teen interview (via email)

[beeb69]

Jamie, 16 years old, male, HS junior

1.       Do you have any favorite books?  If so, what is it/are they, and what makes them special?
 Jamie: My favorite type of books, are horror and suspense novels. They keep my attention interested more than any other genre. I don’t have any specific favorites to name.
(clarification from his mom--by 'horror'

Comments

[jill548spring09]

horror and suspense novels. They keep my attention interested more than any other genre.

From my minimal knowledge of genre theory, I think that this quality is one of the main appeal factors (and maybe even genre-defining factors?) of both horror and suspense.

I usually read the newspaper every morning before I go to school.

Thanks for sharing this point in class! It adds support to what seems to be a running theme of these interviews: the idea that our preconceived notions of what teens are, what they like, what they do, etc ("boys like graphic novels!" "teens do everything online!" etc) may be of only minimal usefulness when interacting with actual, individual teens.

[jill548spring09]

Has Jamie seen this article from Time magazine this week?

How to Save Your Newspaper

[beeb69]

hmm, not sure. i'll have to point it out to his mom. she was instrumental in getting him to return to the paper-at-breakfast routine. apparently he used to do it, then started checking his myspace during breakfast. she quickly put the kibosh on that and said that he should go back to his old routine, which he did.

i should as what paper--while the gesture is admirable, there's a big difference between skimming the ny times and the trentonian, for example.