This year I had the opportunity to order several young adult novels and begin a classroom library. The response has been overwhelming--students who finish their work early will often grab a book off the shelf and, in many cases, get "hooked" into reading the rest of it. These are often the same students who don't spend a lot of time in the high school library or know what to look for when they're there (and many have been my lower level readers). My problem is that I'm fairly new to young adult novels and have only read a few. I'm hoping to order several more books this year and I would be most appreciative for any suggestions you may have--especially for books geared toward boys and sports.

From talking to my husband, sports isn't always what's desired by boys. Try fantasy and sci-fi novels as well. My husband never read until he moved in with me and finally found books he wanted to read. Now he reads as much as I do. :) The books that hooked him were the Drow series by R.A. Salvatore.

I should have specified that more sports books were a specific student request. Fortunately, there are so many wonderful fantasy and sci-fi books that I predominately purchased those the first go around. However, some students who didn't particularly like that genre asked that I purchase some books with sports or just realistic fiction. Not being an avid sports fan, I have no clue where to start. I certainly appreciate your feedback--it just reinforces that I made a good choice the first go around with book purchases. I'll also look into some R.A. Salvatore books as many of my students love books that are part of a series. Thanks for your help!

I don't have a lot of reading history in this area, but my wife (a librarian) took a young adult reading class and highly recommends Gary Paulson (en?) who has a lot of outdoor/adventure stories that boys seem to like and Chris Crutcher (Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes -- swimming) for sports. Reading levels are middle school, I think.

Tim, thanks for the recommendations--I'll definitely check into both authors! They sound promising.

I just finished "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan, and I really liked it. I'd definitely recommend that series for your classroom library, even though I've only read the first one. Recommend it to any of your kids who seem to really like mythology, they'll get a kick out of recognizing characters and monsters from the stories.

For your own reading edification, Students (and teachers) who like mysteries would be well advised to try Riordan's earlier Tres Naverre series of detective stories. He won an Edgar for his first and the rest are engaging, too. They're set in Austin, Texas and have memorable characters, especially Tres, a tai-chi practicing professor of medevial English turned Private Eye.

My memory of the titles is sketchy, but thanks to amazon.com, I just looked them up -- The Devil went down to Austin, The Last King of TExas, Big Red Tequila, Mission Road, South Town, THe Widower's Two Step. I'm having a hard time remembering/determining which of these are Tres Navarre. I'm sure of Tequila, Two-Step, Last King, and Devil, pretty sure about Mission and South Town.

Also, Riordan is (or was) an eighth grade English teacher before he got published.

Tim

Kat, thanks for the recommendation--that sounds like something I would like as well! I'll definitely purchase it as several of my students are into mythology. I've also heard positive reviews about The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu, which has several mythological connections. It's also on my too read list.

Tim, I don't have enough mysteries in my growing classroom library, so your suggestions are also much appreciated. Amazon, here I come!

I have a couple suggestions that worked well with high school students. Comic diary titles have been big winners--Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole titles, Rennison's Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging (and its sequels), Mackler's The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid (more for middle school, probably). Anderson's Speak (and follow-up Catalyst) are terrific (and more serious), as is Chbosky's Perks of Being a Wallflower. Stoner and Spaz, Define Normal, King Dork, Slam! are others worth checking out. Ned Vizzini's Be More Chill, MT Anderson's Feed, and Cory Doctorow's Little Brother are good reads for the computer geek/sci-fi inclined.

I've found success as well by looking up books that have been popular with my students on Amazon, and using the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" feature to find new books that I otherwise wouldn't have known about.

Thanks for the suggestions, Peter. These are great--my students love Rennison and Anderson, but I'm not familiar with some of these others. I'm adding them to the "to purchase when school starts" list!

I'd also like to add:

Monster by Walter Dean Myers (actually, any WD Myers book!)

pretty much modern war history or historical fiction like Flags of our Fathers

and that's all I've got at 7 am in the morning. I'll post again tonight when I've visited my classroom (going there shortly) and have had a chance to poke through my student book review binder (a great idea! and I'm going to move the project over here to goodreads).

