Young Adult

I have battled with my own weight issues throughout my entire life, and that may be why I could not put down Moore’s highly gripping memoir of her lifelong battle with obesity. I have so much empathy for her and so many others whose drug of choice is food. A great story for classroom discussions.

What teenager does not feel like a misfit sooner or later? This intriguing story follows six teens that sneak out of a summer camp to save some doomed buffaloes. Powerful classroom discussions guaranteed!

I am a huge fan of Jane Yolen’s many wonderful books of poetry for children. This book shows another side of Yolen, as she has created (along with her son) a fun new twist on the tale of the Pied Piper.

Big print – don’t worry! Your boys will love this book about a teenager trying out for the high school football team and the eccentric old man who teaches him all he knows. Plenty of football for the boys, plus a great (and refreshingly deep) story of an unlikely cross-age friendship.

I’ve had four different friends go on missionary trips to Guatemala in the past year, and I was excited to read this tale of life there. Your students will gain healthy perspective by looking into the realities of others their age in economically poorer regions of the world.

Harry Potter meets Mary Poppins in this fascinating fantasy, the first in a series.

Thank goodness for Walter Mosley. When I was teaching 8th grade boys in South Los Angeles, Walter Mosley was our savior. He has written so many great books that speak to so many of my students (e.g. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and Devil in a Blue Dress). This book represents his foray into young adult literature, and it is great. Whether he realizes it or not, Mr. Mosley has quite a fan base among teenage boys. A great author!

What wonders await the bored and curious? Four separate stories highlight how a magic library card changes the lives of disenfranchised youth. I LOVE books that promote the wonders of reading!

At least once a year I have to remind folks that a great writer to get boys hooked on reading is Philip K. Dick, as his books are always short, engaging and haunting!

Teaching a lot of Latino students, I am always on the lookout for compelling stories for Latino teens. Saldaña’s short stories will make a great addition to your classroom library.

Teens are familiar with the movie, and I often can entice students to read books whenever they are related to movie versions. Classic tales retold in different ways always make for good class discussions.

Great female protagonist in this thrilling time travel tale of a girl who discovers that the life she thinks she leads in the 1840s is really a tourist attraction for 1996.

I have a habit of opting for young adult books that deal with historical events that I know little about. Ashamed by my lack of knowledge of Uganda’s Idi Amin, I grabbed this incredible story of a 15-year-old’s family and how they deal with Amin’s proclamation in the early 1970s to “weed out” all the foreign Indians. The number of “ethnic cleansing” episodes to take place in just the last hundred years disgusts me, and books like this need to be read early and often.

I have found that this “Gossip Girl” series is practically addictive among middle school teens. This is the latest in the series, and new readers may want to pick up the first episode to become familiar with these preppy New York teens.

Let’s just say that this book is about a girl who becomes a “wereowl” at night. Yes, it is a funny book, and there is a lot more depth to it than that. My students, especially the girls, love this book.