Your Name_____________________________________

September Reading Survey

1. If you had to guess…

How many books would you say you owned? _____

How many books would you say there are in your house? _____

How many books would you say you’ve read since school
let out in June? _____

How many books would you say you read during the last
school year, September – June? _____

How many of those books did you choose for yourself? _____

2. Tell about the three best books you’ve ever read or had read to you?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
3. In your ideal book, what would the main character be like?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
4. What are your favorite genres, or kinds, of books?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
5. Who are your favorite authors these days?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
6. What are some of the ways you decide whether or not you’ll read a book?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
7. Have you ever liked a book so much that you reread it? _____ If so, can
you name it/some of them here? ________________________________
___________________________________________________________
8. What do you think someone has to know or do in order to be a strong,
satisfied reader of books? ______________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
9. What do you think are your three greatest strengths as a reader of books?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
10. As a reader, what would you like to do better? _____________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
11. Do you know the title of the next book you’d like to read?_____ If so,
please tell me. ______________________________________________

12. In general, how do you feel about reading and yourself as a reader?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
 The Reader’s Bill of Rights

1. The right not to read something

2. The right to skip pages

3. The right not to finish

4. The right to reread

5. The right to read anything

6. The right to escapism

7. The right to read anywhere

8. The right to browse

9. The right to read out loud

10. The right to not defend your tastes

- Daniel Pennac (1992)

Nancie Atwell, 2007

 Expectations for Reading this Year
• Read as much as you can, as joyfully as you can.
• Read at home for at least a half an hour every day, seven days
a week.
• Find books, authors, subjects, themes, and genres that matter
to you, your life, who you are now, and who you might become.
• Try new books, authors, subjects, purposes, and genres. Expand
your knowledge, your experience, and your appreciation of
literature.
• On the “someday pages” in your notebook, keep a running list of
the titles and authors you’d like to try, especially in response to
booktalks and recommendations.
• Write a letter-essay once every three weeks about what you
noticed and appreciated about a book you’ve finished. Use
writing to go back inside a book and consider the writing you
read-how the book made you think and feel, what the author
did, what worked, what needs more work.
• Recognize that there are different approaches to reading and
different stances readers take in relation to different texts—for
example, contemporary realistic fiction is different from a poem,
which is different from a chapter in your history book, which is
different from a newspaper editorial.
• Develop and articulate your own criteria for selecting and
abandoning books.
• Each quarter, establish and work toward significant goals for
yourself as a reader.
• In every reading workshop take a deliberate stance (Harwayne,
1992) toward engaging and responding with your whole heart and
mind. Enter the reading zone and stretch your imagination, live
other lives, and learn about your own, find prose and poetry so
well written it knocks you out, experience and understand
problems and feelings you might never know, find stories that
make you happy and feed your soul, consider how writers have
written and why, acquire their knowledge, ask questions, escape,
think, travel, ponder, laugh, cry, love and grow up.
Genres…So Far
adventure/survival graphic history play
or journalism
alternative history poetry anthology
graphic novel
antiwar novel poetry collection
historical fiction
autobiography punk fairy tale
history
biography retelling/recasting
horror
classic romance
humorous essays
comic novel science
instructional guide
contemporary realistic science fiction
fiction journalism
series novel
diary law novel
short-story collection
dystopian science fiction legend
short-story anthology
epic poem Manga
sports novel
epistolary novel memoir
spy novel
essay collection mystery: plot
supernatural
family saga mystery: psychological
techno-thriller
fantasy mythology
thriller
free-verse memoir new journalism
Western
free-verse novel parody

gothic novel philosophy

Nancie Atwell, 2007
 Rules for Reading Workshop
1. You must read a book. Magazines and newspapers don’t offer the
extended chunk of prose you need to develop fluency. More
important, they won’t help you discover who you are as a reader of
books.
2. Don’t read a book you don’t like. Don’t waste time with a book you
don’t love, when there are so many great titles out there waiting for
you – unless you’ve decided to finish it so you can criticize it. Do
develop your own criteria and system for abandoning an unsatisfying
read.
3. If you don’t like your book, find another. Check out the
books-we-love display. Check your list of somebody books. Browse
our shelves. Ask me or a friend for a recommendation.
4. It’s more than all right to reread a book you love. This is something
good readers do.
5. It’s okay to skim or skip parts of a book if you get bored or
stuck: good readers do this too.
6. On the forms inside your reading folder, record the title of every
book you finish or abandon, its genre and author, the date, and
your rating, 1 to 10. Collect data about yourself as a reader,
look for patterns, and take satisfaction in your accomplishments
over time.
7. Understand that reading is thinking. Try to do nothing that distracts
others from the reading zone: don’t put your words into their brains
as they’re trying to escape into the worlds of words created by the
authors of books they love. When you confer with me about your
reading, use as soft a voice as I use when I talk to you: whisper.
8. Take care of our books. Sign out each book you borrow on your
cards, then sign it back in with me – I’ll draw a line through the
title and initial the card – when you’re ready to return it. Shelve the
returned book in the section in our library, alphabetically by the
author’s name – or, if it’s a book you loved, add it to the
books-we-love collection.
9. Read the whole time.
10. Read as much as you can.

Nancie Atwell, 2007

Writing about Reading: Some Openers
I was surprised when/angry/about/satisfied with/moved
by/incredulous at/…
I like the way the author
I noticed how the author
I don’t get why the author
If I were the author I would have
I’d compare this author with
This book reminded me of
The main character
The character development
The narrative voice
The structure of this book
The climax of the plot
The resolution of the main character’s problem
The genre of this book
I’d say a theme of this book is
I wish that
I didn’t agree with
I understood
I couldn’t understand
Why did
This is how I read this book:
I rated this one _____ because

And always: I was struck by/interested in/convinced by this

passage: “…”
It shows … about this author’s writing.

