Generation R (R Is for Reader)

Christopher Collins, 13, who attends Marshall Middle School in suburban San Diego, and Alexandra Roquemore, 17, who attends Valley High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, are both typical teenagers. He likes boogie boarding, playing PlayStation 3, listening to My Chemical Romance on his iPod and watching the San Diego Chargers. She likes oil painting, speaking French, listening to Sarah Brightman on her iPod and hanging out at the mall with friends. And they both love reading fiction.

Collins, whose favorite novels include "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli, and the "Cirque du Freak" vampire series by Darren Shan, likes reading books because "unlike movies, you create the world in your mind. Books make me laugh, cry, and truly connect with the characters and provide an escape to a different reality." Roquemore, whose favorite novels include Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" and Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" vampire series, likes reading books because she can "experience someone else's life and understand different points of view. It provides a healthy escape from the real world to a world where everything is possible."

While it may sound like they were recommended to NEWSWEEK by the American Booksellers Association, Collins and Roquemore are both very real teenagers with a genuine passion for books. And they're not alone. Contrary to the depressing proclamations that American teens aren't reading, the surprising truth is they are reading novels in unprecedented numbers. Young-adult fiction (ages 12-18) is enjoying a bona fide boom with sales up more than 25 percent in the past few years, according to a Children's Book Council sales survey. Virtually every major publishing house now has a teen imprint, many bookstores and libraries have created teen reading groups and an infusion of talented new authors has energized the genre.

"This is the second golden age for young-adult books," says David Levithan, an acclaimed author of several young-adult novels ("Wide Awake," "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist") and executive editorial director at Scholastic Inc., the world's largest publisher and distributor of books for kids and teens. In just the past few years, Scholastic and many other publishers of young-adult (also known as YA) fiction have seen "amazing success," says Levithan, who calls this the "most exciting time for young-adult literature since the late 1960s and 1970s when 'The Chocolate War' [by Robert Cormier] and 'Forever' [by Judy Blume] were published."

Levithan and others cite several reasons for this perfect storm for teen lit, the most obvious two being the increasing sophistication and emotional maturity of teenagers and the accompanying new freedom for writers in the genre to explore virtually any subject. Another is that bookstores and libraries are finally recognizing this niche and separating teen books from children's books. "Teenagers don't want to walk past the Curious George books to get to their books. They want and deserve their own section," says Levithan, who points out that "because of MySpace, Facebook, blogs and authors' and publishers' Web sites, young readers are communicating interactively now with each other and with authors." Another reason for the YA boom cited by Levithan and others is that teen books have become an integral part of today's overall pop-culture entertainment menu. They segue into television series, movies, videogames, cartoons and the Internet. If teens see that, say, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" is coming out in theaters, they'll read the book in advance of the movie.

Maybe it's even simpler than that. Jack Martin, assistant coordinator of YA services at the New York Public Library, says that the single most important fact is that young-adult books are simply better and more diverse than ever, and readers are responding. "There's so much good writing now, that's the key," says Martin. "They're telling better stories, and there is such variety, something for everyone." And, yes, he admits, it started with the Harry Potter books, which have "generated a passion for reading in an entire generation of preteens and teens and many have taken that passion with them to other books." Martin suggests that the Potter series has captured the interest of young readers who otherwise would never read fantasy, or read at all, and instilled in them an enthusiasm for reading in general. "Harry Potter has made kids trust the book as a source of information that is exciting, not just a school assignment," he says, adding that the most popular books for teens now are fantasy. Also popular are graphic novels, adventure, romance, humor and, as has always been the case in the YA field, coming-of-age stories.