The Teen Lit Review: By Teens, For Teens

A few years ago, while I was going through my Masters of Library Science program, I was introduced to the Book Review Board at Missouri State University. Our class assignment was to write a review for a book review board and, after taking a look at the BRB at Missouri State University, I wondered why we could not have something similar that was run by kids. After all, the BRB was reviewing YA Lit, but it had adults reviewing for teens. I thought it would be a cool idea for teens to review YA Lit for other teens, librarians and teachers. The next day, the Teen Lit Review (@TeenLitReview) was born (link on right side of this page under "Online Presence").

One of my pet peeves throughout my decades of teaching has been adults telling kids what they "should" be reading instead of showing kids an array of great books and letting them choose what to read. When teachers and librarians choose books for their classes, it is often done based on an adult's reading or review of the book. Those are not usually the same books that kids want to read. Why shouldn't kids promote books they love to other kids? Why should the books that teachers and librarians have in their rooms be there based on adults' reviews and not kids' reviews? I thought that kids needed an outlet for their opinions about what they read.

I set up a blog that looked similar to the format used at Missouri State. It is very clean and each review has its own page. Visitors to the blog can scroll down the list on the left to get to other book reviews. I asked kids in my classes, who had to do reader response journals, if they would like to polish up some of their journals and submit them to the Teen Lit Review. Many students did so.

Three years after its creation, there are hundreds of reviews posted, hundreds of followers of our Twitter account and dozens of comments about the books and reviews. We have even had authors contact us, send us their books, and ask us to review them. Every time an author has contacted us, we have found at least one student to read the book and post the review online.

The review is a great way for students to write for an authentic audience, see their work online and interact with readers around the globe. Now, we have been connecting with classrooms across the country and invited those students to submit reviews to the TLR as well. I tell my kiddos that The Teen Lit Review is not a class project or a school project; it is a real-world learning experience and any student from across the globe can participate. It is a way for kids to have their voices heard about what they like to read.  Because of their efforts, the Teen Lit Review grows bigger everyday.