Nancie Atwell, 2007

 September ____, ______

Dear ___________________,

Your reading journal is a place for you, me, and your friends to consider
books, reading, authors, and writing. You’ll think about your books in informal
essays directed to me and friends, and we’ll write back to you about your ideas
and observations. Our letter-essays and responses will become a record of the
reading, thinking, learning, and teaching we accomplished together.
Each letter-essay should be at least two pages long and written in a
personal, critical response to one book – in other words, not a series of
paragraphs about a series of books, but a long look at one that intrigues you.
You should write a letter-essay to a friend or me in your own journal every
three weeks, due on Thursday mornings. We’ll correspond in cycles: you’ll
write two letter-essays to me, then two to a friend of your choosing.
Before you write, look back over your reading record. Which title that
you’ve finished would be most enjoyable to revisit as a fan? What book that
you abandoned – or remained hopeful about to the bitter end – would be most
enjoyable to revisit to slam? Once you’ve decided, return to the book. Skim it,
and select at least one passage you think is significant, in terms of how you
reacted to the book’s theme, problem, character development, or plot arc, or
the author’s style. Choose a chunk of text that you think shows something
essential. In your letter-essay, quote – copy – the passage you chose, and
write about what you think it shows about the book, the author, or your
response to either.
What else might you do in a letter-essay? Tell about your experience as
a reader of the book. Describe what you noticed about how the author wrote.
Tell what you think the themes might be.
 Tell what surprised you. Pose your wonderings – your questions about
the author, the characters, the structure, the voice, and yourself as a reader.
Try the sentence openers (handout) I provided to help get you thinking and
writing. Be aware that a good letter-essay is one that teaches you something
you didn’t realize about your book, or yourself as a reader before you wrote it.
Once you’ve written your letter, hand-deliver your journal to your
correspondent. If that’s me, please put it in my chair on Thursday morning.
When a friend gives you his or her journal, you should answer, in at least
paragraph length, by Monday morning. After you’ve written back, hand-deliver
your friend’s journal – don’t put it in his or her locker or backpack. You may
not lose or damage another’s reading journal.
Date your letter-essay in the upper right-hand corner, and use a
conversational greeting (Dear ____________,) and closing (Love, Your friend,
Sincerely,). Always cite the name of the author of the book and its title.
Indicate the title by capitalizing and underlining it – for example,
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.
I can’t wait for us to begin reading and thinking about literature together
in this serious-but-friendly way. I can’t wait for your first letter-essays and a
year of chances to learn from you, learn with you, and help you learn more
about the power and pleasures of books.

Love,

Nancie Atwell, 2007

 September ____, ______

Dear Gang of Readers,

Deb Caletti is a new favorite young adult author of mine. Although the
title doesn’t fit the story, Wild Roses is still a 9. To begin with, the problem is
interesting and different: Cassie Morgan’s mother, a cellist leaves Cassie’s
father for Dino, a world-famous violinist and composer, and marries him. Dino
is eccentric in the extreme, if not psychotic. And Cassie falls in love with Dino’s
student, Ian. There are two climaxes, and the resolution, although a kind of
happy ending, is also the source of one of my quibbles about the novel, which
is definitely contemporary realism.
I’d compare Caletti to Sarah Dessen, because of the character
development. Cassie resembles Dessen’s girl main characters in that she’s
smart, articulate, literate, contemplative, passionate – she yearns, as Dessen’s
girls do – and funny. The narrative voice is first person, and Cassie’s voice is
smart, observant, and appealing. Here’s an example:
I was going through life in a fog, an expression that was true in
every sense. I felt like I was watching and not really participate-
ing, like my life source had called in sick and was wrapped up in
a quilt somewhere, zonked on cold medicine. And the fog was a
literal truth, too – for those days it lay around me in wispy steams,
around the water and on the lawn in the morning, as if the clouds
had pushed the wrong elevator button. That’s what fog is anyway –
lazy clouds. Clouds without ambition. The fog was eerie and
beautiful, soft and thoughtful, and it usually lifted in the afternoon
to an annoying display of sun that made the October orange colors
so bright they hurt your eyes. Everything glistened with dew, and
 it was vibrantly cold out. I didn’t want that, the cold that made
you want to put on a big coat and do something useful and happy,
like rake leaves. I wanted the rain again, or just the fog,
looking miserable and spooky.
I went through the motions at school, caring even less than usual
about the fact that Kileigh Jensen highlighted her hair or that
rumors were flying about what Courtney did with Trevor Woodhouse,
which everyone knew anyway by taking one look at them. The things
I might have laughed at, the fact that Sarah Frazier wore enough
makeup for her and two of her closest friends, for example, or the
coincidence that Haley Barton’s bra size doubled right about the
time that two Chihuahuas disappeared from the area, didn’t even
seem funny (pp. 98-99).
I think this is an effective mix of self-awareness, sensory description, and
humor. It’s typical of the voice and persona that Caletti invents for Cassie. I’m
surprised that neither Wild Roses nor Caletti’s first two novels, Honey Baby,
Sweetheart and The Queen of Everything, aren’t ALA recommended titles.
Caletti’s should be a name middle school teachers – and kids – know better.
I like dialogue. A lot of it comes out of left field, especially the voices of
Nannie, Cassie’s senile but crafty grandmother, and Bunny and Chuck, two
overweight, New Age bikers without bikes who ride around in a rusted-out
Datsun, called “Cassie Lassie,” and wonder why they can’t get jobs in their
chosen field, which is massage therapy.
Much of the plot development left convincing to me: the details of
Cassie’s parents’ divorce and custody arrangement; the description of how Dino
spirals down into depression and paranoia when he stops taking the pschotropic
drugs that impede his creativity; and the love affair between Cassie and Ian,
which not only rings true but also has a curtain drawn across it by
Cassie/Caletti in a way that’s more romantic than the usual details of physical
relationships in most YA fiction.
I do have plot issues: as part of Cassie’s character development
Caletti gives her an interest/expertise in astronomy, but the two times we see
Cassie with a telescope, she’s viewing the moon and Mars – obvious choices,
and with no details or vocabulary to convince us that Cassie is serious.
And there are the mothers. Cassie’s doesn’t pay attention to her but this
isn’t presented as a problem from the perspective of a sensitive teenaged girl.
And Ian’s mother’s financial security seems to hinge on her teenaged son
becoming a world-famous concert violinist. Since she’s able-bodied, I don’t get
it. It feels as if Caletti might have spent more time thinking through these
relationships and motivations.
As for its theme, I think, Wild Roses is about the power of love – love of
others and of self. Caletti has Cassie discover that even though love causes
pain, she has to “let it in, but hold on” to herself in the process (p. 294). The
concluding section, in which Cassie comes to this understanding, is especially
well written.
I’m looking forward to whatever else Deb Caletti writes next, on the basis
of the girl main characters she has created so far.

