I wish that I believed that James’ story would follow a path similar to mine, but it’s not looking good. He seems so much more pessimistic than I ever was. He just plods on without a real sense of purpose. I wonder if this resignation and fatalism is common among people (teens especially) who experienced September 11th from within the city? I, as an adult, was profoundly affected from viewing the collapse of the World Trade Center on a television screen. What would it have been like to be a sensitive teen witnessing the horrific events from so near ground zero? It can’t have been good!

I highly recommend watching the podcast of Peter Cameron and Sherman Alexie at the Strand Bookstore April 29, 2008 Both authors are new to the field of Young Adult literature. It is interesting that Peter Cameron did not have a young adult audience in mind when he wrote Someday this Pain will be useful to you. His editor (publisher?) recommended that the book be marketed as “young adult”. He went along with the idea, but did not change his manuscript.  Sherman Alexie on the other hand, consciously made the change from adult to young adult.  Alexie is looking forward to writing more for teens, Cameron is sticking with his ‘adult audience (at least for now).  I am curious about how teens themselves respond to the two books. Does it make a difference if an author is writing specifically for them?

The answer:

Fantasy and Science Fiction books:

1. tend to be lengthy and complex- generally don’t appeal to casual, overly time-constrained or reluctant readers
2. are not considered ‘literary’; (or, in any event, are not the books you find on ‘book club lists’).

One of the attractions for me of Young Adult Literature is that there are so many great science fiction and fantasy titles….AND there are so many kids who actually read them! The first 7 teens who filled out my online survey chose fantasy and/or science fiction as a favorite genre. It’s almost like it’s OK for teenagers to love these genres, but once you make it into real adulthood, you’re supposed to switch over to more ‘literary’ titles.
(I may have missed this transition…I dropped out of honors English after 10th grade to focus on electives such as “Legends of King Arthur” and “Creative Writing” and then I went off to engineering college where few of us had time for ‘literature’ beyond books such as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.)

At first I was disappointed that the LIS483 reading list included almost no science fiction/fantasy. (so much for the insightful discussions on books that I’ve already read..).
But then, as I started reading my way through the titles, I began to really appreciate the fact that I was truly expanding my understanding of  ‘young adult literature’. As it turns out, most of the teens I know (the ones that participated in my survey, for example) are avid and proficient readers.  They are able to handle long books and unfamiliar worlds and sophisticated plots – and many (but not ALL) enjoy fantasy and science fiction. However, they are only a small segment of the overall teen population. They are the teens who already hang out in libraries and bookstores – to focus on them is ‘preaching to the converted’.  We need to find ways to connect with the REST of the teen population!

I’ve never been exclusively a science fiction/fantasy reader. I’ve always enjoyed an eclectic mix of books. I read a great deal of nonfiction as well as those ‘literary’ (and occasionally ‘chick lit’) titles that so many of my friends talk about. I also try to keep up with ‘children’s literature’ in order to be effective in my job at a K-4 elementary school. I THOUGHT that I also read a fair amount of young adult fiction, beyond the fantasy/sci-fi genres; Sharon Creech, Lois Lowry, Karen Hesse..
It turns out that (until now), I was woefully ignorant of what teens beyond the Middle School age were reading.
I am happy to be enlightened! I have really enjoyed most of the titles we read this semester. I am looking forward to reading more (MAYBE even another GG..). I’m also considering moving UP in the world of school librarians (ie there is life beyond elementary school) – and NOT just so that I can have meaningful discussions about Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series or Christopher Paolini’s Eragon or Ursula LeGuins’s Wizard of Earthsea. I’d love to have patrons who share an interest in manga or Boy Toy or Grace After Midnight or Graffiti.. AND it would also be rewarding to broaden the library’s offerings so that the non-traditional readers find a place too.

I was surprised about how easily I could relate to these two characters. Their lives are so COMPLETELY different from mine, yet I felt able to ‘get inside their heads’ and truly empathize with them. It helps that they are intelligent, well read and witty. It also helps that I’m familiar with the experience of being an outsider, a social misfit. ( I spent much of my own adolescence as a ‘shadow person’ –trying to stay under the radar and out of the spotlight. (p. 206 Freak Show))

At first glance, Billy and Miles (and even Richard) are not the role models you would want for your teenage son or daughter. You hope your own children never have to struggle with such serious issues.  You might not even want to expose your children to LIKABLE characters who are drag queens or drug addicts (or clueless nerds) -BUT, as you get to know the characters better, you start appreciating their amazing strength of character – and perhaps you even decide that they ARE strong role models for teens.

