Young Adult Reading Preferences

In talking with young adults in my library, I found a broad range of reading preferences.  The girls all loved books that dealt with subjects a little older than their age group.  A favorite series is Pretty Little Liars for girls, and a favorite series for boys is Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  The boys tend to enjoy fantasy and adventure fiction.  Some of the boys that I interviewed picked books by Gary Paulsen as their favorites, and some of them chose The 39 Clues books as favorites.  Most boys interviewed also chose non-fiction subjects such as war and sports as areas most visited in the library.  The girls rarely ever venture into the non-fiction areas unless assignments in these sections require it.  All of the students that I interviewed had internet access at their homes, and some reported that they read (at least in forums/discussion boards/facebook) on the internet.  Many of the internet users only use it for gaming.  I actually found that the students were a lot like me in their reading preferences; their preferences change a lot depending on what they're reading at the time.