Borgman, Dean (2005).  “What teen (girls) are reading,”  S. Hamilton, MA: Center for Youth Studies.

OVERVIEW

There are many ways to understand better what’s going on in a teenager’s life and mind. With whom are they hanging out? How are they dressing? What kind of music are they listening to? How else are they spending their leisure time?  What are they reading?

I enjoy keeping all these things in mind and tend to notice them wherever I travel. That last question struck me as I passed a stand of books n a public library in Oxford, England, “Free Style Books” with pictures of attractive teens was meant to catch the eye. Free Style is a promotion agency. I stopped to see what was featured.

Rachel Cohn’s Rap Princess caught my eye. It describes the tough life of a teenager suddenly cast into stardom.

Tony White’s Foxy T dramatizes a rough urban love triangle: love, jealousy, and murder.

Robert Swindell’s No Angels tells the story of kids struggling to survive on the streets. A young girl ends up with her Mum’s boyfriend.

Karen McCombie describes a lesser sister’s life and pain: “In Sarah’s Shadow.”

I spent a little more time with Alan Gibbon’s The Dark Beneath (London: Dolphin Paperback, Orion’s Children’s Books, 2003).  “Today I shot the girl I love…” 

16-year-old Imogen, having passed her GCSE’s, is looking forward to a perfect, lazy English summer. But her world is turned upside down by three refugees all hiding from life. Anthony is fourteen and already an outcast, bullied and shunned by his peers. Farid is an asylum seeker from Afghanistan. Gordon Craig is a bitter, lonely man…. Being past of their lives could cost Imogen her own. Supercharged with tension and drama,… What happens when the fabric of normality is ripped apart exposing the terrifying dark beneath?

Anything to learn here?  Talking to one of the librarians would help. We’d learn much more in getting to know the readers.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1.   Why do young people like the movies they watch, or the music they listen to?

2.   To what extent do they need to vicarious experience situations beyond their present limits like travel and stardom, romance, sex, and death?

3.   Like children reading fairy tales, do teenagers need to experience some horror to test their emotions and be able to control dark fears?

4.   How can teenagers be encouraged to read, make the best choices in their reading, and be able to process what they read?

IMPLICATIONS

1.   Video games, the Internet and other media have certainly cut down on reading among teenagers, but there is still a lot of reading being done at that age.

2.   Family, youth leaders and teachers all have a part to play in promoting good reading—and helping young people process media that aren’t so positive.