Youth workers and parents who try to stay plugged into their kids’ lives probably know a bit about the Twilight vampire series by Stephenie Meyer, the movies based on Meyer’s novels, and the hit teen TV drama “The Vampire Diaries” on The CW.

With the fourth movie in the series, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, out on DVD, there’s plenty of bloodlust building. How can adults keep whetting teens’ appetite for books?

As teens outgrow the high school drama and simple romance of adolescent fantasy fiction, they need something with the same allure—but more substance—to keep them reading.

Paul Dorset, a father of five girls and boys ages 13 to 27, says it’s important to keep kids reading even if they’re 20-something; when parents and children can talk about the books they’re sharing that’s better yet.

“Kids have short attention spans these days,” he says. “It takes a really good book to get them focused. You really have to encourage kids to read.”
Dorset is the author of seven books, including fantasies for younger children and how-tos for adults. However, he says it’s that middle ground of readers—ages 16 to 30—that need special attention.

In their world, the written word is all texts and tweets, which can contribute to having a short attention span and inability to absorb more complex written material. Young people trying to get jobs need to be able to do the short and sweet, as well as the longer and more complex, he says.

Dorset is the author of New Blood: Melrose Part 1. He believes it’s important to give young adults books that offer something to chew on intellectually without being overly graphic, something parents and their young adult kids can have fun with and talk about—without blushing.

How does one do that? Hit on the themes that matter to them, then find the books and novels that explore those themes.