Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 14 —Teen Literature and Technology

Over the past five years, a variety of authors have taken up the Internet as a source for the plotlines and the format of their novels.  In this episode, you’ll hear about books that “break the rules of writing” by telling stories in the form of emails, blog entries, and instant messages.  Also featured are books that raise questions about the risks of online interactions and the reasons why teens go public with online writing.  Finally, you’ll hear about online resources that provide even more information about great books for teens.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.

Recommendations in this episode include

• TTYL (Talk to You Later), part of the Internet Girls Series by Lauren Myracle
  (Amulet Books, 2004)
  
• Rob & Sara.com by P.J. Petersen and Ivy Ruckman (Delacorte, 2004)
  
• Heart on My Sleeve by Ellen Wittlinger (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
  
• Something to Blog About by Shana Norris (Amulet Books, 2008)
  
• Serafina67 *urgently requires life* by Susie Day (Scholastic, 2008)
  
• The Truth about Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Company, May 2008)
  
• Katie.com (A Girl’s Life Online in paperback) by Katherine Tarbox (Dutton, 2000)
  
• Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho by Jon Katz (Villard, 2000)

Published April 30, 2009

About the Host

Jennifer Buehler taught English for ten years before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education. As a high school teacher, she developed an 800-book classroom library designed to engage and inspire her ninth grade students as readers. Watching students select reading materials led Jennifer to expand her own reading accordingly, allowing her to match books successfully with teens’ wide-ranging tastes and interests.

As a teacher consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, Jennifer regularly led workshops on young adult literature for parents, area teachers, and students in university methods classes. Now Assistant Professor of English Education at Saint Louis University, Jennifer teaches classes on English methods and young adult literature. She is an active member of NCTE's Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), and she served on ALAN’s first Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee.