Last October, Gigi Lefebvre grabbed her dog-eared copy of “The Maze Runner” and headed to the Roseville Library to hear author James Dashner. The St. Paul teen arrived late and stood in the back of a packed room as Dashner fielded questions about a futuristic fantasy world, where teens with amnesia battle mechanical monsters in an experimental prison.
After Lefebvre got her book signed, she handed Dashner a pencil sketch of two characters from the book. The next day, Dashner posted her drawing on Instagram for all of his 30,000 followers to see, along with the comment “More fan artwork. Amazing!”
Lefebvre was elated, reposted the comment to her friends and hoped for a similar exchange when she saw the new “Maze Runner” movie a couple of weeks ago, tweeting “Hey @jamesdashner I saw your cameo appearance in the maze runner!”
Lefebvre isn’t the only teen connecting online with an author. The now-18-year-old senior at Highland Park High School became a bookworm in a new era when the pleasure of reading doesn’t end when you turn the last page.
It’s difficult to say whether more teens are reading more fiction than they used to — but they are talking about books in unprecedented ways. From teen book clubs to social media, attending book signings and filling theaters to see the latest movie based on a young-adult novel, reading has morphed from a nerdy, solitary pursuit into a cool, communal pastime.
“I get really attached to these fictional worlds,” said Lefebvre, who follows numerous authors on Twitter and favors dark and intense stories lightened by characters with a sense of humor. “I’m able to bond with my friends over these books, and then when the movies come out, it’s even better.”
AUTHORS AS CELEBRITIES
Authors have become celebrities and there is buzz around books — much in the same way there was buzz a generation ago around popular TV shows or bands. Next month, several big names will swing through the Twin Cities on tour, including Cassandra Clare, author of the best-selling “The Mortal Instruments” series, on Wednesday; and Marie Lu, author of “Legend,” and Stephanie Perkins, author of “Isla and the Happily Ever After,” later in the month.
“I’m in my early 30s, and one thing that’s different than when I grew up is how embedded these books are in teens’ pop culture,” said Amy Oelkers, who runs a teen book club (which Lefebvre belongs to) and organizes events for Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul. The store wants to be seen as a destination for teens as well as younger readers.
As journalist Margaret Talbot wrote in a recent New Yorker cover story on “The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green, “For many young people today … reading is not an act of private communion with an author whom they imagine vaguely, if at all, but a prelude to a social experience — following the author on Twitter, meeting other readers, collaborating with them on projects, writing fan fiction. In our connected age, even books have become interactive phenomena.”
Teen reading used to be managed more by adults: Titles were recommended by teachers and perhaps a favorite copy of “Catcher in the Rye” was handed around. Selections were limited to what was on the library shelves. Now, teens get information from each other and directly from publishers and authors.
“I was not aware of release dates of books, and as far as I was concerned, ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ was published six seconds before a librarian put it in my hands. Books just existed,” said Andrew Karre, editorial director at Carolrhoda Books in Minneapolis and publisher of several young-adult titles. “Now, every single kid knows down to the size of the print run when the new ‘Wimpy Kid’ is coming out. Successful authors are successful users of social media, and it’s par for the course for fans to expect a certain level of interaction.”
Karre and others trace the shift to a mix of factors. “Harry Potter” became a global phenomenon right about the same time that the Internet made it possible for people to create fan sites and a communal experience around reading. Movies serve to pump a book title.
Then came the explosion in young-adult literature, a genre fueled by adult buyers as much as teens. Three of every four books in the young-adult category are purchased by adults older than 18, according to Nielsen, and the majority of adults are buying for themselves.
“I think what’s interesting about Y.A. lit is that it’s not so much written for teenagers, as it’s about ‘teenage-ness,’ ” Karre noted. “Most of us can cast our minds back to being a teenager. People get nostalgic. It’s a time in life we never quite recover from, when we were finding our identities. So, young adult is truly a literary genre rather than an audience.”
And finally, the constant stream of movies based on young-adult books serve to make the books more popular. It’s no coincidence that Gayle Forman’s 2009 young-adult book “If I Stay,” about a cellist who falls into a coma, shot to the top of the New York Times’ young-adult best-seller list in August as trailers for the movie hit theaters.
“When a book is being made into a movie, it definitely makes the book more popular,” said Samantha “Sami” Linssen, an eighth-grader at Highland Park Middle School. “People say, ‘I have to read that book.’ I know a lot of people who don’t constantly read like me, but if something is being made into a movie, they’ll read the book to get the gist of what it’s about.”
THE CLUB
The extent to which books have become a social experience was obvious on a recent Monday at Red Balloon Bookshop on Grand Avenue, where eight teens gathered around a table for “Teens Read.”
