Library Habits Vary Widely Between Middle and Upper Schools
Middle school students check out the vast majority of books at Athenian.
Library Director Jenny Staller said, “As of this morning, 249 [books checked out by middle schoolers]. In the whole school, 297.”
That means the middle school checked out over 500% more books than the upper school did in the first three weeks. There could be several reasons for this difference.
Upper School Librarian “Frenchie” French said, “Busy culture harms reading habits in a lot of ways. Because we’re so busy we want something instant and people are really intimidated by the hard work it takes to get through a novel.”
The library staff has some ideas why this might be the case. Frenchie said, “I know a lot of teachers bring their middle schoolers into the library to check out books and come in for special events that Jenny’s throwing in the library.”
“I think a big part of it is that we prioritized increasing access to the space earlier in the school year,” Jenny said. “Students, once they get to the upper school, they have so many demands on their time. The amount of time required for homework increases a huge amount, the amount of extracurriculars kids are involved in increases a lot, so there’s just less time to read.”
Reading for fun is something the library staff believes is lacking in the upper school. Frenchie said, “The changing in teen reading habits and the biggest reasons why middle schoolers are reading more than other schoolers is schedule-wise. Upper school students have a really busy schedule, and a lot of it comes from teacher support. I think we really need to, as an upper school, emphasize the importance of reading for fun. Because that does a lot of things: it supports better mental health, it supports better academic performance, but we do require students to read certain books for classes. But I think we could do a much better job of creating spaces where upper school students can read for fun.”
Jenny agreed, saying, “In the middle school, teachers bring their students into the library a lot more, and that’s something Frenchie and I want to increase in the upper school, collaborating with teachers so that classes get to spend more time in the library up here too.”
Sixth-grader Shaivi Panda said, “I love to check out books from the library, I spend most of my break in there reading.”
Additionally, there are distinct differences in the types of books that students in the middle and upper school check out. The middle school students check out a large number of graphic novels. Jenny said some graphic novels of specific interest to the students include “Heartstopper” and Reina Telgemeier’s books. This interest in graphic novels continues in upper school, but not to the same extent as in middle school. Instead, the upper school seems to have a love of dystopias.
Frenchie said, “Dystopian, as a genre, is also popular in both middle school and upper school, but we get a lot of upper schoolers requesting dystopian books, and sci-fi along with that.”
Fiction books are much more popular than nonfiction books in the middle and upper school. Frenchie said, “Students read a lot of nonfiction already in class, so when people are choosing to read for fun, fiction is definitely more appealing for the majority of people.” Fantasy and romance books seem to be a common theme in both the middle and upper schools. “Our students are huge fans of fantasy novels for sure,” Frenchie said. “Romance too, of course, people love the romance books. People want to read things that are different from your regular life, so when you’re choosing something to read for fun you’re more likely to choose something that’s very different, whether that be magic and fantasy novels and dragons or just exciting love.”
Junior Uma Raghavan, leader of the Library Advisory Board, said, “I think fantasy has always been really popular, especially young adult fantasy, especially with what’s popular on Booktok and Bookstagram.”
Jenny said, “I think people just really enjoy escaping into a different world.”
