What My Students Are Reading

For the past three years, I’ve been teaching sixth grade reading and one of my favorite parts of my job is watching my students’ eyes light up when they first enter my classroom and see bookshelves full of novels that were off-limits in elementary school.They're tweens on a mission! Some are looking for adventure, others mystery or romance, but all of them want to devour books for Young Adults--no kids allowed!

What are their favorites?

Well, there are a few that make the rounds every year almost guaranteed, regardless of new releases. The girls continue to flock to Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, even though it’s been out for a while. They’ve heard about it, and maybe seen the movies, but they want to know about vampires and werewolves first-hand. Reluctant readers go crazy over A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer, because once one student shares a few details about what happened to Pelzer as a child, kids want to find out what other horrific things his mother did to him and how he survived, even if they wouldn’t normally pick up a book. The Percy Jackson Series, by Rick Riordan, is a hit with both girls and guys, though they don’t care for the movies much. Another oldie, but goodie, is The Face on the Milk Carton Series, by Caroline B. Cooney. The idea of finding out your parents aren’t really your parents is hard for middle school students to resist. They also continue to enjoy A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket and The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling, however, is old news since they can read it in elementary school.

Some of the newer YA hits with both guys and girls include The Divergent Series, by Veronica Roth (especially with the movie coming out soon), The Legend Series, by Marie Lu, The Unwanteds Series, by Lisa McMann and The Warriors Series, by Erin Hunter. Lots of my students are reading The Hunger Games Series, by Suzanne Collins, since the Catching Fire movie just came out, but also because they find dystopian societies fascinating. Girls are reading The Matched Series, by Allie Condie, The Beautiful Creatures Series, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, The Selection Series, by Kiera Cass, and anything by Sarah Dessen. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, is also popular even though it’s not available in our school library since it’s rated Teen Mature (yes, my classroom library follows the same rules as the school as far as ratings go).

The list could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at that for this posting. Please feel free to add comments about your favorite YA novels below!