In true librarian fashion, MEA member Christina Chatel had a nagging question and set about digging for an answer: “Where are the books written with the 13- to 15-year-old in mind?”

As a middle school library media specialist in Troy, Chatel reads several dozen books a year and talks with hundreds of young people to learn their reading interests and tastes.

Lately she noticed an accelerating trend: Students were coming into the library looking for shorter, edgier, faster-moving books with appealing covers that don’t look childish. “I started getting frustrated, not having a lot of options that were appealing to kids.

“Post-pandemic, it seemed like middle schoolers’ tastes had changed — or maybe they were more vocal about what they wanted.”

In summer 2024, Chatel wrote an open letter to book publishers which was posted on Teen Librarian Toolbox and took off on social media with more than 100,000 views and hundreds of likes, comments and shares.

In it, she urged publishers to produce books around 150-200 pages long with action and provocative themes, featuring diverse characters in eighth to tenth grade.

Right now, she says, “Every book has an 11- or 12-year-old character in middle grade, and then there’s no other age until they get characters that are 17 or 18 — it’s crazy!”

Soon Chatel learned a Georgia school librarian, Marcia Kochel, was advocating the same thing. The pair joined forces and created a name for the new book category they want: Young Teen Lit.

They developed six criteria to distinguish their category from current ones that skew too young or too old — middle grade and young adult. “Young Teen” bridged the gap.

“Our first criteria says that these books should be edgy and complex. We are not looking for high-low titles. We are not ‘clean teen.’ We think our middle schoolers can handle tough topics, and that’s what hooks them. But we want it to be developmentally appropriate.”

Next came a logo, website and social media to promote the idea along with existing books the two librarians consider examples and good reads. “We hope our army will buy these books, and that will show publishers there is a market; we desperately want to buy these books.”

Chatel and Kochel have built a following at youngteenlit.com and Instagram @young_teenlit. In May, they were named 2026 Movers & Shakers by the venerable Library Journal.

Chatel has worked at Boulan Park and Smith middle schools for 13 years. For a decade before that, she was a high school English teacher in the district while earning a master’s degree in Library Science and school media specialist certification.

She calls it “the best job in the world,” sparking kids’ love of books; boosting skills in reading, information gathering and source citation; and developing digital literacy and citizenship.

Chatel is president-elect of the Michigan Association of School Librarians (MASL) and was named the 2025 School Librarian of the Year, among other awards and honors.

She and Kochel are trying to get major bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble, to create a Young Teen Lit section to better serve young readers. They lead the #YoungTeenLit movement “on our own dime and our own time, so it’s definitely a passion project,” Chatel said.

“We’ve heard from teachers, from parents, from booksellers who all feel the same way. Now there’s some substance behind our movement, and I feel like we’re finally starting to get somewhere.”