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Item Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Wilkins, DaniellLike 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.Item Gender Issues in Young Adult Literature(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Jacobs, KathrynWhether 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.Item Boys and Reading Motivation(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Woodson, AngieAs 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?Item Cover(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Indiana LibrariesItem Notes(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Indiana LibrariesItem Bringing Third Culture Kids Together: Building a TCK Network in Your Library(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Perkins, Rebecca LeeSeveral 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.Item 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.Item Promoting the Profession from Within(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Watkins, Mary PostonAsk yourself the following two questions: 1. Does anyone in your school really have any idea on what it takes to run the school media center? 2. How can we interest students in our profession? These are questions I ask myself on a regular basis. Last spring, I challenged myself to find an answer that would address both questions.Item From the Editor's Desktop(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Burek Pierce, JenniferThis 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.Item Homosexual Themes, Issues, and Characters in Young Adult Literature: An Overview(H.W. Wilson Company, 2004) Savage, DawnStatistics on the proportions of homosexual individuals in the U.S. have important consequences for young adult literature and young adult collection development. For example, “According to the Kinsey Institute, ten percent of our population is homosexual, so in an average American high school of one-thousand, one-hundred teens may be gay.” Young adult literature that addresses the issue of homosexuality is very relevant when it is considered that in 1994 two million young adults aged 13-19 claimed to be homosexual. This is certainly a sizeable number, particularly given that many “fear rejection by their parents and other relatives should they choose to reveal their sexual orientation.”
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