Sunday, January 18, 2015

What Are Teens Actually Reading?



I love book blogs and I love the bloggers behind them, but how many of us are actually teens? Not many! So while we 20-30-something bloggers love young adult novels, are the targeted audience of these books actually reading them? I don't know!

I've been student teaching for about two weeks and all of my students had to choose a free choice book to read for their book project. We spent a day in the library where the librarian gave book talks about various books she thought they'd enjoy. The librarian is a great woman who knows a lot about books, but I was just itching to get up there and share the books that I love. I made sure to talk to some students and recommend books to them, but most of them picked out what she had put out on the table. Little do they know, there is a whole world of books beyond the small sample the librarian pulls from her shelves! What really interested me, though, is what the students were reading on their own before they "had" to choose a free choice book. Here are some of the books that I've seen actual teens reading in my classroom…


Rick Riordan's series is very popular among the boys, which makes me so happy to see! I ordered the first one for myself so that I can read it and see what all of the fuss is about. I love how they're reading, though, and many of them are on the 4th and 5th book of the series. Isn't that awesome? All of the students have already read Divergent and The Hunger Games, so it's no surprise that other dystopian/fantasy books are popular among them. What's missing, though, are the ROMANCES. Seirously! Where are all of the books by Sarah Dessen, Susane Colasanti, Jennifer Echols, Simone Elkeles, and Katie McGarry? Maybe the girls are just too shy to read romances in public, but it makes me so sad to not see the students reading my favorite books. I'm definitely going to recommend my favorite romance authors to my students and see if they'll read them! It seems like they're all stuck in the super popular books that either the librarian or society itself are recommending rather than those hidden gems that I love. 

What have you guys seen actual teens reading? Are they branching out from the big names and popular series, or are they reading the books we book bloggers are all reading and loving? 

7 comments:

  1. I have two teenagers (well 3 but one doesn't read so he doesn't count) so I have a good idea what mine are reading. I know Stephanie Perkins is popular with my 17 year old and her friends and my 19 year old inhaled The Selection series and love the Goddess Test series when she was a little younger. They both do seem to read a lot of paranormal and dystopian type books though. Interesting topic!

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  2. It us true that we are part of a big group of bloggers between 20 and 30.
    My sister and her friends, who are teenagers only read popular books and the onea made into movies.
    Ruty@Reading...Dreaming

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  3. I'm a teen book blogger XD I don't know a lot of high schoolers like me who read all the time, and I almost never see anyone read but the two of us...we don't really read all the popular books but some of them we've read ^^ I wish I knew more people my age who would read, I need someone to geek out with!

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  4. I'm a teen, and I read both Young Adult and New Adult novels, with the occasional Middle Grade from Rick Riordan. :)
    Kim @ Divergent Gryffindor

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  5. I'm a teen and I read a lot of YA novels :) I also read lots of NA and adult but I think those of my friends who do read tend to read YA. But then again I don't have that many friends who read :)

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  6. I am a middle school librarian (6th-8th grade) and my kids have been reading the exact same books you listed.

    The other popular books/authors are: The Uglies series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Sarah Dessen, Colasanti, Tim Green, John Green, Tim Deuker, and James Patterson. It usually goes like this: 6th grade: Dystopian books, and sports books 7th grade: Patterson and Riordan 8th grade: Movie-releases and romances. Haha!

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  7. The boy who are reading Rick Riordan stuff will turn out to be great men, I tell you. :D

    I am in my 20s and my tastes range from middle grade adventure to ya romances to nonfics (basically anything that might be interesting). I am guessing though that teens are reading YA stuff, although yeah, they probably read more of the popular dystopian novels. - Joy @ The Bookshelf Intruder

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