Angela West
Collection Development
IS 572
Author
Hopkinsons, Deborah
Literary Non-fiction
Title
Titanic: Voices From the
Disaster
Publisher & date
Scholastic Press; 1
edition (April 1,
2012))
Square Fish; 1
edition (February
14, 2012)
Clarion Books; 1
edition (November
15, 2010)
Square Fish;
Reprint edition
(February 19, 2013)
Tundra Books;
Har/Com edition
(October 8, 2013).
Scholastic Press; 1
edition (February 1,
2009)
Simon & Schuster
Books for Young
Readers (May 6,
2014)
Candlewick
(February 11, 2014)
Schwartz & Wade
(July 8, 2014)
Cost
$15.00
Ember (September
14, 2010)
Bascomb, Neal
The Nazi Hunters: How a Team
Arthur A. Levine
of Spies and Survivors Captured Books (August 27,
the World's Most Notorious Nazi
2013)
Non-Fiction for Research (Art and Art History - high school)
Robinson, Jerry
The Comics: An Illustrated
Dark Horse Books;
History of Comic Strip Art
Rev Upd edition
(March 22, 2011)
Guerilla Girls
The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside
Penguin Books;
$14.00
Blumenthal, Karen
Steve Jobs: The Man Who
Thought Different
Aronson, Marc
Sugar Changed the World: A
Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery,
Freedom, and Science
The Notorious Benedict Arnold:
A True Story of Adventure,
Heroism & Treachery
Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music
That Changed the World
Sheinkin, Steve
Robertson, Robbie
Swanson, James
Chasing Lincoln's Killer
Romero, Jordan
No Summit out of Sight: The
True Story of the Youngest
Person to Climb the Seven
Summits
Beyond Magenta: Transgender
Teens Speak Out
The Family Romanov: Murder,
Rebellion, and the Fall of
Imperial Russia
Chinese Cinderella
Kuklin, Susan
Fleming, Candace
Yen Mah, Adeline
$16.00
$12.00
$16.00
$21.00
$13.00
$12.95
$18.00
$13.60
$12.20
$28.00
$17.00
Various/Comickers
Magazine
Strickland, Carol
Companion to the History of
Western Art
Comickers Art: Tools and
Techniques for Drawing
Amazing Manga
The Annotated Mona Lisa: A
Crash Course in Art History
from Prehistoric to Post-Modern
$24.00
Laurel Leaf
(December 11,
2007)
The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God
Harry N. Abrams;
of Manga
Har/DVD edition
(October 1, 2009)
The Artist's Guide to Drawing
Watson-Guptill
Animals: How to Draw Cats,
(November 20,
Dogs, and Other Favorite Pets
2012)
Non-Fiction for Recreation Reading
Beautiful LEGO
No Starch Press; 1
edition (September
30, 2013)
One Direction: Where We Are:
HarperCollins
Our Band, Our Story: 100%
Publishers (August
Official
27, 2013)
Selena Gomez: Pop Star and
21st Century
Actress
(August 1, 2012)
$8.00
An Eye for Art: Focusing on
Great Artists and Their Work
Manco, Tristan
Street Sketchbook: Journeys
Rubin, Susan
Wideness and Wonder: The Life
and Art of Georgia O'Keeffe
Editors of Phaidon Press
The Art Book
Barry, Lynda
Picture This: The Near-sighted
Monkey Book
Tsai, Francis
Extreme Worlds: The Complete
Guide to Drawing and Painting
Science Fiction Art
Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop!
McCarthy, Helen
Amberlyn, J. C.