All three books include dilemmas that revolve around the Social Competencies and Positive Identity assets. Some of the characters are even quite eloquent at describing the assets themselves!  For example, on page 76 of You Know Where to Find Me, Miles quite expertly sums up my own understanding of Asset 33, “Interpersonal Competence”:  “Jamal’s special not for his surface qualities – his nice looks and gifts as a performer.  He’s special for his open heart. He doesn’t discriminate on the basis of color, size, sexuality or weirdness; he’s anybody’s friend who wants to be his”

All three books end on a note of hope. The characters have gained a better understanding of themselves and of the world around them.  They are making wiser choices; they are headed in a good direction.  What else can we ask of our own teens?

The last few weeks have been enormously enlightening for me. I have been immersed in the world of contemporary teen culture. Much of this learning has come from reading Young Adult Fiction. (if it’s on Linda’s list it must be accurate…right?)

A couple of days ago I was out with some friends. I think I really impressed them with my newfound knowledge. First, when we were discussing recent medical maladies (I must be getting OLD!), someone asked if there was a difference between oxycontin and percocet. “Oh yes” I replied “One crushed OxyContin equals a dosage of several percocets”. (it’s on page 36 of You Know where to Find Me). My friends looked at me strangely. “Well… I’m learning all sorts of things from my summer grad school class!”, I explained.
Later we were discussing drag queens (did I bring it up?). Once again, I was the local ‘expert’ on the subject (Freak Show was quite the eye-opener for me).

It is not a stretch to assume that teens (who, after all, are thinking people) also use fiction as an information source. Teens will seek stories where the social conflicts and relationship dilemmas mirror those in their own lives. They may also be attracted to books that describe situations that they are simply curious about.

Adults love to condemn the media for giving children and teens the ‘wrong message’ about important topics such as sexuality and relationships. I realize that not all movies, television shows and advertisements portray these topics unrealistically, but many do – and this is a disservice to our youth. Teens deserve accurate, sensitive and realistic information about sex and dating.

Fiction in book form is not necessarily more reliable as an information source than fiction in other forms, (Just because it’s in print, doesn’t mean that it’s real) – but, because it has room to go into greater depth and detail, it can be more suitable.
Experienced readers are pretty good at determining the authenticity of information in a fiction source. There are clues as to how carefully the author researched the subject and how realistic he/she intended the story to be. Teens might miss some of these clues, but are still likely to turn to certain books and authors more than others when seeking information about sensitive topics.

Although I hadn’t thought about it before, Amy Pattee’s article helped me realize that one of our jobs as librarians is to make sure that our fiction collection includes books that will help teens accurately answer their questions about sex and sexuality and friendship and love.

The youth that I talked to were not necessarily ‘typical teens’. They were all young (ages 12 to 14) and from well-educated and financially comfortable families. They live in Groton, Massachusetts; a small, semi-rural town with two prep schools, several farms, only a few stores and virtually no industry.

I had delightful discussions with Deborah Dowson, YA librarian at Groton Public Library and Clare O’Neill, Groton-Dunstable Middle School Librarian. It was obvious that both these women love their jobs and care deeply about their teen patrons. I am glad that this assignment gave me the opportunity to ‘pick their brains’.

I am not convinced that my focus group on ‘5 books from YALSA Best Books and 5 books from Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers’ was worth the time. I found it difficult to get hold of the books that I really wanted to use because our public library is in the thick of the summer reading program and our school libraries are closed. The selection that I came up with was not a good fit for the group that I worked with. I left with some new insights into teens’ book preferences, but probably would have been better off if I had let the teens simply tell me which books they really liked and didn’t like and why.

The results of the teen reading logs were somewhat of a surprise for me. For one thing, I had been expecting more online activity and less reading of print material. I wonder if the teens were being totally honest when they filled out the logs. Many of them know me as the “Prescott School Librarian” and may have wanted to please me by showing that they still read books.

