W7A2 - Teen Articles - The two articles I chose to read were "YA Comes of Age" (Publisher's Weekly), and "Not Just for Teens" (Library Journal).  In the first article, I completely agree with much of what Sue Corbett is saying - the teen section has become very "dark" over the recent years.  When I started working at the library about 4 years ago and sauntered into the teen section, I was like Whoa! The whole aisle is "dark," literally.  The book covers, the themes (death, blood, vampires, dystopia...).  Is this all we have to feed them? I think I'd be hard-pressed to find two books in the teen section that have an image of someone who's happy on the front.  It's sorta sad.  Corbett also mentions the exhaustion of the paranormal subgenre, at least from the writers' viewpoint.  Teens seem to still be reading it, but authors are getting tired of it (this article is from 2011).  She predicts the growth of dystopia, referring to the then-recent release and craze of The Hunger Games.  I do agree that dystopia won't be dying out anytime soon.  I'm currently reading Z for Zachariah (2007) which is a dystopian story of life after a nuclear holocaust where everyone is believed to be dead from radiation, except two or three people.  The movie is coming out on August 28, 2015, and there's a wait list for the book now.  So yeah, dystopia fans, get comfortable!

The second article was "Not Just for Teens."  Angelina Benedetti is talking about how attractive the teen section has become for adults over the past years, and the reasons why.  She lists nine different reasons, some of which include the improved writing styles of teen authors, emotional immediacy (getting right to the point withing the first chapter or so), the rise in ebooks, and moms wanting to be "in" on what their kids are reading.  Although the article is a little long, it's written very well and the points are clearly expressed.  Her final thought was challenging librarians to promote the YA collection by becoming more familiar with it and buying in greater quantities to accommodate the growing audience of readers - good advice.  I can personally relate to the emotional immediacy appeal.  I have a very short attention span when it comes to books that start slow.  I need action on like the first page.  (Okay, maybe the second lol).

W7A1 - Not Just for Teens - The "What to Read Next" flowchart is a great tool, especially for me since I'm not a big "teen book" reader.  I printed it out to keep as a reference.