Monday, January 18, 2010

Thank you for playing...

And now the first set of titles to be cut based on circumstances and numbers alone.

Becoming Billie Holiday by Carol Boston Weatherford- This beautiful book of poems that tell of the early years of Lady Day, perhaps the greatest jazz singer of all time, will not be out in paperback soon enough for summer reading. Maybe next year!

The Big Necessity by Rose George - Apparently the lure of reading about sanitation was not enough to get students over the fact that I couldn't help but refer to this funny and informative book as "the poo book". Still an interesting read!

City of Thieves by David Benioff - I love this book and students liked the sound of it. However it was far more violent than I remembered. Or as Anna Langstaff at the Beverly Public Library put it, "Do you want to get fired?" Heh...

Estrella's Quinceanera by Malin Alegria - This one may be my fault - I just didn't know how to book talk it. It is a good book and worth reading, but it just didn't get the votes.

Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve - Stories of teenagers interest in the exploits of King Arthur are greatly exaggerated, even with the addition of awesome Monty Python impressions. Or perhaps because of the Monty Python impressions.

How To Live On Mars by Robert Zubin - It got to the point where I would skip over this slide and say - "This just didn't do it for me." - when I was running over. Bad librarian, bad...

No Choirboy: Murder, Violence and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin - This is a fantastic books and the kids were very interested in reading it, but it won't be in paperback in time. This one and 13 Reasons Why are making me mad! Paperback them, already. publishers!

We'll Always Have Paris by Ray Bradbury - Yes, it's Ray Bradbury and he can write like nobody's business, but the idea behind having a short story collection on the list is that kids who for whatever reason need differentiated amounts of reading can just read a few of the stories. And these stories were not at a reading level where that really would have been an option. Other than that, having short stories is kind of a pain. Also, the cover was crap.

So now we are down to 35 titles. We will be cutting between 10 and 15 more.

I can't tell you all the books that will be on, but here are the top 10 vote-getters as chosen by the BHS students currently studying for their English exam!
  1. Unwind by Neal Schusterman
  2. Sarah's Key by Tatiana deRosnay
  3. Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson
  4. Impossible by Nancy Werlin
  5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  6. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
  7. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
  8. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
  9. How To Build a House by Dana Reinhart
  10. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Of the daily doubles, Unwind by Neal Schusterman handily beat The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson and Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithsonspanked Joker One by Donovan Campbell. But The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han only beat How to Build a House by Dana Reinhart by a mere 7 votes, so they might both be on the list. We shall see...

The Big List!

Here is the list of all the books that were in the running for summer reading books this year. I book talked them to the students taking English fall semester and their votes are in. Stay tuned to see what the results are!

Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford
Big Necessity by Rose George
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks byE. Lockhart
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Estrella’s Quinceanera by Malin Alegria
Full Burn by Kevin Conley
Geekspeak by Graham Tattersall
Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson
Girl Overboard by Justone Chen Hedley
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Heaven to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace
Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve
Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
How to Build a House by Dana Reinhart
How to Live on Mars by Robert Zubin
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
Joker One by Donovan Campbell
King of the Screwups by KL Going
Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp
Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
Nation by Terry Pratchett
No Choirboy by Susan Kulkin
Panic in Level 4 by Richard Preston
Paper Towns by John Green
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana DeRosnay
Scratch Beginnings by Adam W. Shepherd
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci
Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Summoning by Kelly Armstrong
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
We’ll Always Have Paris by Ray Bradbury
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson