LIBRARY HOLDS : What's hip, what's happenin'...

          This is what our "hold" shelf looks like today.
          Today is the first day back to school after our 2-week winter break, and it was SUPER busy this morning. Loads of books were returned, many of which had holds placed on them by other students. This means they go onto the "hold" shelf, and we send a notice to the students in their English classes. Our policy is to allow one week for the student to pick up their hold, otherwise it goes to the next student in line.
          It's interesting to see what's popular right now, isn't it? I mean, I just got back from vacation so I'm trying really hard to give a shit about work. Anyway, let's take a look at the hold shelf.
          Predictably, all 3 books in the "Hunger Games" series by Suzanne Collins are there. And the final book in the "Eragon" series by Christopher Paolini.
          "39 Clues" by various authors, "Heroes of Olympus" by Riordan, "Kane Chronicles" by Riordan, "Gone" by Grant, and that stupid "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Kinney are all still highly sought-after series. But there's also a book on Greek Mythology by Donna Jo Napoli, which is nice to see.
          I hate to admit it, but one of those "Left Behind" books is also in the hold queue. They've been around since the '90s, but I guess kids always like a freaky apocalypse scenario.
          Only one manga title sits on the hold shelf at present. "Chibi Vampire." The kiddies love that. It looks intensely annoying to me, but whatever.
          Oh- and there's also Legend by Marie Lu. Surprise! it's dystopian! I'm pretty sick of the whole dystopian trend. It's just not my scene, dig?
         
To sum up:

• Teens are way into series fiction right now, they're not at all scared away by the idea of many, many volumes and even spin-off series.
• Fantasy and Dystopia are the reigning king and queen of genres. Not sure who wears the pants, though.
• With TWO popular series currently under way, Rick Riordan must be raking in the bucks.

          Believe it or not, WHILE I was typing this a student came up and asked to put a reserve on the Hunger Games. We only have 2 copies, and as you can see they are BOTH currently reserved.
          Ugh. Tomorrow I definitely have to drag down all the Christmas decorations and stuff it all away until next school-year. That damn Christmas tree is staring me in the face like a dead cockroach nobody wants to clean up.

COMING SOON: September - December

The "coming attractions" board behind the circulation desk

          In case anyone is wondering which teen and YA series are popular around here, this is our latest "Coming soon..." board with the upcoming releases our students are peeing their pants in excitement about.
          As you'll see below, the two obvious trends in popular teen/YA fiction are 1) authors who probably don't really write their own books anymore because their names are so bankable anything with their name on it will sell, and 2) "tangential" series fiction, which is confusing to library workers because the same author will have 2 series going that look the same but they're not.

Here's the run-down of upcoming series fiction:

September 19th: James Patterson's & Ned Rust's Daniel X: Game Over, which is #4 in the "Daniel X" series. The title makes you think it's the last in the series but we've been tricked by teen series before, like Eragon, which was supposed to be a trilogy but turned into a 4-book sequence.

September 20th: Heather Brewer's First Kill, first in the "Slayer Chronicles," which is kind of a tangential series to her super popular "Vladimir Tod" series, only this time it's told from the vampire SLAYER'S viewpoint. Necessary? Not sure, but the kids will want to read it.

October 11th: James Dashner's The Death Cure, 3rd and supposedly final in the "Maze Runner" trilogy. Like I said, we've been tricked by "trilogies" before, so if this dystopian series continues to make money, the publisher might pressure Mr. Dashner into making a four or five-book "trilogy."

November 15th: Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever, #6 in the "Wimpy Kid" series. It's like the new "Captain Underpants" or something. Ugh.

December 5th: James Patterson's & Jill Dembowski's The Fire, #3 in the "Witch & Wizard" series. Patterson. Hmph. Sick o' him. He's juggling too many plates and they're gonna start crashing. Besides, so much of his stuff is written WITH other writers, how much of it is he even really doing these days? I think he's just a brand, now. Maybe James Patterson doesn't even EXIST, like Franklin W. Dixon or Carolyn Keene. Have you ever seen him in person? I haven't. He's an urban legend. Nobody can write that many books.

December 6th: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, #2 in "The Infernal Devices" series. This is a tangential/simultaneous series (like Heather Brewer's above) that co-exists with Clare's continuing "Mortal Instruments" series. Clare is actually writing the two series at the same time. Both take place in the same fantasy world, but along different timelines. Confused? Read the author's explanation of this HERE. I haven't made up my mind yet if I find that impressive or annoying.

Here's a few other bonus upcoming releases we also have posted behind the counter:

October 4th: Rick Riordan's Son of Neptune, #2 in the "Heroes of Olympus" series. It's like a whole sequel series to the "Percy Jackson" series, about the next group of young kids at Camp Half-Blood. Not quite as annoying as a tangential series, but I still have to keep explaining it to students.

November 4th: Christopher Paolini's Inheritance, #4 in the Eragon, or "Inheritance" series. Which was supposed to be a trilogy.