This is a reflection on my reading and review of 2017 Gold Inky award winner Words in Deep Blue (Crowley, 2016; Inky, 2017). The review was posted on social networking site Goodreads and a blog created for this unit.
What Did You Learn?
The basic piece of knowledge gained from this task is that writing a review for a respected book one did not enjoy is not easy, to write the review I had to articulate my dislike for characters that people enjoyed without coming across as hateful. It was a reminder that we are all coloured by our experiences or lack thereof, my own lack of experience with grief and mourning was, in this case, a hindrance. For this review, I used a guide but added some aspects of my usual review style ("Writing a fiction or non-fiction review," n.d.).
How was the Activity Relevant to Your Professional Practice Working with Children and/or Young Adults?
Success with young adult patrons is knowing what is being written for them and reading a sample ("Engaging teens with reading," n.d.). By reading and reviewing Words in Deep Blue I continued that journey, and in reviewing my experience I gave myself a prompt for a later time as to what I disliked, why and who might enjoy it. If reviews are kept on hand in a professional setting they may allow for a staff to make recommendations to young adults based on relevant enjoyment of titles (Hastings, 2013). Keeping reviews in dot points or at least having an executive summary for easy access may be better than long and wordy.
Discussion of Young People’s Book Awards in Relation to Your Chosen Activity.
Among the multiple literary award mentions Words in Deep Blue has received arguably winning the 2017 Gold Inky award may be the most significant (Inky, 2017; "Words in Deep Blue," n.d.). The Inky awards (the Inkys) has two categories; the Gold Inky is awarded to Australian authors and the Silver Inky, to International authors. Unlike most book awards of categories for young adults, the Inkys are decided by young people between 12 and 18. The shortlist is decided by a panel of young judges, the initial panel deciding the long list are previous judges and the winner is decided by popular vote, with only those between the ages of 12 and 18 eligible ("Guidelines," n.d.).
The importance of the Inkys is in the voice they provide young people and the opportunity for participation in the community, these are priorities in library service for young people (Debraski et al., 2015; IFLA, 2015; State Library of Queensland, 2009). Literary awards are used by some libraries as selection development tools (Alabaster, 2010). The winners and to some extent the shortlists, of the Inkys gives an indication of what is important to the current generation of youth, of what is popular and what acquisitions might increase circulation.
References
Alabaster, C. (2010). Developing an outstanding core collection: A guide for libraries [ALA editions]. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Crowley, C. (2016). Words in deep blue. Sydney, Australia: Pan.
Debraski, S., Finney, M., Kolderup, G., Murphy, A., Nataraj, L., & Wynn, V. (2015). Core professional values for the teen services profession. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/yalsa/core-professional-values-teen-services-profession
Engaging teens with reading. (n.d.). In National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/reading-engagement/strategies-to-engage-students-as-readers/engaging-teens-with-reading
Guidelines. (n.d.). In Inside A Dog. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://insideadog.com.au/page/guidelines
Hastings, R. (2013). Blogging for readers. In C. Harmon & M. Messina (Eds.), Using social media in libraries: Best practices. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/
IFLA. (2015). Guidelines for library services for young adults Retrieved from https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/libraries-for-children-and-ya/publications/ya-guidelines2-en.pdf
Inky. (2017). 2017 Winners. Inside A Dog. [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://insideadog.com.au/inkys/2017-winners
McPherson, C. (2018, April 28). Catherine McP's review of Words in Deep Blue. Goodreads. [Goodreads Review]. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2371205533
State Library of Queensland. (2009). Queensland public library standards and guidelines: Young peoples services standard. Retrieved from http://plconnect.slq.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/138435/138435_Young_People_Services_standard_-_April_2009.pdf
Words in Deep Blue. (n.d.). In Pan Macmillan Australia. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781742612386/
Writing a fiction or non-fiction review. (n.d.). In Oxforddictionaries.com. from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/writing-help/writing-a-fiction-or-non-fiction-review
This reflection is well structured and the link to the review itself was helpful. Articulating the importance of awareness regarding contemporary young adult literature was another great aspect. Librarians can hardly expect to successfully promote their collections to library users and defend these collections to stakeholders if they themselves are not aware of the literature or its significance. For example, comics are “integral” to the young adult publishing industry (Tarbox, 2017, p. 233) but there are librarians and teachers who do not take them seriously.
ReplyDeletePointing out that book awards lists are tools used in collection development was something I had not thought of and this comment was a good reminder of all the great tools available to us while building collections, especially youth-centric collections. An obsession with “formalist components” can mean graphic novels are ineligible for book awards (Bittner, 2017, p. 81) and collections based solely around book awards may fail to reflect the diversity of their community (Fogle Kurz, 2012, p. 129). It can be argued that book awards focus on “substantial” i.e. serious literature (Clark & Blackburn, 2016, p. 869) but the Inkys, being a popular vote, easily get around possible bias.
References
Bittner, R. (2017). Carpe librum: Seize the (YA) book. English Journal, 107(2), 81-84.
Fogle Kurz, R. (2012). Missing faces, beautiful places: The lack of diversity in South Carolina picture book award nominees. New Review of Children’s Literature in Librarianship, 18(2), 128-145. doi: 10.1080/13614541.2012.716695
Clark, C. T., & Blackburn, M. V. (2016). Scenes of violence and sex in recent award-winning LGBT-themed young adult novels and the ideologies they offer their readers. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(6), 867-886. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2014.936713
Tarbox, G. A. (2017). Young adult comics and the critics: A call for new modes of interdisciplinary close reading. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 42(2), 231-243. doi: 10.1353/chq.2017.0019