Another surprise was that several of the series and authors that the teens listed as their favorites were not mentioned by either of the librarians. This is curious, but I’m not ready to make any assumptions. The sample size is too small to be statistically valid and the participants were not ‘randomly’ selected.

I created an online Teen Reading Survey and I hope to recruit more teens (especially high school age!) to participate over the next couple of weeks. I will keep you posted if anything surprising shows up.

Participants: three 7th graders (all boys), four 9th graders (3 girls, 1 boy)
From Groton, Massachusetts (population 10,000, semi-rural, affluent, white)

The teens in my survey seemed to be largely ‘traditional’ readers. Six of the seven had read a book (or part of a book) during the 24 hour time period. (the outlier was my own son – does this disqualify me for librarianship?).  None had read manga or a graphic novel, but one had read a Calvin and Hobbes comic book. Three read from magazines and 1 from a newspaper.

The teens weren’t entirely old school; Six of the seven spent time reading email, 3 read IM messages, 5 visited websites and 1 read text for online games. None of the participants read text messages!? Only my 14 yr. old son (the outlier) read blogs or participated in social networking sites.

All seven reported that they like to read fantasy books. Three also like science fiction, two also like historical fiction and one also likes realistic fiction and nonfiction. Curiously, in multiple cases the books that the teens listed on their 24 hr reading logs were not from a genre that they listed as a favorite.

Most of the participants did not have favorite subjects or topics. One 9th grade girl said she liked books about  “boy/girl relationships”, another said “heroic stories”.

Series that the teens reported as being their Favorites:

• Protector of the Small – Tamora Pierce
• Alex Rider – Anthony Horowitz
• Abarat – Clive Barker
• Quilt Trilogy – Ann Rinaldi
• Pendragon – D.J. MacHale
• Lost Years of Merlin – T.A. Barron
• Harry Potter – JK Rowling
• Song of the Lioness- Tamora Pierce

Authors that the teens reported as their Favorites

• David Klass,
• Tamora Pierce,
• Wendelin Van Draanan,
• Eoin Colfer,
• Loius Sachar
• Sharon Creech,
• Ann Rinaldi,
• Susanna Clark,
• Robert O’Brian

The Scenario

I took my ‘show on the road’ to a group of 7th grade girls who had put together their own theater camp. They cheerfully agreed to let me come in and interview them. (They were actually ahead of schedule on their script writing/ performance planning!) .

I brought 5 books from the YALSA Best Books 2008 list and 5 books from the Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers 2008 list. These were selected primarily based on availability. I could not get my hands on many of the titles that I would have preferred to bring; our libraries didn’t own them, or they were checked out.

The General Analysis

This was not a diverse group. All were from well-educated and reasonably affluent families. All were 12 or 13 years old, female and white. Thankfully, their responses and reactions to the books differed significantly. I had been worried that I’d pretty much get one ‘consensus’ response from all.

As it turned out, each girl seemed to have a unique literary preference. Elizabeth loves fantasy and is open to ‘boy books’. Ani prefers Realistic Fiction about girls. Her favorite books include horses. Rachel reads a little bit of everything – except she doesn’t like fantasy or science fiction. A couple of the girls agreed that they like to read books that make them feel ‘happy’ while others said they like action and suspense. Among the latter, there was disagreement about whether or not actual death is OK. One girl said she didn’t want to read a book where a main character died.

All the girls agreed that the cover art is important when they make a decision about whether or not they want to read a book. Most of the girls also read the description on the back or the flyleaf. Some said they always sample a few pages.

The girls were familiar with 2 of the titles I brought from the YALSA BEST Books list, but weren’t familiar with any of the titles or authors of the books that I brought from the Quick Picks list. This was not surprising to me. Very few QP books are available at our Public or School Libraries. My guess is that the librarians in our ‘upper-middle-class, semi rural’ town are more likely to select from the Best Books list than the Quick Picks list because they believe Groton families are most interested in ‘quality literature’. They MIGHT be right…

My small sample group did seem to be more interested in my Best Books selections than my Quick Picks selections. It’s a chicken and egg problem to some extent. The girls were more likely to have been exposed to books similar to the Best Books selections and sometimes it is just more comfortable to stick to what you know! It’s also quite possible that my sample of 5 books was not truly representative of the larger lists. The books that I managed to get hold of from the QP list seemed to be weighted toward ‘older teen and/or boys’. Not a perfect match for my younger-teen girls.

