Illustration by James Steinberg

When we think about being inclusive in our library service, are we truly taking all perspectives into consideration? Given the important conversation about diversity, I have been wondering recently if librarians need more support in serving their young conservative patrons well.

The word “conservative” has all kinds of baggage. It’s an imperfect term, but it’s the closest description for the kind of teen patron, usually a religious young person, that I’m talking about. “Traditional” can imply the view that there’s one fixed way of doing things, which I don’t believe. “Religious” leaves out patrons who enjoy books with a secular perspective.

Conservative teens

In the end, “conservative” seems accurate to describe my subject here: teens who prefers not to read about certain kinds of things—sex, drug use, and teens who are perceived as being bad influences—in their recreational reading. Other types of conservative voices might get themselves into trouble with libraries by demanding that books be removed from these public spaces due to religiously motivated concerns. My patrons, however, may not be asking you to remove anything. Rather, they might simply request that you include more titles from different perspectives.

These teens may not read much of anything from the YA area, either. They might voluntarily skip from the children’s room to reading “classics” such as Jane Austen books, not realizing that the YA section also contains great choices. These adolescents may even have become convinced that the public library is not for people like them.

It doesn’t have to be that way, particularly given the current passion with which youth librarians have embraced the call for more diverse titles and perspectives. This isn’t about getting “special” books for religious youth. Great titles for conservative teens are probably already in your collection—you just need to know what to look for.

My diverse team

Along with a group of colleagues from different religious backgrounds, I’ve started making presentations to teachers and librarians about the conservative voices in their communities. I’m a PhD student in Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a teacher of conservative teens at Kolbe Online Academy, an Internet-based junior and senior high serving homeschooled families. My colleagues are Dorene Alama, Rabia Davis, and Zaynab Martin, all Muslim teachers from the Charlotte (NC) Islamic School. My friend Beth Meister, a teacher-librarian and Orthodox Jew from the Milwaukee (WI) Jewish Day School, rounds out our group. Some of us are converts, and other were raised in our current faiths.

How did such an eclectic group get together under one banner? It began when my academic adviser, Laretta Henderson, who teaches multicultural literature to teachers and librarians, suggested that I consider presenting a program at the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) YA Literature Symposium in Austin, TX, in November, 2014. The symposium’s theme was “Keeping it Real: Finding the True Teen Experience in YA Literature,” and it intrigued me.

When working on my MLIS thesis, I explored literacy at the Catholic, urban middle school where I used to teach. Some of the students, now teachers themselves, thought that the library could have used more books that were “culturally relevant” to them. In other words, they wanted more books about Latinas. I asked a graduate, whom I’ll call Araceli, if she would have read these books if they were available when she attended. She thought a bit and said that she wouldn’t have, because she thought that the options for books about Latina teens in the early 2000s were somewhat limited. (More recent titles with Latino characters and conservative story lines include Donna Freitas’s Gold Medal Summer [Scholastic] and Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Summer of the Mariposas [Lee & Low, both 2012], among others.)

Personal values and ethnic focus

“I’m not in a gang, and I’m not a migrant farmer!” Araceli told me, referring to some of the prevailing Latino themes in books for young people available to her. Was her arrival from Mexico more relevant than that she was a quiet, bookish, Catholic teen? It was difficult to find a book that matched her reality: a Latina Midwestern Catholic middle school student who got good grades and stayed out of trouble. She felt that she had to choose between reading about Latinas or about non-Latina teens who were like her in other ways.

Araceli typically opted for fantasy and fun stories about intelligent protagonists. She and her friends borrowed one of the “Three Investigators” mystery books, created by Robert Arthur, and got so excited that they set off to make a code of their own to serve as a treasure hunt. She also liked “stretch” titles—books about people not like herself. She enjoyed the Logan family’s adventures in Mildred D. Taylor’s novels, including Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Dial, 1976), and learned to “disturb the universe” with Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War (Pantheon, 1974) during my eighth grade religion class.

I remembered that many of my students gravitated toward older YA titles, such as Lurlene McDaniel’s Six Months to Live (Willowisp, 1985), featuring teens who were obsessed with a first kiss, not going to bed with someone. Sure, some liked “gritty” books, describing a bleak teen experience in frank terms. But more often, my students picked up more middle grade books than ones with scenes about sex, drugs, or violence, even though I had a wide range of titles in my library.

Connection among faiths

Thinking about how to develop a booklist for conservative teens, I considered my friend Beth’s stories. She is a born school librarian who loves passing on her love of books. Since her father helped create several Jewish schools in Milwaukee and her mother taught in public schools, she has always had something interesting to share about education and how people select books.

Beth had told me that it wasn’t unusual for Orthodox Jewish teens to skip the YA section. Struck by our similar experiences, I spoke about my idea with Zaynab, a teacher and my new “work bestie.” She had similar concerns about teens avoiding YA lit, and suggested that her Muslim colleagues Dorene and Rabia join our conversation.