“Some of the best writing, writing in general, is happening in young-adult lit today,” said Oelkers, who started the group as a way to build customers, get advice on titles to stock and recruit volunteers for events. The group is capped at 18 members and has a waitlist. Teens take home advance copies of unpublished books and share their opinions at monthly meetings.
“It’s the best when we get to read the second book in a series before it’s published, and you loved the first one and your friends can’t get it yet,” said Claire Weissman, an eighth-grader at Capitol Hill Magnet School in St. Paul. “We’re not supposed to let anyone else read the books. So you tell them, ‘Sorry, I can’t tell you what happens.’ That’s fun.”
Unlike a typical book club, each teen reads different books.
“OK, who wants to go first?” Oelkers asked.
Weissman held up “The Vault of Dreamers” by Caragh M. O’Brien, published this month to mostly good reviews.
“I started the book and it was like a reality TV show,” Weissman said.
“Like ‘The Hunger Games’?” someone asked.
“No, these special arty kids get selected to be on a show called ‘The Forge.’ And every night, you take this pill, which is supposed to enhance your creativity while you sleep. But it turns out they mine your dreams while you’re sleeping.”
The teens chatted and compared the plot to Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and Weissman offered her final advice: “Don’t read it.”
Next up was Jack Fischer, an avid soccer player and ninth-grader at Andover High School. He recommended “We Were Liars,” a teen psychological thriller by E. Lockhart.
“Oh, I love it! It’s so good,” Weissman chimed in. “Everyone should read it.”
At the end of the book club, Oelkers asked for volunteers to help at several October events, and hands shot in the air. Everyone wants to meet their favorite author.
EVENTS
Along with the social-media interaction, teens want to meet their favorite authors in real life. More than 600 people turned out for the first Twin Cities Teen Lit Con held on a Saturday in May at Henry Sibley High School in Mendota Heights. The day of activities, talks and writing workshops with national and local teen authors was co-hosted by Addendum Books, a 2-year-old young-adult bookstore in St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill neighborhood run by two school librarians. A second literature convention is planned for next spring.
A local appearance last year by author Rainbow Rowell drew 400 people to two events.
“I love that celebrities can be authors,” said St. Paul Public Library youth services coordinator Marika Staloch. “At the events I’ve gone to, the teens are asking really profound questions. And then the book lines take hours. Each teen needs to take a cellphone photo with their author and tell their personal story of what they loved about the book.”
And this week, when Clare appears with author Holly Black to promote a book they co-wrote, Weissman, who loves Clare’s earlier “The Mortal Instruments” series, plans to ask the author where her ideas originate. She also plans to ask Clare to sign her books — all nine of them.
Maja Beckstrom can be reached at 651-228-5295.
TWIN CITIES TEEN BOOK EVENTS IN OCTOBER
Who: Best-sellers Cassandra Clare and Holly Black promote their new middle-grade collaboration, “The Iron Trial,” at two events.
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul
Tickets: $25; 651-290-1200 or fitzgeraldtheater.publicradio.org
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul
Tickets: Free and open to the public, but the signing line is ticketed and requires the purchase of “Magisterium: The Iron Trial” ($19.36); 651-224-8320 or redballoonbookshop.com
Who: Minnesota Book Award-winner Carrie Mesrobian’s launch party for “Perfectly Good White Boy”
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Addendum Books, 165 N. Western Ave., St. Paul
Tickets: None required; more information at 651-493-2791 or addendumbooks.blogspot.com
Who: Teen-literature panel with five authors published by HarperCollins touring as “Epic Reads,” including Andrea Portes, Anna Carey, Heather Demetrios, Amy Ewing and Madeleine Roux
When: 6 p.m. Oct. 9
Where: Wild Rumpus, 2720 W. 43rd St., Minneapolis
Tickets: None required; info at 612-920-5005 or wildrumpusbooks.com
Who: Seven teen-lit authors in the new Teen Tent at the Twin Cities Book Festival, including national authors Marie Lu, Andrea Cremer, Morgan Matson and Stephanie Perkins. Plus, local authors Pete Hautman, Geoff Herbach and Carrie Mesrobian host a party with photo booth and swag.
When: 1-5 p.m. Oct. 11
Where: Minnesota State Fairgrounds’ Progress Center, 1621 Randall Ave., Falcon Heights
Tickets: None required; more information at 651-224-8320, redballoonbookshop.com or raintaxi.com
Who: Andrew Smith, author of “Grasshopper Jungle”
When: Oct. 16 (time not yet announced)
Where: Addendum Books, 165 N. Western Ave., St. Paul
Tickets: None required; more information at 651-493-2791 or addendumbooks.blogspot.com
Who: Kendare Blake, touring author of “Mortal Gods”
When: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21
Where: Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul
Tickets: None required; more information at 651-224-8320 or redballoonbookshop.com