Love,
Your teacher

Nancie Atwell, 2007

Name Period

Finished Booktalk
Book Title Author Ranking
Abandoned Letter/Essay

Nancie Atwell, 2007

 Basic Questions for Self-Evaluating in Reading
• How many books did you finish this quarter?

• How many were Holidays, Just Rights, or Challenges?

• What genres are represented?

• Which book of the quarter was your favorite? Why—what did

the author do in crafting it?

• What are you favorite genres to read these days?

• Which poems of the quarter were your favorites? Why—what

did the poets do in crafting them?

• Who are your favorite authors these days? Why these writers?

• Who are your favorite poets?

• What was your favorite read-aloud?

• What progress did you make toward the reading goals we set at
the end of last quarter?

• What are your goals for yourself as a reader for the coming
quarter in terms of
o Your productivity and pace—the number of books read next
quarter or pages per night?

o Your work with genres and authors/

o Your written responses to books in your reading journal

letters?
Nancie Atwell, 2007
About the Book Lists
Over my twenty years of teaching reading in a workshop, the annual average for a class of seventh and
eighth graders is at least forty books. In the lower grades at our school, the Center for Teaching and
Learning, the numbers are similarly remarkable. The K-6 teachers and I make time every day for our
students to curl up with good books and engage in the single activity that consistently correlates with high
levels of performance on standardized tests of reading ability. And that is frequent, voluminous, self-
selected reading. A child sitting in a quiet room with a good book isn’t a flashy or, more significantly,
marketable teaching method. It just happens to be the only way anyone ever grew up to become a reader.

And that is the goal: for every child to become a skilled, passionate, habitual, critical, reader—as novelist
Robertson Davies put it, to learn how to make of reading “a personal art.” Along the way, CTL teachers
hope our students will become smarter, happier, more just, and more compassionate people because of the
worlds they experience within those hundreds of thousands of black lines of print.

We know that students need time to read, at school and at home, every day. We understand that when
particular children love their particular books, reading is more likely to happen during the time set aside for
it. And we have learned that the only sure-fire way to induce a love of books is to invite students to select
their own. So CTL teachers buy the best children’s literature, conduct booktalks and bookwalks, and help
students choose books, develop and refine their literary criteria, and carve out identities for themselves as
readers. We get that it’s essential for every child we teach to be able to say, “These are my favorite authors,
genres, books, and characters this year, and this is why.” Personal preference is the foundation, walls, and
ceiling in building a reader.

At CTL, starting in kindergarten and going straight through until the end of high school, free choice of
books is a child’s right, not a privilege granted by a kind teacher. Our students have shown us that
opportunities to consider, select, and reconsider books make reading feel sensible and attractive to children
right from the start—that they’ll read more books than we ever dreamed possible and more challenging
books than we ever dreamed to assign them.

We’ve also learned that students need access to a wide, up-to-date assortment of inviting titles. Instead of
investing in class sets of expensive basals or anthologies, CTL makes classroom libraries of individual titles
our budget priority. Teachers read a lot of the books we hope our students will, so we can make
knowledgeable recommendations, offer help when readers need it, and teach children one at a time about
books and reading in the daily, quiet conversations of our reading workshops.

And we understand that the only delivery system for reading comprehension is reading. When reading is
meaningful, understanding can’t be separated from decoding. Comprehension isn’t a set of sub-skills or
strategies children have to be taught to bring to bear after they’ve translated letters to sounds. When students
are reading stories that are interesting to them, books written at their independent reading levels,
comprehension—the making of meaning—is direct, and the kids understand.

Human beings are wired to understand. As reading theorist Frank Smith put it, “Children know how to
comprehend, provided they are in a situation that has the possibility of making sense to them” (1997).
Reading workshop is our best approximation of an instructional context that has the possibility of making
sense to young readers. A child sits in a quiet, book-filled space engrossed in a beloved, accessible book in
the company of classmates who are reading and loving books, too, and a teacher who knows about
literature, reading, and his or her students—as readers and as people.