Oh and I add a great big nod to all the books noted already, too. And Peter is right on! :)

Ohhh . . . a student book review binder. You've piqued my interest. How do you utilize that in your classroom, if you don't mind my asking? That sounds like something I would like to do.

No problem! I'd love to share a little bit about the book review binder, it's one of my brain children, in a manner of speaking. :)

What I do is get a big binder (I typically get a 4" binder) and get subject dividers and use them to set up sections for genres. As students complete reviews (more on this to come), I have a student organize them into the genre categories. I ask them to alphabetize them and on a sheet at the front, add the book title and begin a list. Also, for each book, I have the student make a book title page for it and on that page, list the names of the students who have reviewed the book. At the end of the year, all these pages get typed up and page numbers and AYs are added.

For the review, I simply ask students to read a list of book reviews from good reviewers to get a sense of how to do it, then they model their own on the mentor pieces. I give mini-lessons on how to effectively write about literature and review pieces. At the end of the review, I ask them to list who might be interested in this book, and what other books a person who liked this one may be interested in, too.

I have a reading challenge in my room where students are encouraged to read 400+ pages, outside of schoolwork, a quarter. I ask them to review these books plus any they read over summer break. I also encourage them to review stories or books they read in other classes. I do anything that motivates them to integrate their reading and writing.

Is that clear? It's been a lot of fun. I've done this project for 2-1/2 years and I've tweaked it to the present form.

Now that I've said this, I'm actually going to try moving this system to goodreads this year as it integrates technology and students love social networking and being online. Plus it encourages them to read when they start seeing the reviews of their peers (from what other students have told me who use similar services, granted they like to read already).

I'd be happy to speak more on this year-long project for all of my classes (one for my room!). PM me for my email if interested.

That's a wonderful idea! If you don't mind, I might "steal" it from you. I've been looking to an alternative to the traditional book report--I think it discourages reading. What's the fun of reading for something for pleasure if you have to turn around and write an exhaustive report to prove that you read it? Your approach sounds as if it would engage students as they explore their reactions to a book. Last year I had them create a book review PowerPoint over at least one book they read each grading period. They had to give a brief summary of the book without revealing any plot spoilers, give the author/title/genre/page count/etc. on a title slide along with a graphic of the book cover, name and describe at least two conflicts found in the book, present their reaction to the book, and explain who would/wouldn't be interested in that type of novel. The project worked really well, so perhaps I could integrate a book review to be turned in on the presentation day.

We also created book report posters that we hung throughout the high school that received a very positive response. They incorporated student reviews along with graphics/colors/"found" objects that symbolically reflected the book.

I'm so glad to hear that you are planning on using Goodreads in the classroom. I, too, am planning to use Goodreads this year. I've already e-mailed my colleagues about it and the possibilities it could have for encouraging student reading. I think its My Space-like appeal would draw a lot of them to using it on their own. Let me know how it works for you. I'm still pondering how I can integrate into classroom activities.

Feel free to "steal" it! I'm glad to share good ideas! It's for the benefit of our students. I don't get why some teachers are stingy about their "brain children". It's for the benefit of the kids - open up and share! :)

speaking of which, here's a link to my teaching blog:

http://languageislife.wordpress.com/

I was just in a department meeting in which teachers were throwing out names of popular YA books with their students (mixed demographic urban school) or as one teacher put it, "books that they keep stealing." On their list: MEG, Always Running, A Child Called It, Whale Talk, Speak, Feed, Monster, and Letters to a Young Brother.

I love this thread. Katie, I don't know MEG or Always Running, but I can nod in agreement to the others.

Since I have 2000+ books in my room, I'm very interested in the ones that get stolen: Perks of Being a Wallflower is the all-time winner. I've probably bought 20 copies...and I have two ratty ones. Into the Wild disappears with regularity, all of Sarah Dessen's, Ellen Hopkins' books, the Twilight books sprout legs and walk away. I always consider that a ringing endorcement of the book's power. I Am the Messenger disappears too. I would love to hear from others...

Great suggestions! I teach 9th and 11th and Perks of Being a Wallflower is definitely a hard one for me to keep on the shelf as are Looking for Alaska and The Book Thief.

Katie: thank you for those suggestions, especially Always Running; I teach an "at risk" English 9 class and have discovered "Hole in my Life" by Jack Gantos (non-fiction). Terrific read.

