Jennifer Burek Pierce

If I had to guess, I'd say this book is aimed at librarians who don't regularly work with teenagers. it starts from a basic premise of "hey! Teens aren't really space aliens!", which is great, but then it contradicts it by talking about how young teens are just so radically different from adult librarians for so many reasons (because they grew up with different technology, because they have different brain chemistry, because they're at a different stage in their lives, etc).

I skipped over a lot of the chapter on teen brain development (it's nothing new; just a rehash of all the research done to date) but a lot of what's here seems either obvious (teens play video games! teens may be prone to risky behavior!) or inaccurate (parents should avoid buying their teens violent first-person-shooter games, sometimes called "role playing games," which, no, not really).

Those who can, do. This author teaches classes in children's and teen resources at the U of Iowa's library school. Her pop-culture references are out-of-date (Weetzie Bat, anyone?) and one gets the impression she hasn't actually interacted with real teens in at least ten years. If you've met a teenager--any teenager--within the last decade, you probably don't need to spend the time reading this book.… (meer)