This is not a dream world. Because CTL is a non-profit demonstration school—a place where public school
teachers come to learn about good teaching—we handpick a student body that represents a diverse range of
socioeconomic backgrounds and ability levels. We fundraise twelve months a year so we can set the tuition
rate as low as possible—most recently, $6,450 per year, with more than a third of families receiving
substantive tuition assistance. The point is to attract a mix of students in whom visiting teachers can
recognize their own.

And they do, because CTL students are regular kids. They suffer ADHD, depression, and identified learning
disabilities, including nonverbal learning disorders, visual processing difficulties, and dyslexia. Some kids
come from homes with packed bookshelves; some own only a few books of their own. Maine is a rural state
and a poor one, in the bottom third in terms of per capita income. Only 66% of jobs here pay a livable wage,
and CTL students’ parents work hard at all kinds of occupations: farmer, carpenter, sheetrocker, store clerk,
soldier, fisherman, gardener, postal worker, and housecleaner, as well as physician, minister, teacher,
executive, and small-business owner.

So we don’t think that how and what our students read can be explained away as an anomaly. This is not a
privileged population of students. This is what is possible for children as readers.

It’s also important to understand that a reading workshop is not S.S.R. It’s not a study hall, where we watch
the clock with one eye as we Drop Everything And Read. Teachers in a reading workshop are teaching
readers for a lifetime. We introduce new books and old favorites, tell about authors and genres, read aloud
authors and genres, talk with kids about their reading rituals and plans, and teach about elements of fiction,
how poems work, what efficient readers do—and don’t do—when they come across an unfamiliar word,
how punctuation gives voice to reading, when to speed up or slow down, who won this year’s Newbery
Award, how to keep useful reading records, what a sequel is, what readers can glean from a copyright page,
how to identify the narrative voice or tone of a novel and why it matters, how there are different purposes
for reading that affect a reader’s style and pace, how to identify a “beach book” or page turner, how to tell if
a book is too hard, too easy, or just right, and why the only way to become a strong, fluent reader is to read
often and a lot.

As classroom teachers, reading workshop is one of the simplest and hardest things we do. It’s also the most
worthwhile. Our students leave CTL as strong, literary, well-above-grade-level readers. But they also leave
smarter, about such a diversity of words, ideas, events, artifacts, people, and places that they can take their
teacher's breath away. Books bring the whole world to a tiny school in rural Maine. And then the readers
grow up, leave the school, and recognize the wide world they encounter out there because it is already
lodged in the “chambers of their imaginations” (Spufford, 2002).

Sydney Jourard wrote, “The vicarious experience of reading can shape our essence, change us, just as
firsthand experience can. Experience seems to be as transfusible as blood” (1971). For kids who know
reading as a personal art, every day is a transfusion. Every day they engage with literature that enables them
to know things, feel things, imagine things, hope for things, become people they never could have dreamed
without the transforming power of books, books, books.
In June, all the boys and girls at our school help us create master lists, organized by grade level and gender,
of the inviting, accessible books that they’ve loved best. These “Kids Recommend” lists contain the books
students name in response to this question: What 10 to 12 books do you love so much that you think they
might convince a _____-grade girl/boy who’s a lot like you—except that she/he doesn’t read much—that
books are great? The answers are available to our students and their parents over the summer, as well as
other teachers and the general public here at our school’s website.

Students update the lists annually, because the field of children’s literature changes so quickly. While a
handful of titles do maintain their popularity over the years—S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1968), the novel
that created the field of young adult literature, continues to speak to kids—most drop off and are replaced
over time.

I separated the lists of book titles that appear on the Kids Recommend page for grades 3-8 into girls’
choices and boys’ choices because, in general, their tastes in books aren’t the same, after the primary years.
At the middle-school level, the overlap in titles is only about twenty percent; in grades 3-4, it’s around
seventeen percent. Gender is much less of an issue in book choice at the K-2 level.

We hope that CTL's book lists will set a trend. Our ultimate goal is a whole network of websites of great
titles, nominated by K-12 kids who choose and read their own books in all kinds of school settings: their
favorite titles each year, as the go-to resource for selecting literature for classroom libraries in many
communities across America.

If you’re interested in learning about the specifics of how we teach reading in a workshop, I've written a
short, practical book for teachers and parents entitled The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled,
Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers (2007). You can order it from Amazon.com, Borders, Barnes and
Noble, or directly from the publisher at scholastic.com.

