When I first started as an English teacher, I remember moving all my Literature (yes, capital L, said like a fancy person Literature) books into my room, and I was so excited to start my classroom library. I thought that students would love all the classic books I had for them. HA. Let's be real - you get exactly 1 classic lover each year, and they usually purchase their own books because they are such bookies. So, I started bringing my Sarah Dessen books and then my brother gave me his Rick Riordian books, and eventually, I realized that those are the types of books kids like to read.
Book recommendations are never-ending (ironically, only one of the books in this book stack picture ended up in my lists!)
Most kids are reading the classics as a whole-group text. (Hoping to see some changes in that idea soon! Check out my blog post on supplementing or replacing the canon!) So, when given the option for choice reading, students usually don't want a classic -- they want something fresh, new, and something that feels familiar to them. If you're a new teacher who is building a classroom library, don't worry about buying all of these books at once! Maybe use Donor's Choose for these titles or ask friends and family to donate to an Amazon wishlist, but do not purchase them all at once! Use your money for bills! :)
My general rule has become - don't buy a book unless:
1. I really want to read it.
2. It is DIRT cheap ($2 or less), and kids will enjoy it.
3. A student requested it
If you're a teacher with a healthy classroom library, I hope that you find a couple of titles to add to your list! I've divided these into genres, And I've only selected 4 books from each to keep it very manageable. My very long Amazon wishlist will prove to you how overwhelming a book list can be! These are also all books that I have in my classroom that students like to read.
Many people ask me about whether or not a book is appropriate for a certain grade. I do not censor books to my students that are within their reading levels (except for explicit sexual content - no 50 Shades of Grey in my classroom!) However, YA books have drugs, alcohol, swearing, sex, and other "inappropriate" scenarios. So for that reason, my coworkers and I have created a signature page for parents/guardians letting them know that choice reading is exclusively up to their own monitoring, and any mature content we come across during whole-class reading will be handled professionally and discussed thoroughly. Click here to go to my free Google Drive - there you can find a ton of resources. In the "Classroom Library" folder, you'll find this literature notice.
Enough blabbering - let's get to the books!
*Most poetry books contain mature content, but I believe strongly in not censoring students to books that have the potential to really resonate with them. Rupi Kaur's books are especially powerful for young women.*
I hope you found this list helpful to you! Let me know in the comments what other texts you think are vital in a middle or high school classroom.
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