Chase Talks About Young Adult Literature, Graphic Novels, and Adults

Young Adult books and graphic novels have been gaining a lot of traction over the past decade or so. For YA literature, the big boon came with the arrival of Harry Potter. I recall before Harry Potter that our YA books were actually labeled “teen” and had a single book case in alcove of the library. Many of those books appealed more to pre-teens especially since a lot of the books were TV tie-ins of shows like Full House. One of our circulation clerks became the part-time Young Adult Librarian, which eventually became her full-time job. An expansion/remodeling of the library allowed us to make the Young Adult section its own area in the library with more room and a space for teens to gather. Then, we started getting comic books and graphic novels, and I remember thinking, “Do kids still read Archie?” Pop culture soon caught up with graphic novels, and we started seeing continuation of TV shows through graphic novels, a rise in the comic-based superhero movies, and geek culture becoming cool.

The popularity of YA literature and graphic novels did not go unnoticed by adults. Young Adult novels could be found in both the YA section and the regular fiction shelves. Graphic novels were split up between the two areas based on their content with a sign in each saying other selections could be found on their respective shelves. A crossover appeal with both types of literature clearly existed, and libraries have every right to exploit that.

Librarians should know that you can’t just put books on the shelf and hope that their readers will find them. They must continually market the collection so little known titles and types of literature don’t get eclipsed by the popular titles. Young Adult literature is not a genre, but it falls into all the same subgenres that fiction does. Genre readers know where to find their books, and shelf talkers are a great way to point them to similar titles in the YA section. Readers’ advisory librarians can ask adult patrons if they have considered a YA book. Plus, a great way to bridge adult patrons to YA literature and young adults themselves would be to host a book discussion with adults and young adults on a YA book. I think they would all benefit learning what appeals to both groups and what doesn’t. Furthermore, adults and young adults would feel less intimidated to cross into each other’s sections.

Graphic novels already have a large appeal factor for adults particularly ones who grew up on comic books, pop culture, and big budget movies. Appealing to these types of patrons is fairly easy. In my experience, they will be happy to tell you which ones you are missing in the collection and how they tie into other ones we currently have. Seriously, they will tell you the whole mythology if you let them. Still, these books need their own time in the spotlight. Comic Cons have become mainstream, and there always seems to be one going on. Those times would be an opportunity to make a display and programming around the collection. Many libraries even host their own mini-cons these days and are very well attended. As I mentioned before, geek culture is at the forefront and gets a lot of attention for the audience numbers it draws. Libraries would be amiss if they weren’t a part of it.