With all best wishes,

Nancie Atwell
Gr. 5-6 Boys
Aidinoff, Elsie The Garden
Almond, David Skelling
Anderson, M.T. Feed and The Game of Sunken Places
Avi Wolf Rider
Barry, Dave and Ridley Pearson Peter and the Starcatchers
Brennan, Herbie Faerie Wars and The Purple Emperor
Buckley, Michael The Sisters Grimm series: The Fairy Tale Detectives,
The Unusual Suspects, and The Problem Child
Beddor, Frank The Looking Glass Wars
Card, Orson Scott Ender's Game
Chima, Cinda Williams Warrior Heir
Colfer, Eoin The Artemis Fowl series and The Wish List
Collins, Suzanne The Underland Chronicles
Cooney, Caroline B. The Face on the Milk Carton trilogy
Cormier, Robert After the First Death and We All Fall Down
Croggon, Alison The Naming
Cummings, Priscilla The Red Kayak
Divakaruni, Chitra Conch Bearer
Draper, Sharon Copper Sun
Duprau, Jeanne City of Ember
Flanagan, John The Ranger's Apprentice trilogy
Funke, Cornelia Inkspell
Golden, Christopher Last Breath
Grimes, Nikki The Road to Paris
Haddix, Magaret Peterson Double Identity
Hautman, Pete Rash
Hiassen, Carl Flush and Hoot
Higson, Charlie Silverfin
Horowitz, Anthony The Alex Rider series: Stormbreaker, Point Blank,
Skeleton Key, etc.
Howe, James The Misfits and Totally Joe
Jaramillo, Ann La Linea
Kerr, P.B. Children of the Lamp
Klages, Ellen The Green Glass Sea
Klass, David Firestorm
Koertge, Ron Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
Korman, Gordon Born to Rock, Son of the Mob, and the On the Run series
Krakauer, Jon Into Thin Air
Lowry, Lois The Giver and The Silent Boy
Lupica, Mike Heat and Travel Team
MacHale, D.J. The Pendragon series: The Merchant of Death,
The Lost City of Faar, The Never War, and The Quillan Games
Marsden, John The Tomorrow, When the War Began series
McSwigan, Marie Snow Treasure
Meyer, L.A. Bloody Jack, Curse of the Blue Tattoo, and Under the Jolly Roger
Mezrich, Ben Bringing Down the House
Mikaelsen, Ben Tree Girl and Red Midnight
Morpurgo, Michael Private Peaceful
Mourlevat, Jean-Claude The Pull of the Ocean
Mowll, Joshua Operation Red Jericho
Myers, Walter Dean Autobiography of My Dead Brother, Fallen Angels,
Hoops, Monster, and Shooter
Nix, Garth The Keys to the Kingdomseries
Oppel, Kenneth Airborn and Skybreaker
Paolini, Christopher Eragon and Eldest
Patterson, James Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, Maximum Ride:
School's Out Forever, and Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme
Sports
Pattou, Edith East
Paulson, Gary The Game of Birds and Hatchet
Paver, Michelle Soul Eater and Wolf Brother
Pearson, Ridley and Dave Barry Peter and the Shadow Thieves
Peet, Mal Tamar
Pfeffer, Susan Life as We Knew It
Pierce, Tamora Wild Magic
Pullman, Phillip The Dark Materials trilogy
Ralston, Aron Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Richardson, E.E. Devil's Footsteps
Riordan, Rick The Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters and Titan's Curse
Sachar, Louis Holes and Small Steps
Sage, Angie Magyk, Flyte and Physik
Selznick, Brian The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Skelton, Matthew Endymion Spring
Sniegoski, Tom Sleeper Code
Sonnenblick, Jordan Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie and Notes from
the Midnight Driver
Spinelli, Jerry Crash
Stone, Jeff Monkey, Sneak, Tiger, and Snake
Stroud, Jonathan The Bartimaeus trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand,
The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers,
and The Return of the King
Trueman, Terry Stuck in Neutral and Cruise Control
Van Draanen, Wendelin Swear to Howdy
Vonnegut, Kurt Cat's Cradle and Welcome to the Monkey House
Wallace, Rich Shots on Goal
Williams, Maiya The Golden Hour
Yancey, Rick The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp
Yang, Gene American-Born Chinese
Gr. 7-8 Boys
Adams, Douglas The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
Alexie, Sherman Flight
Anderson, Laurie Speak
Anderson, M.T. Feed, Thirsty, and The Game of Sunken Places
Banks, Russell Rule of the Bone
Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights
Boyne, John The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Brooks, Kevin Candy
Card, Orson Scott Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide
Coburn, Jake Prep
Colfer, Eoin The Artemis Fowl series
Corder, Zizou Lionboy, Lionboy: The Chase, and Lionboy: The Truth
Cormier, Robert I Am the Cheese, The Chocolate War, The Rag and Bone Shop,
We All Fall Down, and other titles
Coy, John Crackback
Crichton, Michael Sphere
Crutcher, Chris Running Loose
Deuker, Carl Heart of a Champion and High Heat
Farmer, Nancy The House of the Scorpion and The Sea of Trolls
Flinn, Alex Breaking Point
Gaiman, Neil Neverwhere and Stardust
Galloway, Gregory As Simple as Snow
Gantos, Jack A Hole in My Life
Garland, Alex The Beach
Giles, Gail Playing in Traffic
Goldman, William The Princess Bride