“Kosher books” with broad relevance

The more we talked, the more we found we had in common. Beth showed me a “Kosher books list,” begun by two Orthodox Jewish parents, listing areas of concern in titles their children wanted to read. It resonated with Zaynab and me, though our Catholic and Muslim students might have different specific issues.

As librarians, our job is to help young people find the right book for who they are now, without judgment. If we do, they’ll know that we will be there for them later—supporting their choice to read something they previously avoided. We felt blessed to have the opportunity to share our commonalities, and differences, with teachers and librarians who might not know how to serve our communities. And you’d be surprised what you can learn from your conservative teens.

.... Great Titles for Conservative Teens

Dating and boy-girl relationships are often a given in YA fare. While Christian teens don’t mind “chaste dating,” or dating where the kiss is as far as it goes, Muslim and Orthodox Jewish teens may not date at all—at least not in the way contemporary society expects. So boy-girl relationships can be problematic. Areas that are usually acceptable are genre books such as historical fiction, fantasy, and mystery. Also, younger teen/middle grade titles, including some on this list, are less likely to include serious dating.

Finally, consider how things work out in the end. Often a “bad teen” who learns from his or her mistakes is OK. So if you have a Muslim teen like Amal in Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Does My Head Look Big in This? (Orchard, 2005) attending drinking parties but later choosing to stop attending, drinking, and dating herself, it might be appropriate. Unfortunately, such a book can be controversial to families who believe that choosing to wear hijab means always making appropriate decisions.

This list is just a start. What books and magazines have religious teens gravitated to in your library? Join the conversation in the comments section.

Realistic Fiction

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big in This? (Orchard, 2005)

Carlson, Melody. “Carter House Girls” series (Zondervan) Note: includes some drinking/partying.

Clipston, Amy. Roadside Assistance; Reckless Heart; and Destination Unknown (Zondervan; 2011, 2012, 2014)

Ellis, Deborah. Breadwinner (Groundwood, 2000) and sequels

Frank, Christian M., and others. “John Paul 2 High” series (Chesterton)

Lockhart, E. We Were Liars. (Delacorte, 2014) Note: some light romance and talk of sex in a very bookish way.

Weiss, Rebecca Bratten and Regina Doman. Catholic Philosopher Chick Makes Her Debut (Regina Dorman, 2012)

Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming (Penguin, 2014)

Classics

Aiken, Joan. “The Wolves of Willoughby Chase” series (Doubleday)

Raskin, Ellen. The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues and The Westing Game (Dutton; 1975, 1978)

Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Dial, 1976) and shorter works

Historical Fiction

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains (S. & S., 2008)

Nixon, Joan Lowery. A Family Apart (Gareth Stevens, 2000)

Park, Linda Sue. The Kite Fighters; A Single Shard (Clarion; 2000, 2001)

Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising (Scholastic, 2000) Note: some romance toward end.

Schmidt, Gary D. The Wednesday Wars (Clarion, 2007)

Vanderpool, Clare. Moon Over Manifest (Delacorte, 2010)

Wood, Mary Rose. “The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place” series (HarperCollins)

Mystery/Thrillers

Anderson, M.T. “The Norumbegan Quartet” series (Scholastic)

Bloor, Edward, Tangerine (Harcourt, 1997). Note: for high school students.

Colfer, Eoin. “Artemis Fowl” series (Hyperion)

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Running Out of Time (S. & S., 1995)

Nixon, Joan Lowery. Whispers from the Dead (Laurel-Leaf, 1989)

Roberts, Willo Davis. What Could Go Wrong; Hostage; The Kidnappers; and The One Left Behind (S. & S.; 2000, 1998, 2006, 1989)

Stewart, Trenton Lee. “The Mysterious Benedict Society” series (Little, Brown)

Fantasy/Scifi Bergren, Lisa Tawn. “The Remnants” series (Blink)

Dickerson, Melanie. All books

Doman, Regina. “Fairy Tale” series (Ignatius) Note: Rapunzel Let Down is best for older high schoolers.

DuPrau, Jeanne. The “Ember” series (Random) Note: book three delves into religious issues in a not-so-flattering way.

Ibbotson, Eva. All books except The Secret of Platform 13 (Dutton, 1998), due to nudity

Jacques, Brian. “Redwall” series (Philomel)

Key, Alexander. Escape to Witch Mountain and Return from Witch Mountain (both Westminster, 1968)

Lewis, C. S. “The Chronicles of Narnia” (Macmillan) Note: Some families have trouble with Lewis’s Christian message.

Park, Linda Sue. Archer’s Quest (Clarion, 2006)

Treskillard, Robert. “The Merlin Spiral” series (Zondervan)

Wright, Betty Ren. “Ghost” stories (Scholastic)

Nicole Jenks May is a PhD student in the Information Science program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and also teaches for Kolbe Online Academy.