My sister is a librarian in Missouri and so I picked her brain on what books kids check out of her library. Her kids run up to 8th grade and so her list did not include any of the current books labeled Young Adult.

Kay E. Vandergrift of Rutgers University writes, "What might once have been thought appropriate for a fourteen-year-old is now appropriate for a considerably younger reader. Often, however, what is perceived as knowledge or maturity is only at a surface level, and young readers need a great deal of time for the distancing and reflection possible through literature. Nicole St. John wrote about teenagers as inexperienced adults, and literature provides a safe haven to accrue experience."

Contemporary YA are books like Twilight and Wicked. Books that give boys ideas about girls that their parents don't find edifying.

Vandergrift continues, "Through story a reader can confirm one's own life experiences, illuminate and gain insight into those experiences, and vicariously expand and extend them. Although each of us must walk alone, authenticate our experiences, and make our own meanings and sense of truth in the world we know; there is always that tension between the uniqueness of the person and the commonalties of the human condition. This tension is evident in everyday life but revealed most fully in story. Story has always been a very powerful way of venturing beyond the scenes we know to connect with people, places, ideas, and events beyond our normal range."

Some kids might think any book that appears in a library is edifying which is a bad thing. They look online for information about what's hot and what's not.

Twilight- a book that easily rose to number one while publishing houses were still seeking the next Harry Potter fantasy- went World Wide Web. And Publisher's Weekly reports, " when it came time to revamp the Web site for Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga, Little Brown included message boards to give teens a place to converse, as well as a blog for reviews, media appearances and photographs. A poll on the boards about the heroine's romantic dilemmas that asked, Who should Bella choose? racked up more than 6,000 votes."

Comic books are making a comeback with this set. Evie Nagy of PW reports, "One project supported by this belief is the original graphic novel The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen, bestselling author of hundreds of stories for children and young adults, to be published by Dark Horse in 2010. The action-fantasy, with art by Rebecca Guay, will join other titles that the publisher says have successfully attracted a large young female audience, such as Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy and Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Jeremy Atkins, director of publicity for Dark Horse says, "Teenagers more than any other audience realize when someone is directly trying to get their attention, and usually they're going to resist that," he says. "It's going to be the things that appeal to them naturally that they're going to get into."

Still, my sister is pretty connected to her kids and what they like. So I opened the door to her favorite subject and she strode right in, loaded with goodies. "Tangerine," she said. "And they still like Tiger Eyes."

I asked about dog books. My skunk stinky dog was at my feet begging for the scoop. Winn Dixie and Hatchet," she said. "In fact nothing by Gary Paulson is ever available. They love Gary Paulson.

"Remakes of fairy tales continue to go out as soon as they are returned. Beastie for one.

"Then there are all the series, like Ranger's Apprentice and all of Haddix Among the Hidden; Lightining Thief. One of the big names in this age group is Roland Smith. I heard him speak and he packed the auditorium. His I.Q... well all his books fly off the shelves."

"And of course my favorite, Touching Spirit Bear," she added.