You know, I have always thought Sweden was a pretty nifty place that I was interested in visiting. But now I’m starting to feel like there’s some geographic destiny at play. Shortly after my stint on Swedish television, schilling The Hunger Games movie to anyone with 100 kronor and the time, I received an e-mail from a Swedish university student, Christine Lundgren. She informed me that she was co-authoring a thesis paper on Young Adult lit in Swedish bookstores, and wanted to know if she could use my image (taken at Orcas Books in Olympia, Washington) on the cover page. The result:
Delightfully, the entire thesis is in Swedish. (Keywords include: young adult books, marketing, bookstores, alternative marketing solutions, ung vuxen-böcker, marknadsföring, bokhandeln, förslag på marknadsföring av ung vuxen-litteratur. Because obviously) But the abstract sums up the research Christine and co-author Emelie Nilsson did on how YA books were presented in Swedish bookstores:
We went to six different bookstores to do a field study to see how the store placed their books, focusing on young adult books. Where could you find the young adult section, were one title standing on two different places in the store, what the shop window looked like (and could you find any YA-books there?) and so on. We also talked to the staff and asked if they had any strategy when it came to categorizing and placing YA-books.
The result of our study is that bookstores could do a lot more when it comes to advertising YA-books in their store. Our suggestions are, for example, to advertise more about YA-books to both adults and younger people, have a specific shelf for YA-books (that isn’t right next to the children’s’ books), theme nights and use the staff’s knowledge and have them suggesting books for everyone.
Christine Lundgren, Emelie Nilsson, En resa genom granslandet (2012)
Looks like Swedish booksellers are suffering from the same YA reticence as many of their U.S. compatriots.
So… I’m actually having a difficult time pinpointing the coolest part of this entire thing: the fact that Christine e-mailed back and forth with me in flawless English, discussing the plight of YA books, or the fact that academic articles are being written about YA at international universities*? Either way, I’m so pleased that my on-the-fly iPhone image has reached so many people, book-lovers eager to see their chosen genre read and displayed without bias or shame.
I am also now planning, in detail, my eventual trip to this wonderful Swedish land, where they let me be on television and contribute to university theses, and hopefully many other things I am by no means qualified to do! Gå ut och läs!
* John Green today linked to this academic paper on Nerdfighteria and Paper Towns. Fascinating read. Academia: getting cooler all the time!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
So cool! This is a sign that you must go to Sweden and become their go-to person for all things YA! :)
Seriously though, I keep thinking I was born a few years too early because I’m missing out on all the cool expansions in academia into pop culture. That and after my last few trips to Target, I’m ridiculously jealous of how the school office supplies (like notebooks!) and dorm supplies are all cutely and stylishly designed now. It’s like, what the heck? Where was this stuff when I was still in school?!
I noticed that too! My last year in college they added a “Harry Potter” English class. HELLO! I should have taught that freaking class! But age is not going to stop me from rocking a Hunger Games trapper keeper I will tell you that.
That is AWESOME. Though it’s sad that Sweden has the same issue, at least people like you are taking a stance for YA! And with your image, too. :D Christine sounds super-cool and smart, too… I mean, theses are hard enough to write. But to be able to also discuss with you in a second language?? Wow.
There’s totally a global YA movement! And you’re so right, I was crazy impressed when Christine e-mailed to ask about the image. She is one smart cookie!
Loved this post! Alas, I have nothing more considerable to add, yet that is the full and honest truth.
I <3 you.
Awesome, and congrats to you, Sarah! I was lucky enough in college to take a YA Literature class as part of my teacher prep program and it changed my life and the books I introduce to students (SPEAK, namely, changed EVERYTHING!). :-)
Have a great time when you make it to Sweden! I adored Stockholm during my visit last year. :-)
Oh it’s so great to hear about people whose lives were changed (for the better!) by YA in an academic setting! And oh man, when we take off for Sweden I’m going to have to ask you for recommendations!
You are totally qualified to be consulted on YA on television and in theses. This blog is evidence enough of that!
I took a children’s and YA lit class at the CUNY graduate school last year (my department didn’t really think it was relevant to my course of study, but I insisted!). Though I think I’ve actually had more interesting and penetrating discussions about children’s literature outside the classroom, I really appreciated getting to talk about it inside one. Plus, I got to write a term paper on a David Levithan novel! The professor told us that children’s lit is an expanding academic field, but most people who write it must also have another specialty–a more “established” one. I’ve always thought that the marginalization of children’s lit from the academy is pretty silly (though I can understand historically and culturally why it’s happened), even putting aside the fact that among it is a lot of great literature, because it is absolutely central to assimilating entire generations into prevailing ideological structures (or resisting them!). I could go on and on about this.
But I totally agree that I wish I had been able to take a lot of these cool cultural studies, fan studies (especially these!!), non-canon classes as an undergrad. This is the kind of academic research I’d read for fun, which counts for a lot.
” because it is absolutely central to assimilating entire generations into prevailing ideological structures (or resisting them!)” <—-ohhh wow, I would read the heck out of that thesis! Go Sarah go!
And YAY for writing a term paper on Levithan! What a rad class!
Aw, <3. Right now I'm going, "Writing a recreational thesis is *totally* a good idea. Right? Right?" ;)
I’m just about to start my MFA in writing for children and YA and I can’t wait to dork out over some sort of thesis topic like this.
And OMG you and Sweden and YA…it’s like the perfect storm of awesome. I love it.
TY!! And, oh man! I can’t wait for that, either :) You will have to keep us updated when you get to write these amazing papers.