YA for Grownups Column

Well it is official.  As of January 2, 2013, the BPL RA Department is also in charge of YA. I do not work many afternoons or evenings so I will not be helping the teens as much as some of my fellow staff members, but I will be one of the designated book purchasers for the collection. So I will be helping them from behind the scenes.

In preparation for these new duties I have been looking into many resources and talking to other area teen librarians.  One resource I have found to be very useful to me as I work to bring myself up to speed is The Atlantic's regular "YA for Grownups Column."

This week they are featuring a Literary Tour of Historical Fiction. From the list:

"It's far more enjoyable to learn about, say, the French Revolution when you've got great characters to take you through the story, oui? Y.A. is not all futuristic dystopia or fantasy, no matter how much we love some of those books. You can also find the Wild West, early America, 16th-Century Venice, 1980s New York City, and more on the pages of your favorite teen and younger reads. The scope, in fact, is far too great to wrangle into one post. But this week in Y.A. for Grownups we name a few of our favorites and some of the most promising on the way, charting a course through history by way of books new, old, and upcoming. For your reading convenience, we've categorized the books by historical period or event."

What follows this introduction is an annotated list of books that will take you on a tour of world history. All of the books are targeted to teen readers, but are also a good read for adults.  One of the titles on the list, Code Name Verity, even made Betty's best of 2012 list.

I am going to give The Apothecary by Maile Maloy a try because, one, she is an author I have meant to read, and two, the sequel is coming out in June.


Look for more YA talk here on RA for All in the future. I am going to consider gathering information for a regularly scheduled YA post, but I need to actually spend some time doing this new job first.

I do know that sometime this spring I will be part of the team that will be assessing the current collection, weeding it, and getting it up to snuff.  When we start that process I am sure I will have something to share here on the blog, until then, feel free to share any YA links or news in the comments and look for occasional posts.