What to read for book club?!?

For book clubs, we encourage you to read books that will help prepare you to be a high school reader--that means trying to read just above your level, which may be high level young adult fiction or perhaps an adult book. Or, maybe you want to do an author study where you read two books by the same person or a few books about the same topic (for example, The Crossover, The Final Four, and Boy21). We have lots of books in our library or you can peruse the lists below and try to find other titles at the public library, school library, or bookstore.

Remember, it is so important to be reading not just in school, but for two hours at home over the course of the week. Now is the time to build stamina for the reading you will be doing in high school.

If you have other recommendations or links to great lists, please list in the comments!

Young Adult:

 16 of the Most Exciting Books in 2016 by Read Brightly

19 of the Best YA books of 2016 by Buzzfeed

Check out lists Ms. Warren has put together in the past HERE.

Adult Level: 

Realistic Fiction: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth, The History of Love, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

Historical Fiction: All the Light We Cannot See, The Secret Life of Bees, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Sci-Fi/Dystopian: 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm


Mystery: The Lovely Bones, Reconstructing Amelia

Adult Level Books for Teens by School Library Journal (this is a blog that features multiple books around a particular topic for each post--a great resource!)

More Ideas for Your Next Book!

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More reading recommendations...

Consider this: Reading is LIFE WORK, not homework.

Also: Submit a post for McNally Jackson's young adult tumblr

Places to find more book recommendations:

• School Library Journal's Best Adult Books for Teens

• Parade Magazine: YA Authors Recommend favorite new YA novels

• Bookriot: If you like Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, try these next

• NPR's Must Reads for 9-14 year olds: what have you read? Do you agree?

• The Nerdy Book Club's 2013 finalists (these teachers are my kindred spirits & I highly recommend anything they recommend!

• New York Times Best Young Adult of 2013

• You can find other lists to explore here.  

Want to get lost in a book? Need reading recommendations?

I started making this list in June and then (sadly) forgot to post it.  However, it is still just as valuable as the December break approaches--and for building excitement and energy around a reading life:

If you are interesting, my opinion about break reading & summer reading, explained best by The Atlantic (the short version: GET LOST IN BOOKS YOU WANT TO READ!)

Mashable's list of 23 Books for Your Perfect Young Adult Summer Reading List

Book Riot's Feminist Young Adult Literature (some with mature content)

The Washington Post's List of 10 new Coming of Age books

Not excited about reading in general? This list promises that the books mentioned fly off the shelves!

Love novels in verse? Check out this list!

All kinds of award winners

A great flow-chart from Book Riot for all genres of YA that helps answer "what do I read next?"

The Nerdy Book Club blog has some amazing lists and resources, which is where I pulled my latest reads, Reality Boy and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock.

Happy reading!