A Popularity Contest

To find out what books are popular with today’s teens, I spoke with the teen librarian at the Winchester Public Library. She explained that a lot of teens like to read fantasy and murder mysteries. Some of the authors she cited were Holly Jackson, Karen McManus, Tahereh Mafi, Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black, and Angie Thomas. Here is a selection of books by those authors that are actually in the library. As the librarian indicated, there were not many books by those authors actually in the library!

Black, Holly. How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2020.

This is a collection of illustrated short stories written to accompany the Folk of the Air series, told from popular character Cardan’s perspective.

The Folk of the Air series is very popular, so it makes sense that Holly Black wrote these accompanying stories for readers who want more from that world. The illustrations are beautiful. Personally, I was so excited for Lyra’s Oxford, the short book Philip Pullman wrote to accompany the His Dark Materials trilogy, and I am sure that similarly rabid fans of Black’s series will cherish this book like I did Lyra’s Oxford.

Bardugo, Leigh. Six of Crows. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2015.

In order to pull off a heist that will make him rich, Kaz Brekker assembles a team of six to work together not just to help him with thieving but to also potentially save the world.

Six of Crows is very popular and won many book awards. It also has a sequel, so if students enjoy this book, they will be encouraged to read another book. Fantasy, according to the librarian I spoke to and from what I’ve seen online, is very popular with tweens and teens, so purchasing this book for the library would be a no-brainer, regardless of its known popularity.

Mafi, Tahereh. A Very Large Expanse of Sea. New York: Harper, 2018.

Shirin, a Muslim girl living in the US in the wake of 9/11, finds herself constantly subjected to harassment, until she meets Ocean Jones, who seems to truly want to get to know her.

Two things drew me to this book. First, it’s a classic story of a girl who naturally puts up her defenses due to the world in which she lives, only to have those walls drawn into question when she meets someone interested in her. Second, I am unsure how much today’s teens understand just how awfully the Muslim community was treated in the wake of 9/11. Certainly some of that prejudice persists, but it seems to have waned somewhat in the resulting 20 years. Reading this book has the potential to open their eyes to how non-Muslim Americans turned against this community due to the events of 9/11. This can serve as a lesson about what minority groups endure and how that treatment affects them.

McManus, Kate. Two Can Keep a Secret. New York: Delacorte Press, 2019.

Ellery moves to Echo Ridge, a town where her aunt disappeared and the homecoming queen was murdered five years ago, when another girl goes missing, prompting her to examine the secrets of the community.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again - murder mysteries are fun! Based on a content warning on Goodreads (“murder, grief, talk of substance abuse, statutory rape”), this is no sweet Hercule Poirot, but it still sounds like it will draw in readers. It was also nominated for an Agatha Award, which tells you it must be a pretty good mystery. This book has elements of family drama, which may attract those readers who tend to read more realistic fiction.

Thomas, Angie. Concrete Rose. New York: Balzer + Bray, 2021.

A prequel to The Hate U Give, Concrete Rose explores the life of Maverick as he navigates the world as the son of an incarcerated gang leader and as a new teen father.

Readers gobbled up The Hate U Give, so they will be excited to read the newest from Angie Thomas in this story of Seven’s father’s teenage years. The reviews of Concrete Rose are almost as good as those of The Hate U Give. I honestly haven’t read The Hate U Give yet, so I can’t say too much about why I think Concrete Rose would be appropriate to include in the library, but based on everything I’ve heard about The Hate U Give, this seems like an automatic buy.