Green, John Looking for Alaska
Grogan, J. Marley and Me
Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Hautman, Pete Godless, Invisible, and Rash
Hickham, Jr., Homer October Sky
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders
Klass, David Danger Zone, Dark Angel, and Home of the Braves
Koertge, Ron Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
Korman, Gordon Born to Rock, Jake, Reinvented, No More Dead Dogs, and
Son of the Mob
Krakauer, Jon Into Thin Air
Lubar, David Dunk, Hidden Talents, and Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Martel, Yann Life of Pi
Martinez, A. Lee Gil's All-Fright Diner
McCammon, Robert Boy's Life
Mezrich, Ben Bringing Down the House
Moehringer, J.R. The Tender Bar
Mosley, Walter 47
Myers, Walter Dean Autobiography of My Dead Brother, Fallen Angels, Monster,
and Shooter
Nakazawa, Kaji Barefoot Gen, The Day After, and Life After the Bomb
Nancy, Ted L. Letters from a Nut series
Nix, Garth Shade's Children
O'Brien, Tim If I Die in a Combat Zone
Paolini, Christopher Eragon and Eldest
Pfeffer, Susan Beth Life as We Knew It
Rawls, Wilson Where the Red Fern Grows
Runyon, Brent The Burn Journals
Shusterman, Neal The Shadow Club
Simmons, Michael Pool Boy
Sonneblick, Jordan Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie and Notes from the Midnight
Driver
Spiegelman, Art Maus I and Maus II
Strasser, Todd Give a Boy a Gun
Stroud, Jonathan Buried Fire and the Bartimaeus trilogy:
The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate
Swofford, Anthony Jarhead
Truman, Terry Cruise Control and Stuck in Neutral
Turtledove, Harry Guns of the South and other alternative histories
Vizzini, Ned Be More Chill and It's Kind of a Funny Story
Vonnegut, Jr., Kurt A Man Without a Country and Slaughterhouse-Five
Vrettos, Adrienne Maria Skin
Woolf, Tobias This Boy's Life
Wooding, Chris The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray and Poison
Weaver, Will Memory Boy
Zusak, Markus The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger
Gr. 5-6 Girls
Agell, Charlotte Welcome Home or Someplace Like It
Allende, Isabelle City of the Beasts
Baskin, Nora Raleigh Almost Home
Bauer, Joan Hope Was Here and Rules of the Road
Beddor, Frank Looking Glass Wars
Brashares, Ann The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants trilogy
Bryatt, Jen Pieces of Georgia
Buckley, Michael The Sisters Grimm series: The Fairy Tale Detectives,
The Unusual Suspects, and The Problem Child
Cabot, Meg Haunted and the Princess books: The Princess Diaries,
Princess in the Spotlight, Princess in Love, etc.
Carman, Patrick The Dark Hills Divide
Cooney, Caroline B. The Face on the Milk Carton Trilogy
Creech, Sharon Chasing Redbird
Cushman, Karen The Loud Silence of Francine Green
Dessen, Sarah Keeping the Moon, The Truth About Forever, and Just Listen
Draper, Sharon Copper Sun
Duprau, Jeanne City of Ember
Ellis, Deborah I Am a Taxi and the Breadwinner trilogy: Breadwinner,
Parvana's Journey, and Mud City
Flanagan, John The Ruins of Gorlan and the other Ranger’s Apprentice books
Friend, Natasha Perfect
Funke, Cornelia Inkheart, Inkspell, and The Thief Lord
Furlong, Monica The Wise Child trilogy: The Wise Child, Juniper,
and Coleman
Gardener, Sally I, Coriander
Grimes, Nikki The Road to Paris
Haddix, Margaret Peterson Among the Hidden and the others in this series;
A House on the Gulf
Han, Jenny Shug
Hannigan, Katherine Ida B.
Hautman, Pete Rash
Hesse, Herman Out of the Dust
Hiassen, Carl Flush and Hoot
Hobbs, Will Jackie's Wild Seattle
Hoffman, Alice Aquamarine
Horowitz, Anthony Ark Angel, Raven's Gate, South by Southeast,
Stormbreaker, and Three of Diamonds
Howe, James The Misfits and Totally Joe
Jones, Traci L. Standing Against the Wind
Kessler, Liz The Tail of Emily Windsnap
Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie Gifts from the Sea
Klages, Ellen The Green Glass Sea
Koertge, Ron Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
Korman, Gordon Son of the Mob and Born to Rock
Lord, Cynthia Rules
Lowry, Lois The Giver
Martin, Ann The Doll People
Mass, Wendy Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life and A Mango
Shaped Space
McKinty, Adrian The Lighthouse Land
Meyer, L.A. Bloody Jack, The Curse of the Blue Tattoo, In the Belly
of the Bloodhound, and Under the Jolly Roger
Mikaelsen, Ben Red Midnight and Tree Girl
Myracle, Lauren Eleven, TTFN, and TTYL
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds Jade Green
O'Dell, Scott Island of the Blue Dolphins
Oppel, Kenneth Airborn and Skybreaker
Patron, Susan The Higher Power of Lucky
Pattou, Edith East
Patterson, James Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment and Maximum Ride:
School's Out Forever
Paver, Michelle Soul Eater, Spirit Walker and Wolf Brother
Pearson, Ridley The Kingdom Keepers
Philbrick, Rodman The Young Man and the Sea
Pierce, Tamora Alanna: The First Adventure and Wild Magic
