Just Keepin' It Real: Teens Reading Out of the Mainstream

This session by Rollie Welch from the Cleavland Public Library is another one that I did not attend but notes are provided by Mary Olive Thompson of the Kansas City Public Library.

Reading Tastes of Inner City Teens

Urban Libraries serve populations that include large numbers of at-risk or disenfranchised teens.

• poor
  
• huge high school drop out rates
  
• high teen pregnancy rates
  
• high frequency of violent crimes

What do teens want?

• to read about someone who looks like them
  
• someone who experiences the same situations
  
• action over lengthy descriptions
  
• plot over character
  
• fast paced
  
• easy to read and complete
  
• better alive than dead
  
• the mystery of manga
  
• adults don’t get it, teens do

Street Lit and Teens

• it’s real and relevant to their life experiences
  
• everyone wants to read them, friends pass books around in their circle
  
• mothers passes to daughter, or vice versa
  
• stories are linked to inner city streets
  
• teens can relate in some way, mother, aunt, friend
  
• crime, violence, and sex
  
• modern morality tales
  
• some are better than others
  
• inexpensive and short life condition
  
• reoccurring themes throughout
  
• loyalty, friendships from teen years, betrayal
  
• Street lit- gateway to other reads
  
• titles geared toward women or men