by teenagers just isn’t there anymore,”
says David Levithan, a young-adult
author and editorial director of
Scholastic Press. “Adults are really
enjoying the books.” They’re also
driving up revenues. Sales of books
for children, teens, and young adults
rose by 12 percent from 2008 through
2010. (Sales of adult fiction, mean-
while, rose only 3. 5 percent.)
Teen lit is so hot that best-selling
adult authors like James Patterson,
John Grisham, and Candace Bushnell
recently released their own young-
adult titles. “This is the best genre for
escapism,” says Becky Anderson, co-
owner of Anderson’s Bookshops
in Illinois. Budding romances, elabo-
rate settings, well-planned plots—
TEEN LIT
YOU’LL
LOVE
PARTIALS
by Dan Wells
A teen medic-
in-training tries to
save what’s left of
the human race
during a battle
with the Partials,
engineered
humanoids.
“I realized I liked
the young-adult
books I was read-
ing better than
most adult ones,”
reveals retired
English teacher
Sharon Corbitt,
67, of Covina,
California.
FROM TOP: ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE BERRIE; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN UELAND
THE FAUL T IN
OUR STARS
by John Green
Green weaves a
tale of life, death,
and uncertainty
through the story
of a girl in remis-
sion from cancer.
So which books
should be on your
list? Try our new
picks (at left)
and talk to—who
else?—teens. Then
visit blogs such as
TheStorySiren
.com and Stacked
Books.org to find
even more titles.
If you still worry
this genre is too
juvenile—don’t.
FRACTURE
by Megan Miranda
A teen girl is
revived after
nearly drowning,
only to find she
can sense death.
Levithan has got-
ten fan mail from
readers ages 17 to
70. “A good book
is a good book,” he
says, “whatever
the category.” ;
Trends
You know that pressure washer and punch bowl gathering dust in your
garage? Now you can make money off of them. Recently launched web-
sites like SnapGoods.com and Rentalic.com let you rent everything from
your power tools to your Prius to local borrowers. You set the fee—say,
$5 a day for a blender, $10 a day for a lawnmower—borrowers pick up your
item, and websites frequently take a cut, typically between 5 and 10
percent. Borrowing is smart, too: Renée Linde, 52, of Sausalito, California,
recently posted a Mini Cooper rental request on Zaarly.com. Within two
minutes someone agreed to her $50-a-day offer: “It was just so effort-
less,” she says. Score! —Melody Warnick
Rent Out Your Stuff
The Reality
of Reality TV
More proof that shows like Jersey
Shore are junk: Tween and teen
girls who regularly view reality TV
in their own lives, a recent survey by the Girl Scout
Research Institute finds. And they tend to measure
their worth by their physical appearance. The news
isn’t all bad—reality viewers have more leadership
aspirations—but here’s hoping today’s girls get more
into cookies than Snooki. —Leslie Quander Wooldridge
Ah, Youth! Sometimes We Don’t Miss It!
