What Are They Reading for Fun?

Vampires, in and out of love.

Jeffrey Meyer, Slater Public Library, IA:
Our small-town library in central Iowa serves roughly 2000 municipal and rural residents, and the user population reflects the wide economic demographic found in other American communities. Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" books (Hyperion), K.M. Grant's "de Granville Trilogy" (Walker), and Karen Traviss’s "Star Wars: Republic Commando" books (Del Rey) circulate well with boys. Girls have been enjoying Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series (Little, Brown) and Gail Carson Levine's Ever (HarperCollins, 2008), as well as Meg Cabot. Girls also read emotional biographies, including Dave Pelzer's A Child Called “It” (1995) and The Lost Boy (1997, both Health Communications). The interest in fantasy/sci-fi extends into nonfiction; volumes like Star Wars Comics Companion (Dark Horse, 2006) frequently need repair. Rural teens often have many, many pets, and Bruce Fogle's The Encyclopedia of the Dog (DK, 1995) is heavily borrowed.

Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY: 
Floral Park is an incorporated village in Nassau County on Long Island. The high school has a student body of about 1400, and our mascot is the Knight. The “Twilight” craze hit here full force, as elsewhere, but students are reading other titles in the genre too, including Deborah Noyes’s collection of stories, The Restless Dead (Candlewick, 2007), P.C. Cast’s “House of the Night” series (St. Martin’s/Griffin), Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Bloods (Hyperion, 2006) and its sequels, and Claudia Gray’s Evernight (HarperTeen, 2008). They are also anticipating Gray’s Stargazer, due out in April. Many of the boys read vampire/werewolf fiction that is not necessarily romantic in nature, but more action/adventure. These include Tom Becker’s Darkside (Scholastic/Orchard, 2007), Kate Cary’s Bloodline (Penguin/Razorbill, 2005), Brian Meehl’s Suck It Up (Delacorte, 2008),  Darren Shan’s “Cirque de Freak” series (Little, Brown), and Scott Westerfeld’s Peeps (Penguin/Razorbill, 2005).

Ann Nored, Wilson Central High School, Lebanon, TN:
Wilson Central High has 1600 students and is located in Wilson County, the eastern gateway to Nashville. Girls are reading anything by Sharon Draper, Stephanie Perry Moore’s  “Perry Skky Jr.” series (Dafina/Kensington), Coe Booth’s Tyrell (2006) and Kendra (2008, both Scholastic/PUSH), and Cecily von Ziegesar’s “Gossip Girl” books (Little, Brown). Other popular novels include Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) and Kristin Cashore’s Graceling (Harcourt, 2008). Novels in verse by Sonya Sones and Ellen Hopkins are perennial favorites, as is all vampire fiction. Boys are reading T.A. Barron’s Merlin’s Dragon (Philomel, 2008) and looking forward to Alison Goodman’s Eon: Dragoneye Reborn (Viking, 2008). We recently bought R. A. Salvatore’s The Legends of Drizzt, Collector’s Edition, Book 1 & 2 (Wizards of the Coast, 2008), which is circulating. A nonfiction arrival that is garnering attention is John Farndon’s Do Not Open: An Encyclopedia of the World’s Best-Kept Secrets (DK, 2007).