Only one of the girls had read Manga, but most were familiar with it. The same girl said she really liked Graphic Novels too. The rest were lukewarm about reading ‘pictures’. There was a mixed reaction to The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a book in which the story is told through a combination of words and drawings. Some were intrigued by the format and were excited about giving it a try, others thought it would be too confusing going back and forth between the two styles.

The reaction to the fiction titles was mostly ‘along party lines.’ For example, the girls who had identified themselves as liking fantasy were excited about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, while the girls who liked realistic fiction were more attracted to Homeboyz or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.

The Nonfiction titles seemed to generate more of a consensus. For example, all the girls were quite interested in the book, Born on a Blue Day. This is probably due to the fact that recently an autistic savant visited the Middle School and made a big impression on the students. On the other hand, none of the girls was enthusiastic about Grace after Midnight. One said it wasn’t a topic she was interested in and another said it sounded ‘too intense’. Although I really like this book, I doubt it’s a good choice for most 7th grade girls. This may be a good example of how teens DO self-censor by steering away from titles that they are not ready for.

My overall impression based on this small sample is that teens are not very different from adults when choosing books. They have individual tastes in both styles and genres. Some like suspense, some like fantasy, some relate best to characters like themselves, while others like the novelty of different perspectives. It is possible that I would have come to a different conclusion if my focus group had been older and/or male. I look forward to hearing what my classmates discovered when they talked to teens from other demographics!

The Data

5 titles from YALSA BEST BOOKS 2008

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Selznick, Brian

This book was instantly recognized by all. Apparently, it was one of the titles that Deborah Dowson, YA librarian at Groton Public Library, had ‘book talked’ when she went into Middle School Classrooms to promote her YA Summer Reading program. None of the group had actually read the book.

Elizabeth: I Definitely want to read it!
Ciara: It’s on my list.
Grace: I’d like to give it a try. I’m not sure about going back and forth between pictures and words. It sounds like it could be confusing
Ani: It’s kinda strange to have a story told in pictures. I don’t know if I’d like it.
Rachel: My little sister loved it. I read some of it. I might read more.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Alexie, Sherman
The group wasn’t familiar with this one (it’s available at both the Middle School and Public Libraries, but is geared to a slightly older audience)

Rachel: I definitely would read!
Elizabeth: It sounds like it could be boring
Ciara: I don’t know… it doesn’t sound very interesting to me.
Grace: I would read it!
Ani: I like realistic fiction – but I don’t think I’d like this. It doesn’t sound like it’s a ‘happy’ book. I like happy books.

A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier - Beah, Ishmael

This caught the interest of the whole group. The general consensus was that it’s a book they’d like to read – but with some reservations.
Ani: It would be hard to read because if it got scary or sad you couldn’t just slap yourself and say it’s only FICTION! Maybe I’d like someone else to read it and then just tell me about it.
Rachel: It sounds really intense. I’d like to read it, but it might be too depressing
Elizabeth: I would read it!
Ani: I like the cover. I especially like the back where he is smiling! It’s a good thing that I always read the description before I choose a book. The cover makes it look like it’s a happy book, but the description tells you that it’s not. I still might read it though. It obviously has a happy ending: he’s smiling and he wrote the book
Rachel; Yeah, it’s good to know the story has a happy ending. Bad things happened but it turned out OK
Elizabeth: I like ‘fantasy’ books, but I might read this one. It sounds interesting and it’s true

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -Rowling, J.K.

The entire group was familiar with this one – but only Elizabeth had actually read it.
Elizabeth: I can’t believe I’m the only one in this group who has read this book!! Are you sure?
Grace: What number is this one?
Elizabeth: The last one. Number 7
Grace: yeah, I haven’t gotten that far.
Ciara: I plan to read it this summer
Ani: I saw all the movies. I like the story, but I’m not really interested in reading the books. I prefer realistic fiction and stories with horses in them.
Rachel: I watched one of the movies. I didn’t like it. I kept getting up to go to the bathroom because the movie was so boring.
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant -Tammett, Daniel
This book was in the Adult nonfiction section of our Public Library. The girls thought that the cover was very catchy. It would encourage them want to find out what the book was about. When I read the description, there was even more excitement. “A guy like that came to our school! He was AMAZING!” (general consensus: I would read it because it’s a really interesting subject)

5 titles from Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers 2008

Homeboyz - Sitomer, Alan
None of the girls were familiar with this book or with the author.
Comments:
“COOL cover”
“I don’t like the cover, it’s boring”
“It looks like a BOY book”
“I might read it”
“It sounds interesting. I think I would try it”
“It totally sounds like a good story!”

