Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

While Tiffany Hodges, left, and Kyra Hall look on, Jeanette Semones, center, smiles while listening to Alyssa Carpenter read during a teen book club meeting at the Vinton branch Roanoke County library

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Kristina Hodges reads along with her teen book club at the Vinton branch Roanoke County library.

Facts about teen reading

• A poll of 1,200 12- to 18-year-olds done this year for the American Library Association found that 31 percent visit the public library more than 10 times a year, and 70 percent use their school library more than once a month.
• Of those who regularly use libraries, 78 percent indicated they borrowed books or other materials for personal use; 60 percent said they did so from school libraries.
• According to the Public Library Data Service Statistical Report, nearly 90 percent of public libraries surveyed offer young adult programs, with more than half — 51.9 percent — employing at least one full-time worker dedicated to young adult programs and services. In 1995, just 11 percent of libraries had employees dedicated to youth services.
• Roanoke County Public Library branches in Vinton, Glenvar and Hollins have teen book clubs that meet monthly. For more information on when book clubs meet visit www.roanokecountyva.gov.

The laptops and Nikes and pink, skull-printed backpacks sit piled on a table.

Minutes before, this group of middle- and high-school girls was showing off pictures of boyfriends on MySpace.com. Now, at Vinton's public library, they giggle and huddle over one another's shoulders, getting just as excited as they share copies of a book.

"Who finished the book?" library employee Seth Marlow asks.

Five of eight small hands punch the air eagerly.

It's the third Thursday of the month, near the end of national Teen Read Week. The branch's Bookworms Book Club is having its monthly meeting. Today's selection is "Deamon Hall," a collection of creepy stories by Andrew Nance, one of which is written in Internet chat-speak.

One girl, 16-year-old Jeanette Semones, tells Marlow she not only finished but also has a list of friends waiting to read it.

Proof that today's teens are still into books.

"The opinion is there is a boom in young adult literature right now," said Marlow, a book club leader, adding that he thinks teens are discovering a "great well of literature."

The genre grows

Despite the Internet, video games and technological pastimes, teens are still reading. In fact, from 1999 to 2005, teen book sales increased 23 percent, said Albert Greco, a Fordham University marketing professor and publishing expert.

The average Barnes & Noble Booksellers, he said, has 74 shelves dedicated to young adult literature. Religion, meanwhile, averages 110 shelves.

"It's growing and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future," he said.

Partially sparked by the "Harry Potter" series, young adult offerings have matured in recent years. And unlike, say, the latest Abercrombie & Fitch sweater, paperbacks often cost $5 to $7, not much more than a soda and a couple of burgers at McDonald's.

Books that are hot right now include Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series about a teen protagonist in love with the undead. After the final "Harry Potter" book, Meyer's books dominate the best-seller list for teens on Amazon.com.

There are series such as "The Gossip Girls," easy-to-read "Sex and the City"-style books about teens at a New York private school.

Then there are graphic novels, extended-page comic books with more adult themes. Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel, "American Born Chinese," was nominated for a National Book Award last year.

With the emergence of cable TV, children are exposed to adult topics at an earlier age. "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" re-runs play on networks such as TBS, and today's PG-13 movies may have been rated R in the past.

Books, in a sense, mirror that shift.

"This genre has had a significant change. The themes and the characters are far more mature than Sweet Valley friends," Greco said, referring to a book series by author Francine Pascal. "Kids tend to grow up faster, and the publishers saw this and put the product out."

Teens are also part of a generation dubbed the "millennials," a term for those ages 10 to 22. Next to the baby boomers, Greco explained, millennials are the second-largest cohort in the United States.

They spend $170 billion annually, and not on mundane adult items like mortgages and medicine. Their money goes toward music and movies and books.

Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Dingus, for instance, used to hate reading, but now helps lead William Byrd High School's book club. She takes books to lunch and gets a chapter in if no one is talking. She highlights words, writes notes in margins and turns to Wikipedia if she does not understand a reference or phrase.

She even used an analogy about materialism from "The Great Gatsby" on the SAT.

"I think I'll always have a soft spot for a good book," she said. "I like things that make you think."

It’s about reflecting life

James Blasingame, an Arizona State University professor who edits the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents Review, said topics once considered taboo -- pregnancy, AIDS and violence -- are now found in teen books.

"There's something for everyone now," he said. "A lot of [young adult] authors said, 'When I was a teen, the book I needed was not there, so I wrote it.' "

For instance, there's the Bluford series about students in a fictional, inner-city high school named for the first black astronaut. There's "Speak" by Laurie Hales Anderson -- about a ninth-grade girl who was raped -- that is used by some schools in curricula. Jack Gantos authored "Joey Pigza Loses Control," in which the protagonist has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

These aren't "Harry Potter" readers, Blasingame concludes.

"Kids want books that reflect their real lives," he said. "It's OK to write about kids who have problems."

The practice, said Ferrum College English professor Lana Whited, is called bibliotherapy -- working through problems using literature. One reason she said the "Harry Potter" series is so popular is because the main character is very much a real boy. Flying and magic aside, Harry deals with bullies and girls and feuding friends.

"He fits into the pattern of a hero, despite the fact he's in an underdog situation," she said. "I think that's everybody's fantasy. I think that's what adolescent angst is about."

Maggie Pillis, a 16-year-old Patrick Henry High School junior, is usually in the middle of four books at once. Most young adult books she reads are about friends and boyfriends or going to college.

"Because it's like my life," she said. "I look at the bookshelves, and everything's so eclectic."

Like most teens, Maggie spends time on the Internet but finds reading more fulfilling. And while teens have electronic options, Blasingame thinks technology has brought teens closer to books.

They can order literature online at Borders or Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. A recent search for "Harry Potter" on Amazon turned up more than 5,377 reader reviews, many written by youths. Authors now create MySpace pages for themselves and their books.

Meyer, who penned the vampire-themed "Twilight" series, encourages fans to e-mail her Web site, suggesting which actors should play certain characters when the books become movies.

Author PJ Haarsma even created a game that can be played online for free. Those who read his series "The Softwire: Virus on Orbis," get tips on mastering the game.

Blasingame predicts the connection between the book and the game will change attitudes about reading.

"I think the Internet is enhancing reading," he said.

Who said libraries are boring?

Meanwhile, Roanoke County libraries -- like branches nationwide -- have teen councils that plan events to draw in youngsters. In addition to Vinton, the Glenvar and Hollins branches also have teen book clubs, while library headquarters on Virginia 419 has an anime club that attracts teens from Northside schools and Vinton. Many of its members read graphic novels.

As the county's youth services librarian, Wendy Rancier often places newly released young adult paperbacks on a rack only to find they are gone the next day. When the new main library opens in 2009, plans call for a teen area.

"They're on their cellphones and on their computers, and everything's so quick," Rancier said. "They're still getting through really long books. ... If it's quality, they'll still sit and read it."

At the Vinton book club, the room is full of teens who have re-read the "Harry Potter" series three times; teens who, when they get grounded, are blocked from reading; and teens who still love Nancy Drew.

Alyssa Carpenter, a 13-year-old seventh-grader at William Byrd Middle School, usually falls asleep reading each night, losing her place in a book.

"I leave my light on, too," she said.