Also: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold!

My boys love non-fiction. Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, The Places Inbetween by Rory Stewart, of course Into the Wild and 21 (the Vegas/MIT book) as well as It's Not About the Bike, etc. I book talk at least one non-fiction book a week because they are so popular. And most stolen in my room? The Rule of the Bone and Nineteen Minutes. I keep rebuying those two.

Great thread... thanks for some new titles to find.

A Hole in My Life went over well with my 8th grade boys last year (yeah, I'm an 8th grade teacher slumming with the major leaguers here... if it helps, I have 8 years of high school teaching under my belt, too). Oddly, Into the Wild is a bit of a tough sell (though I liked it well enough). Other books not moving: Feed and Whale Talk (I booktalked both enthusiastically, but...).

The boys are hottest on to Rick Riordan's Percy and the Olympians series. They also devour Carl Deuker's sports books (esp. Gym Candy) and war books like Don Wulffson's Soldier X (a good read!) and Dean Hughes' Soldier Boys.

As for the girls? The Twilight series, Elsewhere, and anything by Sarah Dessen.
For the reluctant reading girls, the big hit is Sonya Sones' verse novels.

Some titles that have worked well for the boys are Knights of the Hill Country, Bleachers, and Fallen Angels. Also, some recommendations that appeal to all include Velocity by Dean Koontz (we can't keep enough copies on the shelves), The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The Secret Life of Bees, I'd Tell You I Love You (but I'd Have to Kill You), Fix, and Blue Bloods have been popular with the girls this year.

Good to hear about Knights of the Hill Country because I just bought two copies for my football-hungry boy reluctant readers (needs an acronym, don't you think?). When I looked over the first two pages, I worried about the narrator's voice, though. Stand by for reports...

Thanks for the other titles, Amanda. I'll check them out.

Wow. This is all so helpful. I'm working with our local Starbucks and McDonalds to donate $2 - $5 gift certificates. I used to give extra credit for extra book reviews (aside from the two that are required). I don't like this, because it's not fair for the slower readers. The faster readers are helping me put together a notebook full of reviews. We'll also submit reviews to our school's library blog and small town newspaper.

You've given me so many good ideas.

Thank you!

Lisa, I never thought of Starbucks for gift certificates. I've tried working with our local bookstores...all parts of chains...to give kids gift certificates. Has anyone had any luck with something like that? I need to think of a way to convince the book stores my kids really DO buy books...maybe a survey of the students? You've given me something else to think about, tho..food!!

Just finished John Coy's BOX OUT (see my review) and think it's great stuff for sports-oriented, reluctant reader sorts (esp. boys). OK for middle school readers, too, as Coy keeps the profanity to a minimum (an increasing rarity in YA fare these days). BOX OUT is about basketball. Coy's earlier CRACKBACK is about football.

I've noticed that some of you mention having your students write "book reviews." I'm interested in perhaps attempting something similar as a means of moving away from a more traditional book report. If you don't mind sharing, how do have your students structure their reviews and what requirements do you look for? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated!

I use book reviews from newspapers or magazines as mentor texts. The trick is, you have to find a review of a YA book. You could find one in the NCTE's publications, too, like ENGLISH JOURNAL or VOICES IN THE MIDDLE. Have the kids read a half dozen and "notice" the criteria. Make an anchor chart based on their observations. In some cases, you may need to nudge them in a direction or point out a missing element. Then, turn them loose! It works best if you ultimately put their best works in a notebook in your school library (or up on a poster). Nothing motivates like audience!

Newengland, thanks for the advice. That gives me a starting point to begin thinking about how to implement such a plan in my classroom. I really like the idea of book reviews--hopefully they will, too!

The gift certificate idea is working! Our library is covering 1/2 the cost of the certificates and Starbucks/McDonalds is covering the other 1/2. Each student reviewer gets $5. Only about 4-5 kids per my two freshmen classes are participating, because it does add an extra novel and an extra review on top of all other work. Our school is trying to start an "Amazon.com" type book review type system on its library site - reviews by students; soon kids can mkae listmanias, etc.

Lisa

(Many of my boys are reading "The Long Walk" by Stephen King.)