True Talents -Lubar, David
None were familiar with this title or author.
Elizabeth: I wouldn’t read it
Ani: I go by what it says on the back – and this doesn’t say enough. I don’t really get what the book is about. I probably wouldn’t read it.
Rachel: I’d look at it more closely before I decided

Eighth Grade Bites (Vol. 1 of the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod) – Brewer, Heather
None were familiar with this title or author.
“I’d SO read that book!!”
“It’s a little too strange”
“I Don’t like freaky people on the cover”
“I LOVE the cover. It makes me want to read it”
“The boy on the cover doesn’t look happy. I like happy stories”
“I like realistic books. Not vampire stories”

Grace After Midnight – Pearson, Felicia ‘Snoop’
None of the group were familiar with the TV series “The Wire”
“too intense”
“not my kind of book”
“The cover fits the description – so that’s good – but it’s not something I would read”
“I wouldn’t read it. It’s not something I’m interested in”

Alter Ego, Avatars and their Creators – Cooper, Robbie
The Hologram Cover immediately grabbed the attention of the whole group.
Before I was able to open up the book or read the description they had all decided they wanted this book. They somewhat changed their mind when I showed them the book’s format and read the description.
None of the girls play online Role Playing games. I had to explain the concept of Avatar. They were intrigued by the fact that the avatars are sometimes very different than their creators
“I think it would be interesting”
“I would check it out and look at it, and read some of it”
“Yeah, I’d read some entries: like the one with the Mom and her kids”

Interview with:

Clare O’Neill
Middle School Librarian
Groton-Dunstable Regional School District
2 libraries: gr 5/6 and gr 7/8

I totally Love the Middle School age!
Our library is a safe sanctuary for students.
Sometimes we’re the “island of misfit toys”: Geeks, nerds, and other misfit have a home here. Some students just need a break from the noise and confusion of Middle School life.

Q: What are your biggest challenges?
Middle School has an enormously wide range of maturity level and reading ability.
Some students are ‘emerging readers’ while others are reading at the college level!
A 10 year old’s interest can be wildly different than those of a 14 year old.

Collection development is tricky because maturity level hasn’t necessarily caught up with reading level.
I have to be careful when selecting titles that were written for older teens or for adults. For example, I have SOME Stephen King, and some Jodi Picoult – but I read them first and make a decision on a title-by-title basis. I have the first 3 books of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but not the fourth book, because the characters are older (College!) and the themes are more mature.

Q: What do you do when the content is ‘borderline’?
My observation is that kids self-select better than adults. They will return a book if they find it too intense or if they can’t relate to it.

Our Principal, however, is leery of books with sex, bad language and/or excessive violence.
I sometimes put books with mature themes in our “professional’ collection, so that they aren’t on the shelves with the other books

Q: Do you get many requests for Manga?
I started a manga collection a few years ago, but a member of the school committee objected to it. In the end, we reached a compromise where manga is allowed as long as it is rated for younger teens. This really limits the collection and interest has dropped off. We subscribe to Shonen Jump and Anime Insider magazines– but they’re not all that popular. Maybe it’s because we don’t have much manga in our collection, so fans are not coming to the library.

I also work at Borders in Nashua, NH.  Manga is REALLY popular there! We have to put anti-theft tags on the manga titles or they will just disappear. It’s hard to keep up with the demand.

Q: What series and titles are popular right now?

