Adding to what Carrie said, and as someone who has a teenage daughter who qualifies through the grant, teenage romance is often part of their self-selected reading which is usually a part of any established reading program. In other words, anything that the teachers would consider appropriate for a student to read would qualify for the grant, and teenage romance certainly qualifies for young ladies. Wink.
A lot of what I have been scanning the past few months are the books that Nichole has been choosing to read, including the Sierra Jensen series. She has enjoyed it enormously and is thrilled that those books will be available to other teens with print disabilities. These particular books aren't straight romance, per se, but rather peeks into the life of a Christian teen and inevitably thoughts of boys are part of it.
The important part for teenagers in my opinion is to keep them passionate about reading, and for many girls, the only hook that you can use might be teen romance, especially for struggling readers.
Hope that makes sense! Valerie On 10 28, 2009, at 12:47 AM, Carrie Karnos wrote:
Any book written for children or teenagers is considered "educational". We can all point to various children's books that really aren't educational, but the whole point of defining "educational" is to avoid having to look at each book that's in the collection and pass judgment on it. Better to say if a book is in such-and-such category, then it is (or isn't) educational.Carrie From: siss52 <siss52@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tue, October 27, 2009 9:42:11 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Which books count toward the grant? You said teen romance books were okay, so I just do not get it either. Sue S. ----- Original Message ----- From: Carrie Karnos To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:13 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Which books count toward the grant?Well, in one sense, EVERY book is educational because it teaches or shows you something you didn't know before. But that doesn't help here, making every book "educational," so we can throw that definition out.It's difficult to know where to draw the line between educational and non-educational. We've been discussing what an "educational" book consists of, since we got the grant 2 years ago, and going round and round and round about it. Now that the Feds have signed off on the definition, we're going with it. No turning back.No one has explained the logic of why genre fiction counts and romance doesn't count to me, but maybe it's because most romances are very formulaic, whereas there's a great variety of plots and situations in the other genre categories. There are several romances that I've said were educational, and of course all of Jane Austen's works are educational and quite romantic. So there are exceptions to the rule.Now the librarian has been tasked with coming up with a definition of a "textbook". Here we go, round and round again! Whee!Carrie From: Melissa Smith <mdsmith25@xxxxxxxx> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tue, October 27, 2009 4:33:30 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Which books count toward the grant?I completely agree here, Roger. Yes, I am a romance fan, though I read most of my romance from NLS, and my nonfiction from bookshare. Not really sure why, but that's the way it is. Anyway, if thrillers, science fiction, etc count why not romance. Romance is no more fictionalized than any of these, and depending on the book, no more adult than any of these.Melissa Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx wrote:> I know that this sounds like an indignant question from a romance fan, but I am not a romance fan. I am just a little stunned and surprised. If thrillers, horror, mystery and science fiction are considered educational then what the blue blazes is wrong with romance?>> "If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.> " Malcolm X> The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com <http://wwww.themilitant.com >Pathfinder Press: http://www.pathfinderpress.com > Granma International: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html <http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html >> _ > > table with 2 columns and 7 rows> Subj: [bksvol-discuss] Which books count toward the grant? Date: 10/27/2009 7:01:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time From:ckarnos@xxxxxxxxx Reply-to: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx CC: pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxx Sent from the Internet> (Details) table end > > Hi gang, >> A volunteer asked which books qualify for the grant, so I thought maybe there are others who don't know about this either. This is a quick email to the> group, so everyone knows which books count. >> To explain this by what's excluded, all books qualify, except romances, books that are adult content, and books that proselytize religion. Factual books > about religion are fine, since they explain what it's about, but books that push agendas at you do not qualify. It doesn't matter where the book comes> from - volunteers, outsourcers, publishers, or anywhere else. >> To explain this by what's included, all kiddie books (including teen romances) are okay, most non-fiction is okay, "good" literature is okay, and finally, > at long last, a decision was made, and it was decided that genre fiction is okay. So books that are mysteries, thrillers, Westerns, historical fiction, > science fiction, fantasies, and horror are okay too. But the minute you add romance to any of the adult genre fiction books, the book doesn't count towards> the grant. >> Of course, there will always be edge cases. We look at those books on a case-by-case basis, and sometimes ask the Bookshare librarian for a decision.>> I would encourage those people who are scanning and proofing romances to continue to do so. We at the office can't put any in, since all of our time has > to go towards fulfilling the grant. But there are lots and lots of people who like romance and want to see more of it in the collection. Please continue > to put romances in! The Bookshare publisher liaison mentioned that while most of the book markets dropped when the economy dropped, the romance market> is continuing to climb. So there you are. > > HTH, Carrie > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.No virus found in this incoming message. 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