There seems to be every reason to take series for granted and even to leave them off the shelves. The stereotype of a series for children and young people is that it consists of one story written many times, cliché plots and characters, poor style, banal imaginative value, a commercial hype and con, ordered if at all by librarians who trust to one they know to order any of the rest. Makowski, a specialist children’s librarian from America, sets out to persuade us differently. Series provide readers with a welcome return to a familiar setting, to well‐known and well‐loved characters, to predictable plots. Not only that, many of them are hugely popular, well written, and good examples of what ‐ in a popular culture and media‐orientated generation today ‐ is really out there and really wanted.
This work describes and evaluates some 60 well‐known series (American, English‐language, for young adults), from the very well‐known like Sweet Dreams, The Hardy Boys, and Point Thrillers and Chillers (also known as Point Horror), to lesser known examples (like the multicultural 18 Pine St., the Christian Cedar River Daydreams, and the illness/crisis‐centred series One Last Wish). All entries contain bibliographical details and critical annotations (about plots, characters, setting, appeal), and give reading levels too. There’s more to series than first appears: very popular, a barometer of contemporary taste (see the emphasis on horror with Frankenstein’s Children, Fear Street, Horror High, Scream and Shockers), a reflection of reading in a TV age (X Files), and lots of love and romance (Boyfriend, Girlfriend, First Comes Love, Girl Friends, Love Stories and, of course, 232 and rising Sweet Dreams!). Some will be good as starters and lead to older things (Tom Swift addicts can graduate to Tom Clancy). Overall, a useful reminder that series are still big in young adult reading, particularly in the USA, and certainly something about which to think again. For an international practitioner/reader, a clear USA bias, but “that’s where it’s at!”.