At Middle School: (Groton, MA)

Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
Alice series – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Bloody Jack – L.A. Meyer
Alex Rider – Anthony Horowitz
Pendragon – d.j. MacHale
Percy Jackson – Rick Riordan
Warriors –Erin Hunter
Eragon – Christopher Paolini

At Borders: (Nashua, NH)
Gossip Girls – Cecily von Ziegesar
IT Girl – Cecily von Ziegesar
Clique – Lisi Harrison
Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld

An interview with Deborah Dowson: YA Librarian at Groton Public Library (Groton, MA)

Q: What do teens like to read?
A: Depends on the teen. Some teens have very specific tastes. Examples: “Happy” Books (skip the teenage angst, please!), Fantasy, Realistic Fiction, Sports, Pirates…

Q: Which series are popular right now?
• Twilight –Stephanie Meyers
• Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
• Lightning Thief/ Percy Jackson – Rick Riordan
• Redwall – Brian Jacques (old classic)
• Alex Rider – Anthony Horowitz

Q: Do you get many requests for Manga?
A: Yes – but it’s hard for us to support. The serial nature of manga means that it takes up a lot of space. If we wanted to increase our manga collection, we’d have to do it at the expense of other titles. Budget constraints are also a problem!

Q: What manga titles do you have?
A. We have the first few volumes of Fruits Basket, InuYasha, Shaman King, Prince of Tennis and a few others. Sadly, the manga fans are on their own if they get hooked and want to read more in the series.

I ordered Deathnote, and it arrived about 6 weeks ago – but it STILL hasn’t made it through processing! I’m being to wonder if our cataloger has something against manga!

Q: Do you get many requests for ‘street lit’
A. No, it’s never come up. I think it’s more popular in urban areas.

Q: How do teens decide what to read next?
A: We have a binder of suggestions in the YA area, as well as various pamphlets, and a book in which the teens can share their own recommendations. The kids seem to find the “Read-alikes” especially helpful. These are lists that recommend books based on what you’ve enjoyed in the past. For example: “If you like the Alex Rider series, you may also like..”

Maybe I should not have attempted to read it right after Grace after Midnight (a book that I loved and am recommending to friends). Maybe I started Gossip Girl with the idea, that like Grace After Midnight, it would provide insight into, and empathy for, an Urban Youth culture that I never experienced first-hand.

Anyway, I was thoroughly disgusted with the book within 5 minutes of starting it. I totally didn’t get the heavy handed descriptive language. I’m not into fashion or clothes or upscale living. I don’t know (or care to know) the difference between Gucci and Armani and Brooks Brothers and Max Mara. It wasn’t worth the effort to look up these words, so I translated most of the adjectives and descriptions into the simple phrase, ‘something expensive and trendy’.  This didn’t make for very exciting reading because, after awhile, it all started sounding the same.

As I plodded through the book, I was strangely reminded of the movie Superbad. My initial reaction to this was also BLECCH! I hated that the ‘descriptive’ language of the movie consisted largely of one word, repeated frequently.  (was I supposed to pick up on subtle nuances in the way the word was used?)  It wasn’t until I remembered that the movie was written by teenage boys FOR teenage boys  (i.e. I was not the target audience), that I was able to distance myself enough to appreciate the movie for what it is: slapstick humor, fun and entertainment.

I then remembered to apply the same rule to Gossip Girl. It wasn’t written to provide people like me with thoughtful and touching insight into the lives of upper crust teens. It was written for the reading pleasure of teen girls. With this new awareness, I decided that the book really wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t my ‘cup of tea’.  I skimmed through the remaining chapters and declared the book ‘finished’.

THEN, since this is the week in which we need to watch 2 hours of teen television, I decided to try the ‘full’ Gossip Girl experience and watch the tv show.  I downloaded the hour-long pilot episode. ($2 from iTunes). I was not particularly excited about watching it, but ‘hey, it’s homework’.

AND Somehow, I got hooked! I haven’t figured it out. I generally don’t like tv and I’m totally not into fashion and I really don’t care how the rich and famous live….but there was something that grabbed and held my attention. I was surprised when the episode ended (so soon?).  I really would like to watch more! (there must be a cheaper way though). I actually went back and READ the chapters that I had skimmed (and a few others too).

I don’t know why I had such a dramatic change in opinion. Maybe I’m trying to make up for something I missed during my own adolescence?.. Or is it the novelty of something so  totally different for me? (after all, I really got into Deathnote too..). I had been planning to give Gossip Girl a two thumbs DOWN rating,  but  I actually ended up enjoying it!