Porter, Pamela The Crazy Man
Pullman, Phillip His Dark Materials trilogy
Riordan, Rick The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, etc.
Ryan, Pam Munoz Becoming Naomi León and Esperanza Rising
Rylant, Cynthia A Fine White Dust and The Islander
Sage, Angie Flyt and Magyk
Selznick, Brian The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Shaw, Susan The Boy from the Basement
Sleator, William The Boy Who Couldn't Die
Spinelli, Jerry Crash
Stewart, Trenton Lee The Mysterious Benedict Society
Stroud, Jonathan Buried Fire and the Bartimaeus trilogy:
The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate
Vail, Rachel Ever After
Van Draanen, Wendelin Flipped and Swear to Howdy
Watkins, Yoko Kawashima So Far from the Bamboo Grove
Yancey, Rick The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp
Yolen, Jane The Devil's Arithmetic
Zevin, Gabrielle Elsewhere
Gr. 7-8 Girls
Anderson, Laurie Halse Prom and Speak
Anderson, M.T. Feed, The Game of Sunken Places and Thirsty
Anonymous Go Ask Alice
Arnold, Tedd Rat Life
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia Hawksong and anything else
Austen, Jane Emma and Pride and Prejudice
Bank, Melissa The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Banks, Russell Rule of the Bone
Beale, Fleur I Am Not Esther
Berg, Elizabeth Durable Goods and Joy School
Blackman, Malorie Naughts and Crosses
Block, Francesca Lia Echo
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brooks, Kevin Candy
Buckhanon, Kalisha Upstate
Bunting, Eve Jumping the Nail
Burgess, Melvin Smack
Cabot, Meg All-American Girl and Avalon High
Chbosky, Stephen The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Cisneros, Sandra The House on Mango Street
Cormier, Robert The Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese
Deaver, Julie Reece The Night I Disappeared and Say Goodnight, Gracie
Dessen, Sarah Dreamland, Just Listen, Keeping the Moon, Someone Like You,
This Lullaby and The Truth about Forever
Farmer, Nancy The House of the Scorpion
Flinn, Alex Breathing Underwater and Diva
Frederick, Mariah Head Games
Frost, Helen Keesha's House
Galloway, Gregory As Simple as Snow
Garden, Nancy The Year They Burned the Books
Golden, Arthur Memoirs of a Geisha
Goldschmidt, Judy The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez
Green, John Looking for Alaska
Haig, Matt The Dead Father's Club
Harris, Joanne Chocolat
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders and That Was Then, This Is Now
Hoffman, Alice At Risk and Practical Magic
Hughes, Mark I Am the Wallpaper
Hurwin, Davida Wills A Time for Dancing
Johnson, Angela The First Part Last
Johnson, LouAnne Dangerous Minds
Kingsolver, Barbara The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible
Klass, David Dark Angel
Koertge, Ron Boy Girl Boy
Korman, Gordon Jake, Reinvented and Son of the Mob
Koss, Amy Goldman The Cheat and The Girls
Lasky, Kathryn Memoirs of a Bookbat
Letts, Billie Where the Heart Is
Lord, Cynthia Rules
Marchetta, Melina Saving Francesca
McCammon, Robert Boy's Life
McCormick, Patricia Sold
McNeal, Laura and Tom Crooked, Crushed, and Zipped
Meyer, Stephanie New Moon and Twilight
Moriarty, Jaclyn Feeling Sorry for Celia, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, and The
Year of Secret Assignments
Myers, Walter Dean Fallen Angels and Monster
Myracle, Lauren L8r, G8r and Twelve
Miller, Mary Beth Aimee
Moore, Lorrie Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
Nix, Garth Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen
Nolan, Han If I Should Die Before I Wake and A Summer of Kings
Oates, Joyce Carol After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and
Flew Away, and Freaky Green Eyes
Osa, Nancy Cuba 15
Ostow, Micol Westminster Abby
Paolini, Christopher Eragon and Eldest
Pascal, Francine The Ruling Class
Paysen, Susanna Girl, Interrupted
Pearson, Mary A Room on Lorelei Street
Pennbaker, Ruth Don't Think Twice
Pfeffer, Susan Beth Life As We Knew It
Pierce, Tamora First Test, Page, Squire, and Lady Knight
Plum-Ucci, Carol What Happened to Lani Garver?
Reinhart, Dana A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life
Rennison, Louise Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers and others
Rinaldi, Ann In My Father's House and others
Rosoff, Meg How I Live Now
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Satrapi, Marjane Persepolis and Persepolis 2
Scott, Elizabeth Bloom
Showalter, Gena Oh My Goth
Shusterman, Neal The Shadow Club
Simpson, Mona Anywhere But Here
Sittenfeld, Curtis Prep
Smith, Kirsten The Geography of Girlhood
Sones, Sonya One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies,
Stop Pretending, What My Mother Doesn't Know, and anything else
Strasser, Todd Can't Get There from Here and Give a Boy a Gun
Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club

