With new additions in the school library, including different seating arrangements and brain break activities, many students have found numerous opportunities to read and explore new options for creativity. Although the library has some new artistic changes, many students still go there for one reason: to read.
As times change, the popular books trending among students reflect what’s relatable to teens today. For example, one side of TikTok, called BookTok, allows users to see book recommendations by content creators which helps some books become more popular. According to librarian Kristen Zemba, social media platforms and other streaming services have influenced many recent readers, regularly changing the current trends among teenagers
“Series’ like ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ and ‘One of us is Lying’ have released a TV series,” Zemba said. ”I think students are more influenced by TV shows that have been released based on our library books in order for them to read to follow along both the book series and TV shows.”
According to Zemba, the mystery genre has been the most popular, with romance being the second most picked in our school library. Books such as “One of Us Is Lying,” “The Naturals” and “It Starts with Us” have gained the most popularity. Although, romance and mystery books have been popular, some students stick to their own tastes and keep themselves on their own track, while taking a peek at popular books.
“I started to read many romance novels and I love mystery,” freshman Rowan Threadgill said. “But I still read books about adventure because I just like the feeling reading adventure gives me, like almost being in the moment.”
In addition,people are also influenced by people they know, like family members, friends and fellow classmates. With different kinds of recommendations, students can have more room for more books to read, which allows them to explore different aspects of different books.
“We do generally get a lot of the same books on Tiktok, and then we all want to read around the same things, which I think is the reason why we give each other books to read because it tends to be the same genre,” senior Camila Canelas Soto said. “If I see someone who is remotely my age and they’re reading the same things I like to read, I would want to see their reading list.”
Books such as “One of Us Is Lying”, “It Starts with Us”, “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, “The Naturals” and “Between”, which are popular, have a variety of different plots and stories, even though they fall in the same categories, which are romance and mystery. “The Naturals”, written by Jennifer Barnes, features a seventeen year old girl who has the ability to read people, she then starts to solve cold cases. “Between”, written by Jessica Warman, features a girl who finds out how her life ended while watching over her family. “One Of Us Is Lying”, written by Karen M. McManus, features the creator of a gossip app suddenly dying in front of four students, making them the main suspects. “It Starts with Us”, written by Colleen Hoover, features a woman given a second chance to finally gain happiness again. “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, written by Jenny Han, Features A girl turning sixteen waiting for her summer to end but things start to occur.
