Tweens & Young Teens

My first Preconference seminar today was put together by Stacy Creel and Teri Lesesne both of whom are professors working in the field of young adult literature. It was a full day learning about the tween set-who they are, why they act the way they do, how we as librarians can reach them in our libraries.
It was a day of remembering who we were as adolescents, putting ourselves in their shoes, those big feet that they haven't grown into, that place of confusion, where every day brings a range of emotions. A time when our friends weremore important than our family, and their approval meant everything.
We listened to popular authors who write for this age group talk about their perspective. Lisa Yee, author of Millicent Min, Girl Genius , (and more) spoke of the middle school years as a time when tweens may start to decide what they want to do in the future. They also are comparing themselves to their peers. It is a place of confusion, and the ones who present the happiest front may hurt the most. The guys don't talk about their feelings. When writing for them, the writing needs to be authentic.

Amy Goldman Koss author of 12 books including Poison Ivy, The Girls, and Side Effects
writes as if she is writing for her 12 year old moody cranky self, hoping to connect with her.

Lisi Harrison author of the fantastically popular Clique series gets alot of her material from her years working at MTV. The behavior of her colleagues mimics the behavior of many of the behaviors of her characters. She finds that her readers understand the satire. Lisi maintains a blog through which her readers talk about bullying and insecurity.

Jon Szieszka focused on connecting with boy readers, and talked about expanding the definition of reading. It may include magazines, non-fiction, comics. Jon read from his umcoming book title Knucklehead - stories about growing up with 5 brothers. It is hysterical! I would reccomend it to everyone.

Bruce Hale talked about the importance of getting the right book into a tweens hands. and the final author of the day Ingrid Law, read from her first and new book, Savvy.
A panel spoke about programming in the library, both public and school libraries.
There were booktalks interspersed and the results of student surveys on what would make them want to read more.
An amazing day
Amy