If you’re looking for Ellie Storey, you can often find her engrossed in the pages of a book recommended by a friend or a title she heard about during book club. A regular at the library, she frequently picks up books after skimming a few pages or just glancing over the cover.
She is 10.
“I just like reading,” said Ellie, a fourth-grader at West Side Elementary School in Marietta, where she participated in a book club last year. “It just makes me feel calm and relaxed, not like playing a video game. Reading helps your brain. It helps you make images in your mind.”
She represents a trend that should give authors hope. Goodreads, an online book recommendation site for readers with more than 6.4 million members, said of the 30 most-read books of 2011 by its Atlanta members, 12 were young adult titles.
“We’re seeing a lot more stories with tougher heroines,” said Goodreads features editor Jessica Donaghy. “They’re saving the world rather than being focused on romance, although that’s not to say that there isn’t a cute boy as part of her story. YA fiction is also moving more into the realm of science fiction.”
Ellie isn’t a young adult quite yet — the Young Adult Library Services Association, which said it is the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association, defines a “young adult” reader as someone between the ages of 12 and 18. Always a strong reader, Ellie gravitates toward titles that challenge her.
“I like sticking with the young adult fiction,” she said. “Last year at the library I would get a picture book and a chapter book. Now I’m just into chapter books.”
Local young adult author Terra McVoy is encouraged by the young readers she spends time with. The program director for the annual AJC Decatur Book Festival, McVoy leads two book clubs, one for 8- to 11-year-olds accompanied by adult reading partners, and one for middle school girls.
“I think the kids I work with in some ways are able to say better why they like something,” McVoy said. “They’re a little more willing to share their thoughts. The kids are really open. Middle school girls especially are not afraid to tell me if they didn’t like the book.”
McVoy’s titles include “Pure,” “After the Kiss” and “The Summer of Firsts and Lasts.” She has a new book, “Being Friends With Boys,” coming out in May and encourages adults to consider YA titles themselves.
“My editor says this all the time: It’s more than being a genre, or even an age,” she said. “It’s a perspective, it’s a point of view. It becomes something that’s appealing to a whole range of people. There’s good writing in every genre. People who turn up their noses at a certain kind of book are really doing themselves a disservice. It does seem YA is a field in literature that’s actually growing and having a lot of success.”
A certain vampire-werewolf series, of course, is the most famous example of titles popular with various age groups. At a recent Atlanta screening of the recently released “Breaking Dawn,” the theater was packed with screaming tweens and their equally high-decibel moms, all presumably fans of Stephenie Meyer’s books as well as the flicks they inspired.
“The most obvious pop culture books that have been successful are the Twilight books,” McVoy mused.
Young adult author Laurie Gray is not a fan.
“As a former high school language teacher and current YA author, I’ve noticed that YA fiction is becoming less literary and more commercial,” she said, referring not just to the “Twilight” books but to the various series of quickly produced books popular with many young readers.
“Writers and publishers seem to be increasingly interested in quantity over quality, anxious to feed the masses a steady diet of whatever sells. Books are becoming more like fast food for quick consumption rather than a hearty meal filled with good food for thought. As a result our youth are becoming more accustomed to diversion and entertainment and less prepared to think for themselves.”
Gray, now working as an adjunct professor at Indiana Institute of Technology, is also troubled by what she sees as the attempt to make reading too fast and fun.
“I think some publishers are trying to compete with Twitter,” she said. “We’re conditioning kids’ minds to think in 140 characters or less. The concept of developing and supporting an idea through the form of a paragraph is becoming a lost art among teenagers. I’m currently teaching college kids and seeing this effect firsthand in the papers they write and their inability to read and comprehend college-level materials.”
McVoy is just happy to see young people read, and isn’t troubled by commercial tie-ins such as promotional merchandise surrounding book releases.
“I think it is awesome if someone wants to have a T-shirt of a book,” she said. “A book is a product just like anything else. There’s a lot for books to compete against.”
And Ellie, the 10-year-old former book club member, isn’t a member of either Team Edward or Team Jacob. When we asked if she’s into the “Twilight” books she emphatically replied, “No. It’s sort of freaky to me,” then added, “My mom is, though.” (Kristi Storey is proudly Team Edward).
Ellie’s favorite title is “Moving Day” by Meg Cabot, which is part of her Allie Finkel series. She also enjoyed “Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo, preferring the book to the movie it inspired.
“I’m looking for something that really connects to life and gives you a life lesson,” she said. “It makes me feel good after you read. It sort of gives me energy.”
--------------------
Popular YA titles
These were the most-read 2011 young adult titles according to Atlanta members of Goodreads, an online book recommendation site for readers.
• “City of Fallen Angels” by Cassandra Clare
• “Divergent” by Veronica Roth
• “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs
• “Delirium” by Lauren Oliver
• “Awakened” by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
• “Shadowfever” by Karen Marie Moning
• “Across the Universe” by Beth Revis
• “Ascend” by Amanda Hocking
• “Passion” by Lauren Kate
• “The Throne of Fire” by Rick Riordan
• “The Son of Neptune” by Rick Riordan
• “Forever” by Maggie Stiefvater
• “River Marked” by Patricia Briggs
About the Author
