Why Gossip Girl Matters

am one of those rare high school librarians who have the privilege of working in a state-of-the-art library media center, one that is generously funded, fully staffed, and heavily used. On an average day we serve 1,800 patrons. Some study and research, many read and check out materials, others catch up on e-mail or socialize with friends. The library is the vibrant heart of our school, constantly humming with activity.

One of the most satisfying parts of my job is seeing teens get excited about reading. My students’ reading interests are eclectic, ranging from Lurlene McDaniel and the Gossip Girl series to The Onion collections and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns to Hunter S. Thompson and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. “Old school” YA novels such as Go Ask Alice, Killing Mr. Griffin, and The Outsiders continue to be perennial favorites, along with classics by Jane Austen, the Brontës, and Edgar Allan Poe.

We have many dedicated teen patrons. During freshman orientation this year, the avid readers in the group gleefully ran around the library, exclaiming to one another, “I can’t believe they have this, I’ve been dying to read it!” — thrilled at the selection of teen and adult books that had been deemed too “mature” for their middle-school library. These are the kids every librarian loves, the ones who check out a stack of books on their first day of high school and continue to do so until they graduate. Watching their reading tastes grow and expand over the next four years is a true pleasure.

Yet despite a diverse collection that targets teens, some students just aren’t interested. For every teen who reads, there are at least a couple who do not. Part of my job is to support school-wide literacy by maintaining a collection that meets the academic needs of all patrons. My library includes high-interest books that I use during book talks to entice students who perform poorly on reading tests. Many of them simply do not read, and it is my job to help them successfully locate a book for sustained silent reading in the classroom. As someone who grew up loving to read, I at first struggled to understand these kids. I knew, of course, that not all kids were great readers, but I was unaware there were those who actually hated reading. Finding books for these students is probably my greatest challenge.

Early this year, I was asked to help a young man who clearly hated reading. After a little coaxing (and, on his part, some guffawing and eye rolling), he reluctantly expressed some interest in war stories, especially ones with lots of action, guns, explosions, and bloodshed. So I gave him a Punisher graphic novel, sent him back to class, and hoped for the best. His teacher reported back to me that not only did he like the book, but it was the first book he could ever remember reading from beginning to end.

These kids aren’t just struggling, or reluctant, readers; they actively resist reading. It is probable that they never had positive experiences with books and reading, either at school or at home. For whatever reason, they never developed that primary and fundamental connection to reading that turns beginning readers into lifelong readers.

To help these resistant readers, I avoid stigmatizing value judgments about reading materials. I try to change the negative experience that occurs when resistant readers encounter books — the immediate revulsion they feel when presented with something they view as academic and boring. This often means putting into their hands books that many librarians, teachers, and children’s literature experts snub: YA problem novels, slim books about sports figures and celebrities, graphic novels, lurid biographies of serial killers, series fiction, comic strips, and how-to books. While many librarians may scoff at series like Gossip Girl, Nancy Drew, Cirque Du Freak, and Goosebumps, these books have the power to engage and excite teens who would otherwise read nothing.

Providing students with a rich and diverse range of high-interest materials has proven successful. I have seen countless girls try highly accessible books like Simpsons comics or A Child Called “It” and go on to read all of the sequels. Some continue reading only in the same vein while others graduate to more sophisticated series like Louise Rennison’s books about Georgia Nicolson. This year two of my patrons, after a steady diet of Bart and Homer and of magazines like Teen People and Entertainment Weekly, began to expand their choices to include problem novels and chick-lit. More important, they now choose to spend their free time in the library. And, between socializing with friends, they read.

Many boys begin with simple, action-oriented graphic novels and photo-filled sports biographies before delving into more complex works like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books and Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. Others move in the direction of satire, favoring The Onion and America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction. Manga has been wildly popular with both male and female readers. In fact, when the new shipment of graphic novels arrives, we have to put patrons on a waiting list and limit the check-out time and number of titles to meet the demand. One of my students is a low-level reader but a die-hard manga fan. I spent a lot of time during his freshman year helping him learn how to use the library: to find books, put materials on hold, and request new titles. The other day his special education teacher thanked me for helping him, informing me that both his self-confidence and his reading scores had improved. But she missed one of the most important parts of the equation: the books themselves. I may have pointed him in the right direction, but it was really the stories he discovered in the pages of Love Hina, Naruto, and Hellsing that transformed his relationship to reading.

Once resistant readers discover the pleasures of reading, they begin expanding their horizons. Some will never move beyond magazines like MAD and Teen Vogue; others will follow the reading patterns of the nation, focusing on accessible, formulaic best-sellers. And a few will move on to books of increasing difficulty. For me, it doesn’t really matter what they are reading. I don’t measure success by the types of books kids choose, only by the growing number of my students who actively choose to read. And high-appeal books like Gossip Girl have the potential to captivate resistant readers . . . and, possibly, help transform them into lifelong readers.

Philip Charles Crawford is the library director for Essex High School in Essex Junction, Vermont, and the children’s literature columnist for the AASL journal Knowledge Quest.