Doyle, Mike
One Direction
Nelson, Robin
$19.00
Andrews McMeel
Publishing;
Original edition
(June 1, 1992)
Chicago Review
Press (September 1,
2013)
Chronicle Books
(September 29,
2010)
Chronicle Books;
First Edition edition
(April 6, 2011)
Phaidon Press;
Midi ed edition
(March 2, 2005)
Drawn and
Quarterly
(November 9,
2010)
IMPACT Books
(2009)
National Gallery of Art
Greenberg, Jan
First Edition edition
(February 1, 1998)
Harper Design
(May 27, 2008)
$14.99
$27.00
$13.00
$10.00
$20.00
$16.00
$28.00
$20.00
$28.00
$16.00
$24.00
Miller, Ron
Newman, Rich
Sandler, Martin
Gibson, Karen
Warren, Rachel
Varney, Bertena
Chasing the Storm: Tornadoes,
Meteorology, and Weather
Watching
The Ghost Hunter's Field Guide:
Over 1000 Haunted Places You
Can Experience
How the Beatles Changed the
World
Women in Space: 23 Stories of
First Flights, Scientific Missions,
and Gravity-Breaking
Adventures
The Smart Girl's Guide to Going
Vegetarian: How to Look Great,
Feel Fabulous, and Be a Better
You
Lure of the Vampire: A Pop
Culture Reference Book
Hernandez, Daniel
They Call Me a Hero: A Memoir
of My Youth
Thorns, Annie
With their eyes: September 11th:
The View from a High School at
Ground Zero
I Am Malala: The Girl Who
Stood Up for Education and Was
Shot by the Taliban
Outcasts United: The Story of a
Refugee Soccer Team That
Changed a Town
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a
Modern Geek
Yousafzai, Malala
St. John, Warren
Van Wagenen, Maya
Hartzler, Aaron
Rapture Practice
21st Century
(January 1, 2014)
$28.20
Llewellyn
Publications
(February 8, 2011)
Walker Childrens
(February 4, 2014)
Chicago Review
Press (February 1,
2014)
$15.00
Sourcebooks Fire
(January 7, 2014)
$11.00
CreateSpace
Independent
Publishing
Platform; 3 edition
(July 1, 2014)
Simon & Schuster
Books for Young
Readers; Reprint
edition (February 5,
2013)
HarperTeen; 1
edition (August 30,
2011)
Little, Brown and
Company; 1 edition
(October 8, 2013)
Ember; Reprint
edition (September
10, 2013)
Penguin Young
Readers Group
(April 15, 2014)
Little, Brown
Books for Young
Readers; 1 edition
(April 9, 2013)
$11.60
$17.00
$16.80
$11.00
$16.99
$16.00
$14.50
$20.00
$20.00
Total $674.83
For this assignment, I chose to focus on developing a collection aimed at high school
students, which spans grades 9-12 and, generally speaking, ages 14-18. For the research nonfiction, I decided to develop a collection of books in the area of art and art history. I am an artist
and have a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art, and since I am always asked to give art advice (even
from library patrons), I felt it would be interesting to see what kinds of art books existed for
teens and young adults.
In researching books for this collection, I used a variety of resources. Personally, I found
that one of the most beneficial websites for researching, pricing, and reviews was Amazon.com.
Many of Amazon’s listings include editorial reviews as well as detailed publishing information
and user reviews. User reviews are particularly important to me, as I feel that these reviews give
a more informal opinion of a book from the perspective of a general audience (and when it
comes to public libraries, public opinion is important). I also used resources such as Titlewave,
YALSA book lists, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Google and Google Shopping, and editorial
review sites such as Booklist and Publishers Weekly.
For the literary non-fiction category, I tried to include a wide range of topics. In
particular, I looked for books that not only had good editorial reviews, but also a catchy, eyecatching title or cover. I used several websites to find these, including YALSA’s award lists,
Amazon.com, and Google shopping. Goodreads proved to be especially helpful, as there were
several user-generated lists for young adult literary non-fiction. I used this as a starting point to
research books further, usually by going to Amazon and checking prices and editorial reviews.
“Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different” and “Titanic: Voices from the Disaster” were
both listed as award-winning books on YALSA’s website. One of the other titles selected,
“Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out,” was chosen on the basis of being highly
relevant to today’s social issues that affect teens. Other titles were chosen from book lists from
Goodreads (which I researched further by finding reviews and prices).
For the second category, I focused on art and art history books. For the sake of a wellrounded collection, I included instructional books in addition to history books and biographies.
One of the reasons that I chose this area of interest is that I am an artist myself, and I wanted to
use my prior experience to see how well editorial reviews compare to my knowledge of art. I
wanted to include art and art history books from a wide range of art, so I made sure to include as
much as I could from a range of art styles, from comic strip art (“The Comics: An Illustrated
History of Comic Strip Art”) and street art (“Street Sketchbook: Journeys”) to classic art history
(“The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern”).
I also chose a few art books based on popular art trends, particularly the art of Japanese
manga, which I felt would be of interest to teens. For biographies, I included a book about Andy
Warhol (for his contribution to the world of pop-art) and Georgia O'Keeffe (for her emphasis on
feminism in art), as well as a biography on Osamu Tezuka, who is widely considered one of the
fathers of manga and is therefore very important to the history of Japanese modern art.
A few instructional books were also chosen, including how-to books for drawing manga,
sci-fi art, and pets/animals. I felt that each of these would be of particular interest to teens, and
as a former art student, I can attest to the popularity of these subjects among younger artists. I
felt that these instructional books would provide a good basis for developing an interest in art.
