Teens Meeting the Challenge: Young Adults Gain a Voice Deciding What's Hot to Read

Many teens love to participate, and they love to be asked for their opinions. What better way to focus on these two elements than through books? The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association, with Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) magazine as a co-sponsor, experimented with this idea through a pilot project using teenagers who belonged to library teen book groups throughout the country. The ultimate goal was to develop a permanent program through which teens could vote on their top ten favorites among the most current YA books. Instead of teachers and/or librarians making the award choices, teens themselves would have a voice.

The first phase of the Teens' Top Ten/YA Galley pilot project began in 1999, focusing primarily on the Teens' Top Ten element. Two groups were targeted to participate in the project, our Young Adult Advisory Council (YAAC) at the City of Mesa Public Library in Arizona and a junior high library advisory board in Pennsylvania that met at four different sites: Marshall Middle School in Wexford, and North Hills Junior High, Carson Middle School, and Northland Public Library in Pittsburgh. Each group read books chosen for that year's Best Books for Young Adults List from YALSA. In time for Teen Read Week 1999, both groups submitted their final votes, which were combined into one "winners" list. The list of titles chosen was published in the December 1999 issue of VOYA.

In 2000, the second phase began. This time, it concentrated on the YA Galley part of the project. Participating publishers sent hot-off-the-press copies of books and galley editions to six teen groups throughout the country. Each teen group read the books and completed evaluation forms. The completed teen evaluation forms were returned to the publishers by the librarian advisors, so the publishers could receive feedback on the books from the teens.

Phase three took place during 2001. The segments of the project from the first two years were combined into one Teens' Top Ten/YA Galley Project. Six teen library advisory groups participated and completed the project. The groups received galley copies or newly published YA books, and group members completed evaluation forms. The forms were once again sent to the publishers to give them teen feedback.

At this point, teens also used the forms for a second purpose-to nominate titles for the 2001 Teens' Top Ten. If a book received at least two nominations, it was added to the contender list. Nominations from all participating groups were tallied and compiled into one master list. Each group kept reading, and from October 14-20, which was Teen Read Week, each group conducted a final vote for the 2001 Teens' Top Ten pilot. This list of winning titles was published in the December 2001 issue of VOYA. The six teen library groups that completed the project also developed criteria for teens to evaluate books in the future.

At the conclusion of the 2001 project year, the YALSA Task Force members assigned to develop Teens' Top Ten/YA Galley as a possible permanent YALSA project wrote a final report. At the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference in 2002, the report was submitted to YALSA, and Teens' Top Ten was officially approved as an ongoing project. So, 2003 would be the first full year of the project with real votes that count.

Five teen school and public library advisory groups nationwide have been and will be serving as the actual 2003-2004 Teens' Top Ten nominating and voting groups. These groups include the MLHS Booktalkers at Medical Lake High School in Medical Lake, Washington; the Teen Advisory Board at Alien County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana; the Teen Advisory Board: Readers R' Us at Wilson Middle School in Piano, Texas; the Teen Advisory Council at B. B. Comer Memorial Library in Sylacauga, Alabama; and the Teen Review Board at East Lansing Public Library in East Lansing, Michigan.

During 2003, the teen members of these groups read, fast and furiously, the galley and new books that the ever-increasing list of participating publishers offered. In addition, for the first time, nominating teens could also select books from publishers outside the YA Galley Project. Readers evaluated each title and nominated or seconded the ones they felt were outstanding. The list of nominated titles was posted on a new web page, developed just for this purpose. To view the results, you can do a keyword search under "Teens Top Ten," or use the following URL: http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ YALSA/Special_Projects/Teens_Top_Ten.htm

Ten additional teen advisory groups participated as readers and evaluators without submitting nominations. As our YAAC continued in this capacity, it was interesting to see how members' opinions agreed or conflicted with those of the five nominating groups. Since they read so much, the teens in YAAC and the other participating groups were well prepared to do the final national online voting at the same time the nominating groups were conducting their paper ballot votes.