YA "Choice" Lists for Middle and High Schoolers
Teachers, have you ever wanted to incorporate "choice" reading into your curriculum but were just too loaded up to figure out the logistics? I've put together my road-tested system from my 25+ years of teaching here on the blog.) I promise you it will make the set-up and grading for a "choice" or "independent" program SO much easier. And I'll be presenting at teacher and library conferences across the Southeast in the coming months with Perma-Bound School LIbrary Reps Kristen Ives and John Zeller to share this NotRequiredReading.com Step-By-Step program. (We'd love to come to your district!)
Here are the lists of books I recommend that are sure-fire tools to lure reluctant readers into the joy of reading. (Let me know if you have suggestions for additions. We're always looking for books that "hook.") And if you need some good test-data documentation to convince your administrators, there's a blog link here to a Nerdy Book Club post with a great success success story by some friends of mine, Dennis Jolley and Justin Jones, near Atlanta. Oh, and don't forget to follow the Nerdy Book Club on Twitter. It's a fabulous support network for teachers of all grades!
The books on this list with an asterisk are currenlty available through Perma-Bound.com at a discount for teachers. And you'll find reviews for many of them on our NotRequiredReading.com website, (along with hundreds of other reviews by students for students.)
If you'd like my annotated NRR list, the Book Interview Questions I use, or the Trailer Instructions and Trailer Grading sheets mentioned in the program, you can request them through my email at mcdowell.beck@gmail.com. Just drop me a quick note to let me know which you'd like and I'll send them as attachments you can print and use.
NotRequiredReading,com Young Adult Book List
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Ashfall by Mike Mulllin
Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
*Boy 21 by Mathew Quick
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacquiline Woodson
*Burning Blue by Paul Griffin
*Cinder by Marissa Meyer
*Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
*Delirium by Lauren Oliver
*Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Dramarama by E. Lockhart
*Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
*The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
*The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
*Grave Mercy by Rogin LaFevers
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Hourglass by Myra McEntire
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
*I Am the Messenger by Marcus Zusak
I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
*If I Stay by Gayle Foreman
*I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
*The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
*It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
King Dork by Frank Portman
*Legend by Marie Lu
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
*Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
*Maze Runner by James Dashner
*Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
*Origin by Jessica Khoury
*Payback Time by Carl Deuker
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
*The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
*The Selection by Kiera Cass
*Ship Breaker by Paolo Baciagalupi
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
*Small Damages by Beth Kephart
Sold by Patricia McCormick
*Something Like Normal by Trish Doller
Speak by Laure Halse Anderson
*Sunrise over Fallujah,by Walter Dean Myers
*Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
*Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (cover)
*This Is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
Tyrell by Coe Booth
Uglies by Scott Westerterfeld
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
*What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
*Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
Winger by Andrew Smith
Yacqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
NotRequiredReading.com Mid-Grade Book List
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
Alabama Moon by Watt Key
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle
Bigger Than a Breadbox by Laurel Snyder
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Capture the Flag by Kate Messner
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Baillett
Close to Famous by Joan Bauer
Counting by 7’s by Holly Goldberg-Sloan
Don’t Feed the Boy by Irene Latham
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DeCamillo
Found by Margaret Petersen Haddiz
Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry
Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhai Lai
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
One for the Murphy’s by Lynda Mullaly-Hunt
Paperboy by Vince Vawter
See You at Harry’s by Jo Knowles
Schooled by Gordon Korman
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
The Eighth Day by Dianne Salerni and David McClellan
The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black
The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick
Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon