The Outsiders Survey

By now you know that I was let go from my middle school library position, but I still have strong ties to my old school and think about my YA readers often. The students that hang out in the library mostly do not fit in with the social scene whirling around them. They can be awkward or the type that gets over-stimulated easily, but most of them are original thinkers. My survey of their favorites did not surprise me in its results, but was hard to type up because there were so many responses. The ages of the students were 11-14. I surveyed 35 students total.

Any book, movie, TV show or game that got three or more votes was in the top five. Some of them were predictable like Avatar and the Harry Potter books/movies. Most often I had a completely new favorite in each category. For books the top were:
Erin Hunter's Warriors series
J.T. Rowling's Harry Potter series
Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series
Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Some of the more unique were:
1.) The Strange Case of Origami Yoda- This is the description from Amazon.com, "In this funny, uncannily wise portrait of the dynamics of a sixth-grade class and of the greatness that sometimes comes in unlikely packages, Dwight, a loser, talks to his classmates via an origami finger puppet of Yoda. If that weren’t strange enough, the puppet is uncannily wise and prescient."
2.) The Once and Future King- Description, "The world's greatest fantasy classic is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot, of Merlyn and Guinevere, of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged."
3.)The Soloist- Description, "Scurrying back to his office one day, Lopez, a columnist for the L.A. Times, is stopped short by the ethereal strains of a violin. Searching for the sound, he spots a homeless man coaxing those beautiful sounds from a battered two-string violin. When the man finishes, Lopez compliments him briefly and rushes off to write about his newfound subject, Nathaniel Ayers, the homeless violinist."

As for top five favorite movies, I ask for their "all-time" favorite and got: Avatar, The Blindside, District 9, Twilight Series, Harry potter series. Some original ones were: The Last Mimsy, Totoro, Monte Python, Good Hair, and Finding Nemo.

I was surprised that the Ace of Cakes had three loyal watchers. Family Guy, Veronica Mars, Whose Line is it Anyway, and 30 Rock all received more than one vote. I had to ask about MTV's Nitro Circus and Invader Zim because I had never heard of them.

Lastly, I allowed all types of games and found that board games were the most popular. The more violent computer and X Box games did make it on the survey, but not as much as I thought.