Websites That Will Help You Find a Good Book to Read

Not all books are meant for all kids. Take into account the subject matter and the student's maturity level as well as their reading ability. Many students read at an adult level, but that doesn't mean they're ready for adult literature. Many of the novels on these lists may contain situations or subject matter that involve sexuality, violence, profanity, or the questioning of religious or "traditional" beliefs. Students MUST have WRITTEN PARENTAL APPROVAL before they choose any book used in any of our class projects.

Parents please note, we have not read all these books and we may not be aware of any potentially offensive material. Many of the lists are divided into categories... if you can't read the book first, look at the category from which it was selected... there are many books that can be quite graphic, even classics. The bottom line is we can't monitor the content of the hundreds of novels we see every year, we ask that you be responsible for knowing what your child is reading.

Books Recommended by Experts

The Children's Literature Web Guide, one of the most highly respected children's literature web sites, offers Internet resources about literature for children and young adults. It also is rich with award winners, bestsellers, and searchable resources that link books to teaching ideas.
www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: A children's literature specialist shares her expertise by providing reviews of books for children and adolescents and offering insightful teaching ideas and suggestions.
www.carolhurst.com/index.html

Kay Vandergrift's Young Adult Literature Page, written by a specialist with a feminist bent, offers a unique perspective on teaching young adult literature. It includes a collection of articles and choice of 100 best books for children's and YA literature.
www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/YoungAdult/index.html

Web Watch—Focus on Young Adult Literature provides a portal to the top young adult literature selection pages on the Web.
www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=yalitww.html

ISLMC—Children's Literature & Language Arts Resources provides online review sources, book reviews (by genre) by children and young adults, and a section on bibliotherapy.
falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/childlit.htm

Farriosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature, created by a children's librarian, focuses on literary information, authors, and illustrators. Fairrosa includes reviews of young adult books, searchable by author.
hwww.fairrosa.info/

The Horn Book Guide Online contains an extensive searchable database of reviews by author, illustrator, title, subject, and bibliographic data, as well as the ratings assigned in the original Horn Book reviews.
www.hornbookguide.com/

Nancy Keane's Children's Literature Web Page offers an extensive list of recommended literature sites and includes book reviews by children.
www.nancykeane.com/

ALAN, the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English, archives their magazine articles on the teaching of young adult literature.
scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/

Booklists for Teens A Great Resource with many lists... all categorized with synopsisspringfieldlibrary.org/reading/teenbooks.html

ATN Book Lists

Teen Booklists (Reading Rants! ... Books and Movies For Teens. Books Based on Song Lyrics. Books Depicting Characters Reading ...nancykeane.com/rl