Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 5 — Back to School Stories
As teens and preteens prepare to go back to school, recommend a book that features the settings and situations of school. Adolescent readers will have plenty to relate to, and these books can spark valuable conversations about their attitudes toward school, as well as important school-based social issues such as peer pressure, bullying, and the history of public school integration.

Featured Title: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (2000, Knopf)

The comfortable roles and routines of Mica High School are turned upside down by the appearance of a sundress-wearing, ukelele-strumming, pet rat-carrying transfer student named Stargirl. Adolescent readers will join the narrator, Leo, in considering important questions about peer pressure, fitting in, and nonconformity in this extremely well-written and engaging book, an ALA 2001 Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults award winner.

Additional Recommendations

• Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande (2007, Knopf)
• The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga (2006, Houghton Mifflin)
• My Mother, The Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow (2007, Harperteen)
• Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals original publication: (1994, Washington Square Press) and abridged version for younger readers: (1995, Simon Pulse)

Published August 1, 2008

About the Host

Scott Filkins, who firmly believes that reading a good book is one of life’s great joys, worked with a diverse group of teens for nine years as a high school English teacher.

Committed to finding the right books for the readers in his classes, Scott worked with his school librarian to provide engaging reading material for all his students and would frequently buy popular books for independent reading time in his classroom. He started an after school book club called Readers and Leaders to encourage reading outside the classroom. Scott also volunteers for an organization that provides free books to prisoners in the state of Illinois.