Our Romance/Chick Lit section is another of my favorites. As its name implies, this section mainly appeals to the girls, although I definitely have a few boys who like Nicholas Sparks. Pay attention to these boys, ladies, they'll make the best boyfriends one day!
About our Romance/Chick Lit section:
NUMBER OF BOOKS IN THE SECTION: 393
GENRE LABEL COLOR: hot pink
MOST POPULAR TITLES IN PAST 90 DAYS:
- How to Rock Braces and Glasses (Haston)
- 52 Reasons to Hate My Father (Brody)
- How to Rock Breakups and Makeups (Haston)
- Spin the Bottle (Kimmel)
- ttyl (Myracle)
- Access Denied (And Other Eighth Grade Error Messages): A Novel (Vega)
- BFF: A Girlfriend Book U Write 2Gether (Myracle)
- Getting Even (Billingsley)
- Prom & Prejudice (Eulberg)
- The Fashion Disaster That Changed My Life (Myracle)
- Frenemies (Young)
- How to Ruin My Teenage Life (Elkeles)
- Lucky (Vail)
- What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know (Sones)
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GENRE:
- target audience is teen girls--books in this section are not intended to appeal to the boys.
- romance is a major part of the story/li>
- strong character development, particularly of female protagonist(s)
- self-discovery; understanding others
- contemporary setting
- often told in first person narrative/as though the reader is the heroine's friend or confidant
- may contain consumerism (designer labels, obsession with fashion)
- relationships with friends and family are also very important to the story
- protagonist often has a supportive circle of friends
- other themes may include struggles with body weight/image, friendship, mean girls, dating, family, belonging, school, moving to a new place
- religious faith and church may be important to the protagonist
TRENDING:
- diary formats, texting, emails, blogs
- Need more multicultural titles
TROUBLESHOOTING:
- Romance/Chick Lit books are among my most likely to be challenged. Titles like Lisa Rennison's On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God, Sarah Dessen's Just Listen, and Lauren Myracle's ttyl are among the ALA's most frequently-challenged books (and can all be found in my library).
- This section closely matches our Humor section, which sometimes makes it difficult to decide where to shelve new books. If I put all my girly humor titles in Chick Lit, does my Humor section then become the Chick Lit for boys? Does that even make sense?
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