Sort Books by Middle School/High School???

Denver's teen website lets you sort books by middle school or high school with many books being categorized as both. What does everyone think of that? Our teen focus groups liked the idea - especially the middle schoolers who seemed very conscientious about avoiding inappropriate material. I like the way Denver's works because all items show up, but viewers can choose to sort if they want

If we decide to do it all staff picks, bibs... would have to come tagged as MS or HS or both. What would our criteria be? Will we have to be extra sure that anything tagged middle school is really clean? What would be our source for justification if any are questioned given that the catalog just says 12 and up for all YA?

Please comment on this soon, because that sorting feature will have to be built into the teen site.

Thanks,
Alyson

What to Call “Teen Interests”

One area of the new teen website will feature short to medium length blurbs about a wide variety of things of interest to teens. They will range from frivolous (like Timewasters now) to serious ( Like reminders of finding health and wellness material on Teen Health and Wellness) Basically anything we put up that is not specific to Books and Reading, Movies and Music, or Homework and Research will go here – kinda like the Lifestyle section of the newspaper.

So what to call this area:
Teen Interests - “Teen” is redundant on Teen site?
Random Stuff – too trivial for serious subjects ?
Teen Topics – too serious?
Your Life – too vague?

I am leaning toward Random Stuff because it will really be random. Remember that all the items will go across the home page as well so, people will have the chance to read the item even if they don’t visit the “Teen Interests - Random Stuff –Teen Topics -Your Life” section

Any other ideas, comments please speak up now!

Alyson

Edenville Owls-Book Recommendation

I just finished Robert B. Parker’s Edenville Owls. It’s a really good book, the story is told well, you can picture 14-year-old boys doing exactly what the book characters do, and it’s a fast read. Scholastic’s Reading Counts page lists it at a 4.1 level. Chapters are short and layout is clear – recommend it for guys/reluctant readers; I think they’ll enjoy the story and identify with the character.

Kris