Friday, December 20, 2013

First Teen Book Chat

This is the first post of what I hope to be many.  I think Twitter Chats are a very good way to connect to a lot of people, and I would like to get to know the teen book community better.

The Teen Book Twitter Chat will take place the first Monday of every month at 8:00 pm eastern time.  We'll use the hashtag #TBkChat.   Each chat will be an hour and a half long.  Each chat will have its own topic, along with four questions related to the topic.  The first hour of the chat, we'll discuss the four questions, one every fifteen minutes.  For the last half an hour, we'll just have an open chat relating to the topic or other things YA books.

The first chat will take place January 6 on Twitter.  Don't forget to use the hashtag #TBkChat to keep in the chat.  January's topic is: Bad language and dirty jokes in YA books

The questions are:
Q1 Does excessive bad language and rude or vulgar remarks encourage you to or discourage you from reading a book?

Q2 Are contemporary novels that are ‘clean,’ such as Ally Carter’s books, misrepresenting the truth of teenagers?

Q3 Should books with excessive bad language and other mature content be marketed to the young side of the YA audience, say 12-14yo?

Q4 Do you think books with a lot bad language or other MA stuff like dirty jokes are a problem in YA that you’d like to see less of?

Dirty jokes in this chat refer to jokes with sexual connotations or other jokes you wouldn't say around an 8-10 year old.  If you have other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

This chat is specifically for teens to get together and talk about books.  Adults are welcome to participate, as long as they realize this chat's intended audience and understand the chief purpose of the chat is to encourage teenage conversation about books.