Toews, Miriam A Complicated Kindness

Vail, Rachel Ever After
Vrettos, A.M. Skin
Walls, Jeanette The Glass Castle
Wittlinger, Ellen Blind Faith, The Long Night of Leo and Bree, Razzle,
Sandpiper, and Zig Zag
Wolff, Tobias This Boy's Life
Wooding, Chris The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray and Poison
Zusak, Markus The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger
Pleasure Reading for High School Girls
Allende, Isabel The House of the Spirits
Atkinson, Kate Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Atwood, Margaret Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, Cat's Eye,
The Handmaid's Tale, Moral Disorder, and Surfacing
Austen, Jane Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park
Bank, Melissa The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot
Banks, Russell The Rule of the Bone and The Sweet Hereafter
Barker, Pat Regeneration
Beattie, Ann Chilly Scenes of Winter
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Byatt, A.S. Possession
Chabon, Michael Wonder Boys
Chang, Jung Wild Swans
Cheever, John The Wapshot Chronicles
Colwin, Laurie Happy All the Time, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss
Doctorow, E.L. The Book of Daniel and Ragtime
Dorris, Michael A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
DuMaurier, Daphne Rebecca
Edwards, Kim The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Eggers, Dave A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Eugenides, Jeffrey Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides
Fitch, Janet White Oleander
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night
Forster, E.M. Howard's End and A Room with a View
Fowler, Karen The Jane Austen Book Club
Fowles, John The French Lieutenant's Woman
Franzen, Jonathan The Corrections
Frazier, Charles Cold Mountain
Freudenberger, Neil Lucky Girls
Galloway, Gregory As Simple As Snow
Gilbert, Elizabeth Stern Men
Green, Hannah I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Guest, Judith Ordinary People
Haig, Matt The Dead Fathers Club
Harris, Jane The Observations
Harris, Joanne Chocolat
Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Haruf, Ken Plainsong
Hoffman, Alice At Risk
Hornby, Nick About a Boy and High Fidelity
Irving, John Ciderhouse Rules, The Hotel New Hampshire,
A Prayer for Owen Meany, and The World According to Garp
Ishiguro, Kazuo Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day
Johnson, Diane Le Divorce
Johnson, Joyce Minor Characters
Karr, Mary Cherry and Liar's Club
Kaysen, Susanna Girl, Interrupted
Kidd, Sue Monk The Secret Life of Bees
Kingsolver, Barbara Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees,
and The Poisonwood Bible
Krauss, Nichole The History of Love
Lamott, Anne Blue Shoe
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Letts, Billie Where the Heart Is
Levy, Andrea A Small Island
McCarthy, Mary A Charmed Life
McEwan, Ian Atonement
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia Love in the Time of Cholera
and One Hundred Years of Solitude
Martin, Steve Shopgirl
Messud, Claire The Emperor's Children
Minot, Susan Evening and Monkeys
Moody, Rick The Ice Storm
Moore, Lorrie Birds of America and Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
Morrison, Toni Beloved and The Bluest Eye
Munro, Alice Dance of the Happy Shades, Friend of My Youth,
Lives of Girls and Women, The Love of a Good Woman, Runaway,
and Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You
Nabukov, Vladimir Lolita and Pale Fire
Nafisi, Azar Reading Lolita in Tehran
Oates, Joyce Carol We Were the Mulvaneys
O'Brien, Tim The Things They Carried
Ondaatje, Michael The English Patient
Patchett, Anne Bel Canto and Truth and Beauty
Perotta, Tom Election
Pessl, Marisha Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar
Proulx, E. Annie The Shipping News
Robinson, Marilyn Gilead and Housekeeping
Reichl, Ruth Tender at the Bone
Roth, Philip Good-bye Columbus and The Human Stain
Roy, Arundhati The God of Small Things
Russo, Richard Empire Falls
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Sebold, Alice Lovely Bones
Sedaris, David Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim,
Me Talk Pretty Some Day, and Naked
Shields, Carol Unless
Simpson, Mona Anywhere But Here
Sittenfeld, Curtis Prep
Smiley, Jane The Thousand Acres
Smith, Ali The Accidental
Smith, Alison Name All the Animals
Smith, Zadie On Beauty and White Teeth
Spencer, Scott Waking the Dead
Stewart, Leah The Myth of You and Me
Stegner, Wallace Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety
Strout, Elizabeth Amy and Isabelle
Tan, Amy The Joy Luck Club
Tartt, Donna The Secret History
Toews, Miriam A Complicated Kindness
Trillin, Calvin About Alice, Remembering Denny and others
Updike, John The Centaur, Couples, The Witches of Eastwick, and
the Rabbit novels
Wall, Jeanette The Glass Castle
Waugh, Evelyn Brideshead Revisited
Wharton, Edith House of Mirth
Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse
Pleasure Reading for High School Guys
Adams, Douglas The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
Alexie, Sherman Flight
Atwood, Margaret A Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Russell Rule of the Bone
Barker, Pat Regeneration
Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights
Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451
Bryson, Bill A Short History of Nearly Everything, The Thunderbolt Kid, and
A Walk in the Woods
Bowden, Mark Blackhawk Down
Burgess, Anthony A Clockwork Orange
Carroll, Jim The Basketball Diaries
Chabon, Michael Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish
Policeman's Union
Cheever, John The Wapshot Chronicles
Dick, Phillip Man in the High Castle
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime and The March
Eggers, Dave A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and What Is
the What
Fleming, Keith The Boy with a Thorn in His Side
Foer, Jonathan Safran Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Frazier, Charles Cold Mountain
Gaiman, Neil American Gods and Anansi Boys
Galloway, Gregory As Simple as Snow
Garland, Alex The Beach
Gore, Al An Inconvenient Truth
Guest, Judith Ordinary People
Guterson, David Snow Falling on Cedars
Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Haig, Matt The Dead Fathers Club
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Herbert, Frank Dune
Hillenbrand, Laura Seabiscuit
Hornby, Nick High Fidelity
Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Irving, John The Ciderhouse Rules, Hotel New Hampshire,
A Prayer for Owen Meany, and The World According to Garp
Ishiguro, Kazuo Never Let Me Go
Joravsky, Ben Hoop Dreams
Kesey, Ken One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Kovic, Ron Born on the Fourth of July
Krakauer, John Into Thin Air
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Lehane, Dennis Mystic River
Maclean, Norman Young Men and Fire
McCarthy, Cormac The Crossing and The Road
McEwan, Ian Atonement and Saturday
Mailer, Norman The Naked and the Dead
Martel, Yann Life of Pi
Martinez, A. Lee Gil's All-Fright Diner
Mezrich, Ben Bringing Down the House
Moehringer, J.R. Tender Bar
Mosley, Walter 47
O'Brien, Patrick The Master and Commander series
O'Brien, Tim The Things They Carried
Rice, Anne Interview with the Vampire
Robbins, Tom Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Roth, Phillip Good-bye, Columbus and The Human Stain
Russo, Richard Empire Falls
Sacco, Joe Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde
Sagan, Carl Contact
Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye
Sedaris, David Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Naked,
and Me Talk Pretty One Day
Sharra, Michael The Killer Angels
Shepard, Jim Project X
Spiegelman, Art Maus I and Maus II
Swofford, Anthony Jarhead
Tartt, Donna The Secret History
Trumbo, Dalton Johnny Got His Gun
Updike, John The Centaur, Couples, and the Rabbit trilogy
Vizzini, Ned Be More Chill and It's Kind of a Funny Story
Vonnegut, Kurt Welcome to the Monkeyhouse and Slaughterhouse-Five
Walls, Jeanette The Glass Castle
Wiesel, Elie Night
Wolff, Tobias In Pharaoh's Army, Old School, and This Boy's Life
Wright, Richard The Invisible Man
Zusak, Markus The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger
Zinn, Howard A People's History of the United States