‘Banned Book Club’, Anime and Third Spaces: How to Get Teens to Really Read

Finding your reading niche can take time and a lot of effort and mistakes, and developing a love of reading cannot be forced.

“It can be difficult for any person of any age, but definitely for teenagers to find that book they really like,” said Siva Ramakrishnan, director of Young Adult Programs & Services at the New York Public Library (NYPL).

Young Learners, and more

Something as simple as being close to books can encourage young people to pick up a book and read. At NYPL, which serves the Manhattan, Staten Island and Bronx communities across 89 locations, physical and e-book circulation is estimated at 700,000 youth alone in the 2023-24 fiscal year. This was an increase from the previous year.

Contrary to what recent youth-to-youth talk might suggest, “young people are personally visiting libraries in greater numbers than they did decades ago,” says Ramakrishnan. But young people don’t always go to libraries to check out books. Public libraries provide a place for youth to access Wi-Fi, do homework, socialize and participate in projects like 3D printing.

“Libraries have become places where young people meet,” said Ramakrishnan.

Banned books

Books often provide an acceptable place for young people to express themselves in what they read, but when books are banned, other groups of people can be left behind. Although libraries have become a meeting place for young people during non-school hours, this still does not guarantee access to all learning materials.

In 2023, 4,240 books were banned from schools and libraries across the country – a 65% increase from the previous year. “Most of these banned or challenged books are aimed at young people, and in contrast these are books written by or about people of color or people who identify as LGBTQ+,” Ramakrishnan said.

Book bans attack “the two most important parts of the existing learning system for children,” Ramakrishnan said – schools and libraries.

The American Library Association started its Banned Books Week in 1982, and it continues today. The NYPL has kicked off this annual tradition with their year-long Protect The Freedom To Read program, which hosts their Banned Book Club for teenagers.

“Our goal is to make information accessible to everyone,” said Ramakrishnan.

If options are limited, especially reading options that may open up some readers to an unfamiliar perspective, “that makes it difficult for a new person to pick up a book and be excited about it,” Ramakrishnan continued.

This year, the NYPL’s Banned Book Club for teenagers is reading four titles: “Flamer” by Mike Curto, “Run: Book One” by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, “Go With the Flow” by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann, and “The The Magic Fish” by Trung Le Nguyen. Each book is also paired with a discussion guide, accessible to educators and youth across the country, and an online author Q&A led by NYPL youth ambassadors.

Learning is Learning Learning

Developing healthy reading habits — such as confidence in navigating information systems like libraries and museums, choosing appropriate texts, and distinguishing fact from fiction and opinion — needs to happen before long-term sustainable learning can occur, Torres said. And these healthy learning habits need to happen early, between fourth and seventh grade.

According to Torres, adults who are responsible for helping students develop healthy reading habits should understand that in today’s world, reading and writing are many things. Young people learn many things in many different ways. For example, they may read fan fiction, audiobooks, physical books and anime subtitles.

“We need to remember that their reading involves more than just reading a book cover to cover to finish it,” said Torres. These multi-method reading habits shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the physical book, Torres added, “but something that can be a companion to the physical book.”

If the reader already reads anime subtitles, he may be interested in reading Light Novels – books that translate popular anime into prose, and sometimes include pictures. From there, the teacher can help the student pull out themes or characters they are drawn to and recommend another book to read.

Soon, a student who may not have known where to begin learning has a whole genre to connect with and can continue learning, while still engaging in other learning styles they’ve already developed.

One popular platform that teachers and parents can use to help students find books within their interests is NoveList, which provides a database of reviews, and informs the reader about the book’s tone. In addition, “[NoveList] it gives you all kinds of useful ways to connect the book to the next book in the reader’s journey,” Torres said.

There are other ways to support students in developing healthy study habits and improving learning ability.

Professors conduct an assessment of students’ needs, or what Torres calls a “Tastes and Habits” interest survey. These tests assess what a student needs from basic to complex, Torres said. Students may also have cultural and lifestyle experiences that may inform the type of study they may be interested in.

To improve learning intensity

But what about the kids who aren’t in the library every day?

Another way to reach students who may not focus as much on academic areas is to remind them that “there are many different types of learning lives that we can have,” Torres said. There is no one type of reading and it should not look like you are reading book after book, he continued.

“It’s an insult to us and an underestimation…the youth that we are a shame for not being able to sit down and read a 200-page novel from cover to cover,” said Torres.

When students need to be able to learn more about technology, facilitators and instructors need to teach students to distinguish ways to dig deeper into the text.

Because data suggests that, overall, young people are learning less, it’s important to expand access to learning spaces as far as they can, Ramakrishnan said. For example, the NYPL places video games next to books about mental health, anime or sci-fi. “We want young people to feel like our library spaces are theirs,” said Ramakrishnan.