Monday, January 10, 2011

Contemporary Trends of the Spring

One of the really cool things about being at ALA's Midwinter Meeting was seeing all the upcoming books for spring and summer. In seeing all the books I noticed some definite trends in contemporary YA, some that I'm really jazzed about.

Sports Fiction!
There are a few books coming out that focus on very sports-driven characters who end up getting injured or "losing" the sport in another way. I'm definitely not an athlete and there are very few sports I even slightly follow, but I definitely have a fascination with football (high school football? even better.) and am interested in the whole allure of sports. These books look absolutely great, even for a non-jock like myself.

Foreign Fiction.
I saw tons of MG and YA books themed around immigrants and heritage. I haven't read much of this sub-genre so there are definitely a few books here I'm excited to read and interested to see what I think of them. I'm so glad to see this theme emerging because it's just so different and there are so many different directions for it to go.

Friendship & Betrayal Stories.
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.
So many stories about friendships that don't seem right!! It's sad how excited I am about this but I can't help it. I've talked about friendship and especially toxic/unhealthy friendships before on this blog and I definitely have a very personal and intense interest in this. I love that YA is getting away from the theme of "perfect" best friends but at the same time this is a very tricky theme to tackle and it can seem really unrealistic or cliche if not done right. 





What trends have you seen emerging lately? Which are you most excited about?

6 comments:

  1. Yes! Sports fiction! Ever since I read Dairy Queen I was like...WANT. MORE.

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  2. Sports fiction sounds intriguing. I know there are a ton of movies with sports themes, and some of my favorite movies (MIGHTY DUCKS, ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD, REMEMBER THE TITANS, RUDY, THE BLIND SIDE) deal with sports. I wonder if sports books will be just as powerful. I hope so!

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  3. thatcovergirl
    Can you believe I haven't read Dairy Queen yet?
    bad reader!

    Amelia
    REMEMBER THE TITANS!!! THE BLIND SIDE!!! *loves*
    I'm looking at one sports-themed book in particular (LEVERAGE) that I have high hopes for. So we'll see how it goes.

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  4. Yes, yes sport fiction! My personal favorite is Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley. Seriously more and more teens these days are playing sports, why is that not reflected in YA? I have no hope of ever seeing my current sport (field hockey) in books but I want more soccer, basketball, hockey! the unusal sports like curling ;)

    I'm psyched about more foreign fiction too. I love learning about other cultures (cheapest way to travel for real).

    I'm so envious that you got to go to ALA Midwiner, it sounds phenomenal!

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  5. MissAttitude
    I watched curling in the last winter Olympics and YES, WANT A YA ABOUT THAT, PLEASE!!! I'm not a basketball fan (at. all.) but am so excited about more footbally books.

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  6. for miss attitude - two books about field hockey are:
    Freshman Season: How I Dodged & Tackled High School
    First Year Varsity: Time Spent in the Lost & Found
    Check them out on amazon.com

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