trudge in with their mothers and grudgingly ask to see their accelerated reader list. At some point in time, boys lose the enthusiasm they once had for Clifford the Big Red Dog and become reluctant, almost embarrassed to be caught with a book in their hands. The issue of boys and literacy is in need of some serious attention. We all like to complain, discuss and berate the fact that we never see boys reading, but what are the real issues and how can we as librarians work toward improving the situation?
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    Bringing Third Culture Kids Together: Building a TCK Network in Your Library
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Perkins, Rebecca Lee
    Several months ago, I had the privilege of reading Born Confused authored by Tanuja Desai Hidier as a requirement for a seminar on issues and trends in young adult literature. In this novel, an Asian teenager struggles with self-identity while living with her Indian parents in the United States. Feeling the impact of both an eastern and western culture, she expresses: …not quite Indian, and not quite American. Usually I felt more along the lines of Alien (however legal, as my Jersey birth certificate attests to). The only times I retreated to one or the other description were when my peers didn’t understand me (then I figured it was because I was too Indian) or when my family didn’t get it (clearly because I was too American)… Sometimes I was too Indian in America, yes, but in India, I was definitely not Indian enough... This statement compelled me to continue on a most fascinating and reflective reading experience. As I paralleled my own life experiences against the experiences of the girl in the story, I was reminded of the overwhelming sense of loneliness that accompanied my final return from Africa to the United States at the age of seventeen. After spending thirteen years in Kenya, intermingled with a few years of furlough, I found that it took increased amount of energy to adjust to the fastpaced, materialistic lifestyle of the United States, and I, like the heroine in Hidier’s story, became frustrated over the lack of knowing how to fit into the culture, understand myself, and relate to my peers.
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    Familiarity Breeds Content in Online Fiction Creation & Consumption
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Watt, Caitlin
    “Fanfiction,” the use of others’ characters to write original stories, is not an especially new phenomenon, nor has it typically been the exclusive domain of the young. Movie and television show “tie-in” novels appeared alongside movies and television as early as the 1920s; the numerous retellings of the tales of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Cinderella operate on the same premise. In recent years, however, fanfiction has increasingly appealed to young readers and writers. According to “Pop Fiction,” an article by Maryanne Murray Buechner (2002) in Time Magazine, a third of www.fanfiction.net’s 115,000 members were under the age of eighteen. Two years later, www.fanfiction.net has approximately 215,000 members; if the percentage of teen users has remained constant, there are over 70,000 readers and writers of fan fiction on one Internet site alone. Fanfiction has found its niche in the relatively ungoverned Internet among teen readers because it offers them familiar characters and situations, a means of romantic fantasy or sexual stimulation, and an escape from the stresses of everyday life.
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    From the Editor's Desktop
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Burek Pierce, Jennifer
    This general issue of Indiana Libraries focuses on Youth and Reading. A recent survey of Indiana Libraries readers indicates this is an area some would like to read more about. While youth services librarians are likely to find these articles most immediately relevant to their working lives, I’m hopeful that these essays will offer librarians in all venues insights into their patrons’ lives as readers. These authors delve into the types of books, programming, and issues that have constituted patrons’ experiences with libraries and reading during their formative years.
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    Gender Issues in Young Adult Literature
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Jacobs, Kathryn
    Whether we are expanding our lives through knowledge or imagination, there is no doubt that reading plays a crucial role in this process. Largely because of this, reading continues to be one of the most highly debated components in the education of our children. When they are young we argue the best way to teach children to read. Once we’ve taught them how, the arguments turn to the best way to actually get them do it. Any educator or librarian knows you can lead teens to a book but you can’t make them read it. So we do everything from forcing them to read (mandatory school reading times) to bribery (reading incentive programs). Yet, in our quest to persuade young adults to read, we may sometimes forget that it is also important what they read and what they take away from the experience.
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    GLBTQ Teen Literature: Is it Out There in Indiana?
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Cook, Jennifer Chance
    Fiction resources for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (GLBTQ) youth are often difficult to find. Many libraries do not make a conscious effort to collect such materials, and some actually make an effort to avoid doing so. This is an extremely troubling pattern, since GLBTQ teens are a group that is desperately in need of strong support from caring adults. This article describes a preliminary study that explored whether such titles are available to Indiana’s teens.
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    Gloria Steinem and the Power of Books
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Comer, Alberta Davis
    The highlight of my work as a reporter for Cognotes, the American Library Association’s daily newspaper published and distributed during both its Midwinter and annual meetings, was a one-on-one interview with Gloria Steinem during the 2003 ALA convention in Toronto. Because of this interview, I found myself involved in a fascinating conversation with one of the most well-known and influential feminists and activists of our time. Of course, I knew Steinem was one of the founders of Ms. magazine, but by talking with her and reading about her life later I learned much more about her, including the role of libraries during her childhood and her convictions about them now.
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    Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries
    (H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Wilkins, Daniell
    Like many librarians (and would-be librarians!), I was skeptical of the value of comic books and graphic novels. My encounters with the genre were limited. I had once browsed through a friend’s collection of Calvin and Hobbes, and I had seen fierce, scantily-clad warriors on the covers of comics at newsstands. I knew Superman, Batman and Spider-man began as comic book heroes. I dismissed comic books along with the super-heroes as adolescent male fantasies to be, hopefully, out-grown. I never entertained the idea that comics or their cousins, graphic novels, could have meaningful messages or be aids in teaching literacy.