Teen Booklist: They Love Me, They Love Me Not

Being a teen librarian, I try to keep an interesting display up in my teen area all the time, and refresh it on a regular basis. The themes of those displays are often tied to whatever holiday or special event is going on that month, but often times I just decide to feature a specific genre, format, or type of book. Though I read a lot, I feel like I’ve never read enough for putting these thematic displays up, and often scour places like YALSA-BK and librarian blogs for booklist and display ideas. Because I’ve found them so helpful, I figure I’d share my own booklists, in case someone else stumbles upon them and finds them helpful, as well. It’s important to note, though, that my booklists are not meant to be definitive; they are composed of whatever books I had on my shelf at the time the display was running. Thus, they often omit the popular books that are always checked out, but might include more obscure stuff that someone might not initially think of.

They Love Me…
For February, I ran a two shelf display on love and romance. The first shelf was a list of romance as we traditionally think of it, geared towards teen readers: tumultuous tales of passion, meet-cutes, getting the girl, and other stories that end with some kind of warm fuzzy, tingly thrill, or maybe even some cathartic weepiness.

• Flavor of the Week, by Tucker Shaw
• Scarlett Fever, by Maureen Johnson
• Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, by Morgan Matson
• Something Like Fate, by Susane Colasanti
• A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend, by Emily Horner
• The Princess and the Snowbird, by Mette Ivie Harrison
• Accidental Love, by Gary Soto
• My Most Excellent Year, by Steve Kluger
• Evermore, by Alyson Noël
• Saving Juliet, by Suzanne Selfors
• The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson
• Vibes, by Amy Kathleen Ryan
• Flipped, by Wendelin Van Draanen
• Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems About Love, by Pat Mora
• Kissing the Bee, by Kathe Koja
• View from the Top, by Hillary Frank
• Jane Eyre: The Graphic Novel, by Charlotte Brontë, adapted by Amy Corzine
• Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• Something, Maybe, by Elizabeth Scott

…They Love Me Not
The second shelf was the Anti-Valentine shelf, which is quickly becoming a tradition, it seems. These books are about relationships gone wrong, from light-hearted mix-ups and sober parables about growing up and finding oneself to sad tales of self-destruction and fearful, sinister examinations of where bad love can lead. Unsurprisingly, these books moved as quickly as the happy endings did. This is a list to pay attention to, though, because hyping them as "love gone wrong" books can be kind of spoiler-y for some of them, depending on how sensitive you want to be to that sort of thing.

• Girls for Breakfast, by David Yoo
• No More Us for You, by David Hernandez
• Blue Plate Special, by Michelle D. Kwasney
• Playing with Matches, by Brian Katcher
• The Breakup Bible, by Melissa Kantor
• Heart’s Delight, by Per Nilsson
• Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron
• Keep Sweet, by Michele Dominguez Greene
• Leaving Paradise, by Simone Elkeles
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
• Addicted to Her, by Janet Nichols Lynch
• I Know It's Over, by C.K. Kelly Martin  
• Anatomy of a Boyfriend, by Daria Snadowsky
• I Now Pronounce You Someone Else, by Erin McCahan
• Exposed, by Susan Vaught
• Boy Minus Girl, by Richard Uhlig
• Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, by Carrie Jones
• Hard Love, by Ellen Wittlinger
• Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Breaking Up is Hard to Do, by Niki Burnham, Lynda Sandoval, and Terri Clark
• Dark Secrets, by Anne E. Schraff
• He's Just Not That Into You, by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
• Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr
• How It's Done, by Christine Kole MacLean