Week Seven

Assignment One:

"Not So Young Audience for Young Adult Books"
This piece talks about how young adult novels are a valuable asset that shouldn't be dismissed. As a whole, a lot of people hold the belief that the young adult field champions fairy tale endings which are indulgent fluff. However, the author posits that these books are valuable as a shared experience - one that incorporates a magnitude of situations and traits from various genres. These books provide continued learning in terms of values and integrity as a transition to adult literature.

"New-Adult: Needless Marketing Speak or Valued Subgenre?"
The author speaks to a new field of literature that is targeting a demographic after young adult, but prior to full blown adult fiction. These stories include topics similar to young adult novels - sex and violence, etc. - but at a deeper level with a stronger focus on insight gained from the experience. This genre poses as a shared experience between the reading groups where mothers and daughters might find common ground, or closely related material suitable for each demographic.

As a whole, I believe young adult novels are truly nuanced pieces with complicated characters and fanciful stories. I have been reading mostly teen novels right now and enjoying the unique story lines and the characters in difficult situations. However, with everything, not every book is fantastic so each novel needs to be approached with an open mind.

Assignment Two:

John Green's tumblr
Tumblr in itself is a social platform with multiple forms of media available. John updates it pretty regularly with a variety of styles of information: pictures, text conversations, updates on his projects, and answers to questions. This is a pretty cool resource to get to know the author because you get a lot more of an intimate look at his thought process and, more likely than not, he will participate in witty banter even aimed at himself. The audience would be his fans specifically, or people who might not know who he is but finds him hilarious.

TeenReads
This page seems updated pretty regularly and has a wealth of different perspectives. Teachers and writers make up some of the contributors, but there is an entire board composed of teens which also discuss books and provide reading lists or recommendations. This would be a site useful for people who work in connection with teens as well as teens themselves looking for recommendations. As a whole, the website is really well organized and would be beneficial to help someone looking to explore the teen world of books.

Assignment Three:

Harper Collins Teen
A lot of issues seem to be addressed here spanning a whole field of genres. Mental health, sex and love seem to top the list in terms of subjects. These books appear to follow similar cues of paranormal, chick-lit, classic, and thriller covers with a fun and more diverse twist in what is allowed.

Little Brown Teen
These books all seem really edgy. The fonts are more dramatic,the colors monochromatic, and the images are often a little more darker. These books seem to stay in a edgier fringe of fictional stories about thriller issues: abuse, drugs, violence, etc. However, there is also an array of multicultural stories available.

Week Six

Assignment One:


Early Word has been an interesting website to learn about upcoming information regarding the entirety of the book world - not just books themselves. This is nice because I am learning about movies, tv shows, and spin offs, that are inspired by popular books which I could easily point customers to who enjoyed the first product. I just saw that they are making a Horrorstor tv show and a Goosebumps movie. For people who enjoy these things, this knowledge is really cool to have and throw around. Street Fiction is still a nice site because it is constantly updated with personal reviews of books from different perspectives. I am not an avid blog follower, so I do forget to check in on this one. I have gained more knowledge about these type of stories by perusing the new urban fiction that comes in each week or browsing the shelf to learn more authors to have in my back pocket.


Assignment Two:


- Historical Fiction (Realistic) - based on true events but in narrative form that creates emotion, connection characters, and twists in perspectives.
     - Hannah, Kristen.
     - Hoffman, Alice.
     - Gregory, Philippa.


- Steampunk (Science Fiction) - stories set in historical settings, mostly Victorian, that includes technology as a feature element in development of the plot.
     - Carriger, Gail.
     - Priest, Cherie.
     - Blaylock, James P.


- Hard Boiled (Mystery) - typically antiheroes, the narrators of these stories solve their true crime stories with a perspective of cynicism perpetuated by systems of violence.
    - Daly, Carroll J.
    - Hammett, Dashiell.
    - Chandler, Raymond.




Mash ups of subgenres:
    - Cowboys vs Aliens (movie) - mash up of science fiction and westerns
    - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - mash up of realistic fiction and horror
    - More Happy than Not - mash up of urban and science fiction