I randomly (sort of, I had to return a book to the library, but the bookstore was random) went to a library and a bookstore before we got the assignment, which was weird because I never went to a bookstore all last semester and I only went along with some friends, not on my own volition. I'm trying to remember the young adult/children's section at the bookstore. I don't think I saw one, but it was probably somewhere. I looked through most of the store, except for the back on the main floor. It was probably in there. Pretty good story, eh? Eh?
Anyway, now that you've stopped reading this, I'll talk about the young adult and children's section at the library branch I went to. I was going to the library branch to return a book I had renewed 3 times, but never got past the first chapter. It was pretty good. I was excited about reading Gordon Korman after we talked about him in class, so I looked him up in the library catalogue. I saw he had books that were classified as young adult and children's. None of them were showing up in the branch I was in and there was a huge list of material, so rather than scroll through it I decided to just go look on the shelves. The young adult section was pretty small, I think it was just one book shelf with a sign hanging over it that said Youth Annex. I just looked up annex and one definition is an addition to a building, so I guess if they brought the shelf in from somewhere else it could technically be an annex. I did find 3 Korman books there and I took them all. I then went to the children's section, which was much bigger (3 shelves and a table), and found many more Korman books. I took a bunch more. I only got one book that I read before, the rest were all new to me. I read one last night, which I'll review in a later post for some reason.
The youth/children's section was smaller than I remembered. The shelves were lower, the books seemed thinner, the chairs were tiny. I felt like I didn't belong there, which I guess I didn't. Maybe the library shouldn't put the young adult section right next to the children's. I'm guessing that most teenagers would feel more comfortable being lumped in with adults than with little kids. I'm the same height that I was in Grade 9, and I felt like I was physically too big for the young adult section, with its half-height shelf and the 2 foot high table next to it. I'm sure that many other teenagers resent being told or are slightly embarrassed to ask where the teen section is and be told that it's right next to the children's. In this library branch, at least, it wouldn't be very hard to relocate their young adult "section" to somewhere away from the kids books. Maybe they should.
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