One year ago, a group of dedicated middle school and high school ELA teachers got together to start a blog to share our passions about teaching reading and writing! It has been an amazing year of posts about engaging readers, teaching poetry, readers workshop, writing ideas and so much more! We are so grateful you’ve come along on this journey with us!
As we approach the middle of the school year, it is the perfect time to take stock your classroom library. When is the last time you’ve changed the display books? Updated your book review bulletin board? Added a new title to the shelf? Keeping your library looking fresh will keep students coming back to check out new books.
We’ve put together a list of some of our favorite book recommendations for students. These are books we’ve shared with our students and would be a perfect addition to your classroom library!
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Recommended by Carolyn from Middle School Café
Fairytale retellings are a great way to engage reluctant readers because they already know part of the story. While Alice in Wonderland is not a Fairytale, it is a popular story your students will know. In Heartless, we learn the backstory of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland. Marissa Meyers is known for her exploration of the dark side of characters we love and this book doesn’t disappoint.
Before turning into the viscous, throat cutting queen, Catherine as a sweet baker looking for her handsome prince.
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Recommended by Samantha from @englishwithmsk
This novel was a phenomenal read and listen. I have gifted it to multiple people since finishing it and cannot wait to add it to my classroom. It is a mix of mystery, romance, and coming of age, plus the perspective of a young Native American woman today. I enjoyed reading about the Ojibwe community and it encouraged me to learn more when I was done with the novel. Plus, there is a bit of something for everyone that picks it up!
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Recommended by Jennifer from @mrsjmberry
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is a story about facing your fears, accepting your fate, and learning to live when life itself seems too dark to let you carry on. While the story itself is quite dark, the characters are relatable and powerful.
Fresh Ink: An Anthology Edited by Lamar Giles
Recommended by Lesa from Smith Teaches 9to12
A collection of 13 stories that make clear that representation matters! Featuring stories that play with perspective and genre by authors such as Jason Reynolds and Nicola Yoon. The stories are funny, sweet, and accessible that also offer opportunities for character and genre studies (and more). Have it as a book in class for students to read anytime or use the stories to craft some stellar lessons.
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee
Recommended by Samantha from Samantha in Secondary
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee. This is the story of fourteen teens from Japantown, San Francisco as they are forced from their homes into internment camps during World War II. This breathtaking tale boasts beautiful prose, heart pounding action, memorable characters, and an inside look at this incredibly important period in history. Often overlooked, this novel explores the impact of internment on Japanese culture during this time period and after. Lovers of historical fiction will devour this novel easily and will never forget it.
Restart by Gordon Korman
Recommended by Jen from @booksbabblesbows
This is a story of an eighth grader named Chase who is a star football player and the most popular kid at school. He falls off his roof resulting in a concussion. He has no memories of his life. This causes him to reevaluate his priorities, and figure out who he wants to be. He has lost his memory and has a chance to change his life. This book is told from the perspective of multiple characters. Every student that has read it has loved it!
The Secret Path by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire
Recommended by Katie from Mochas and Markbooks
This graphic novel tells the story of twelve year old Chanie Wenjack, who died fifty years ago, running away from Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School. The story is accompanied by an animated film adaptation of the graphic novel with ten chapters including original songs created for this multimedia project. The film can be found on YouTube and helps to create a fully immersive reading experience.
Chanie’s experience is just one of many heartbreaking stories to come out of the residential school system, and it’s important that we continue to tell and honour these stories.
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Recommended by Melissa from Straight out of Class
Esperanza Rising is a powerful and inspiring story of a young girl who enjoyed a privileged life as the daughter of a wealthy landowner in Mexico. Her world is forever changed following the unexpected death of her father, and she and her mother are forced to leave her home and start over as farm workers in California during the Great Depression. The novel lends itself to rich discussion on topics like sacrifice, choice, pride, prejudice, kindness, and love. Filled with emotion, the story draws in students, who easily empathize with the main character as she navigates her new life and the challenges she must overcome.
We’d love to know what books you love to share with your students. Hop over to our Instagram page and leave a comment on today’s post!
