The
dichotomy my colleagues and the professor have discussed (popularity versus
literary quality) should be and can be breached by certain books that can
indeed be successful with both objectives being popular and high literary
quality. There are of course, a fair number of great popular books that also
have some lasting and impressive literary qualities (classics and “instant”
classics). On the other end there are some Printz award winning and honor books
that become popular after they win the award, or at least these books
experience significant gains in readership, sales and distribution in libraries
and bookstores after the award, I think that books like Looking for Alaska became
somewhat more popular or at least gained lasting notoriety and “hooked” more
readers after it won the 2006 Printz award. Like many book awards, the Printz
award for best young adult book of the year is intended to reward “excellence”
and “literary merit”, and not to acknowledge the size of the book’s intended
audience. How excellence is defined by the committee is a different matter and
how the new committees each year come to agreement about a final winner and the
honor books is still quite mysterious but the objective isn’t to appeal
to the masses but to appeal to “literary merit”. Jonathan Hunt’s article we
read for this week documents the growing diversity in genres (and subgenres!)
of YA books, and the difficulty of deciding which is the “best” out of all the
Printz candidates in a particular year especially with all the inner-personal
and interpersonal dynamics he discusses.
The
point has already been made that the award or honors can encourage non-avid and
even avid readers to explore books they would otherwise avoid. Which begs the
question that Hunt writes about in his article we read this week of who is the
reader of this award winner or honor book and how can we use these award
winning and honor books to promote reading and books in the general in the
Young Adult population or at the very least how can they advocate for their
intended audiences most effectively?
The
answer, how to reach the most people, to me is a new model of young adult award
promotion. Awards reward and promote literary merit, and sometimes as a
side effect this opens new eyes to reading, but there are only so many awards
and so many more intended audiences. I suggest we promote and market all
YA awards equally (as they should be equals) and not assert one as more
important then the others and look for creative ways to promote books for all
intended audiences. The use of an award is to promote and market a book and an
author, other benefits are side effects or bonus gains. Book awards are sorely
needed by readers, libraries and bookstores to promote authors, books, related
books, and reach new readers who would other wise be uninterested. Anything
that “hooks” someone into reading I am personally a fan of. So maybe we need
more awards, maybe one for every major intended audience, so that we respect
all readers equally, otherwise, honestly we are failing as people of the books
if we play our own personal favorites, and therefore ignore and even worse
dismiss potential reader communities.
All
formats, genres, sub-genres, intended audiences deserve to be recognized every
year, or else libraries, bookstores, and reading in general will suffer
continual and additional unnecessary losses.
My
perspective comes in part from my work at Linden Tree Bookstore. I have learned
in the few months that I have been working there that the bookstore that people
repeatedly come back to must carry more than just popular books. As a result
the young adult books we carry include new books, classics, tons of different
genres, many books that will never make bestseller list but will engage
different segments of the teen population, just think if there were even more
awards and more credit given to where credit is deserved. Why should we
discount certain reader audiences for the sake of others? Are librarians and
people of the books so elitist to think some intended audiences are more worthy
of merit then others? Not if we want the maximum number of readers and avid
readers, we need more awards, more honors, and more readers anyway we can get
and keep them.
** But there are many other awards given! See the full list: of book awards
includes Reader’s Choice and Teens’ Top Ten
Best of the Best – recognizing diversity,
“Teens Top Ten” – voted on by teens each summer
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