Growing Into Mysteries
Psst…look over there on the right. See? It’s a new poll!
The last poll I ran, to choose your favorite genre, had some interesting results. At one time, about six weeks ago, I pointed out that hardly anyone had chosen any of the young adult/middle grade categories, which I found very surprising, but then quite a few people started casting votes for YAMG. I’m glad they did because I think the whole young adult field is where we can find some of today’s best reads. There were still only two votes for YAMG science fiction but that’s consistent with the trends we saw in the store—there wasn’t much interest in science fiction until the kid was in the upper grades of high school. The exceptions to that were—and still are—action adventure or superhero stuff and silly/funny books like the I Was a Sixth Grade Alien series by Bruce Coville (love those books!).
I’m surprised that the YAMG mystery category got 5 votes. That was pretty much our worst-selling genre for the younger set with the exception of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and they hardly count—most of the buyers were adults rebuilding their childhood collections in the hopes of enticing their children and grandchildren. Ask a real kid what he liked to read and the answer was “mystery” maybe one out of ten times.
I was reading mysteries from a very young age, starting with such favorites as The Bobbsey Twins, Trixie Belden, the early Cherry Ames, and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. A bit later, I got completely hooked on Agatha Christie and, having started on those in high school, kept up with her until she published the last one. From there, I digressed for a bit to historical fiction, but I never got far from mysteries and have never lost my love for them. I have an equal love for urban and dark fantasy and for “comfort” fiction.
Our middle graders and young adults are reading much more than many pundits think and I, for one, don’t care WHAT they read as long as they do so. The big draws for them these days are fantasy and dark fantasy and there are some really good writers in those genres. Besides those, the kids are tuned into teen angst and social relationships, action adventure and graphic novels of all types. Whatever floats your boats, kids!
The great majority of mystery readers (including thrillers, suspense, etc.) are in their thirties and older and some have bemoaned the lack of younger readers. Mysteries will go on; it’s the second largest-selling genre after romance, after all. Many of today’s kids that aren’t very interested in them will become mystery readers as they get older. It’s one of those awful signs of aging, you know, and they can’t escape their fate 
June 5, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller
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