For the last category, I again tried to include a wide range of topics. For celebrity books,
I used the Teen Vogue website to find some of the celebrities that are popular among teens.
With this information, I then researched books that had positive editorial and user reviews, and I
settled on two: “One Direction: Where We Are: Our Band, Our Story: 100% Official” and
“Selena Gomez: Pop Star and Actress.” This was by far the most difficult for me to find proper
editorial reviews, though Amazon and Barnes & Noble proved helpful. For other popular nonfiction subjects, I included a couple of books on ghost and vampire lore, “The Ghost Hunter's
Field Guide” and “The Lure of the Vampire,” both of which might appeal to teens who are
attracted to either goth subculture or supernatural romances like the Twilight book series.
I also included a few teen lifestyle books, in particular “The Smart Girl's Guide to Going
Vegetarian,” which addresses vegetarian in a style that teens would appreciate, “Popular:
Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek,” which deals with school social structures and popularity,
and “Rapture Practice,” which is a poignant story about a young gay man growing up in an
Evangelical family. The last of these I felt would be especially important to people in the area
where I live, as this is a deeply religious community and there are many young people who are
living in a similar situation. I also felt that it would be important to include a few books that are
relevant to world news and culture, and so I chose the book “I am Malala,” which is an
extremely sobering look at a young girl’s life living under the Taliban. I also chose the book
“With their eyes: September 11th: The View from a High School at Ground Zero” because I
have found that many teens have questions about this particular tragedy and are too young to
remember the event. All of these books were mentioned on popular young adult book lists from
Goodreads and Amazon.
I actually found this assignment to be quite enjoyable, and it was certainly a learning
experience. One of the most frustrating things for me was making sure that books were age
appropriate, as that information isn’t always obvious. I also found it difficult to decide what
kinds of topics are of interest to teens, but online retailers and teen magazines helped me narrow
down my subjects. Young adult book lists on sites like Goodreads and YALSA were also
immensely helpful. I also really enjoyed the way that stores such as Amazon.com and Barnes &
Noble include both user reviews and editorial reviews, which makes research all the more
convenient. These sites also make it easy to search book by publication date, which is helpful
when trying to find newer books. Google is my go-to search engine online and I found it easy to
find book lists as well as to do comparative price shopping. Finding young adult book lists on
sites like Goodreads was very helpful, and I found that teen magazine websites (such as Teen
Vogue) were especially useful in finding out what kinds of interests modern teens have. Being
someone who is always concerned about money, I did feel immense pressure to keep prices low.
I was able to find a lot of good deals on website like Amazon, and Google Shopping made it easy
to find cheap vendors.
Overall, I found the experience to be exciting, especially seeing the amount and variety of
books that are available for teens. I particularly enjoyed finding art books, as that is a subject
that I already have a vested interest in. I feel that, even if I am not able to buy all of these books
for a collection, just the research alone has given me information that I can provide to patrons
who are looking for books in a particular subject area. Just knowing what’s out there and seeing
what people are interested in gives me a reference point for patron discussions. I was especially
fascinated by sites like Teen Vogue, as this is a world that is completely foreign to me, and
thanks to this research, I now feel like I could better help teens who come to the library looking
for materials on their favorite subjects.
References:
Amazon. (n.d.). Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books,
DVDs & more. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com
Barnes & Noble. (n.d.). Barnes & Noble - Books, Textbooks, eBooks, Toys, Games & More.
Retrieved from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Booklist. (n.d.). Best Books for Public Libraries and School Libraries - Book Reviews from the
ALA | Booklist Online. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/
Garroway, C. (n.d.). Amazon.com: Mrs. Garraway's List of Young Adult Nonfiction Books.
Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Garraways-Young-Adult-NonfictionBooks/lm/R3FD0JLVKGRSUE
Goodreads. (n.d.). Popular Young Adult Nonfiction Books. Retrieved from
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/young-adult-nonfiction
Google Shopping. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.google.com/shopping
Publishers Weekly.Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com
Teen Vogue. (n.d.). Behold: The 50 Most Searched Celebrities of 2013! And Fair Warning, the
List Might Surprise You | TeenVogue.com. Retrieved from
http://www.teenvogue.com/entertainment/2013-12/50-most-searched-celebrities/?slide=1
Titlewave. (n.d.). TITLEWAVE | Follett School Solutions. Retrieved from
https://www.titlewave.com
YALSA. (n.d.). YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults | Young Adult
Library Services Association (YALSA). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/yalsa/nonfiction