Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 8 — Books Worth Owning

With so many books being published for teens, how do readers go about deciding which ones are good enough to own?  Hearing about the distinctive qualities of outstanding young adult literature can help readers to make informed choices.  In this episode, you’ll hear about those qualities along with a wide range of great new titles including adventure books, historical fiction, coming of age books, and story collections.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.

Recommendations in this episode include

• Impossible by Nancy Werlin (Dial, 2008)
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson (Henry Holt, 2008)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, 2008)
• The Compound by S. A. Bodeen (Feiwel & Friends, 2008)
• Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena (Delacorte, 2008)
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (Hyperion, 2008)
• Laika by Nick Abadzis (First Second, 2007)
• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster, 2008)
• Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? edited by Marissa Walsh (Clarion, 2008)
• Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine, 2009)
• Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (Simon Pulse, 2008)
  

Published October 29, 2008

About the Host

Jennifer Buehler taught English for ten years before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education. As a high school teacher, she developed an 800-book classroom library designed to engage and inspire her ninth grade students as readers. Watching students select reading materials led Jennifer to expand her own reading accordingly, allowing her to match books successfully with teens’ wide-ranging tastes and interests.

As a teacher consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, Jennifer regularly led workshops on young adult literature for parents, area teachers, and students in university methods classes. Now Assistant Professor of English Education at Saint Louis University, Jennifer teaches classes on English methods and young adult literature. She is an active member of NCTE's Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), and she served on ALAN’s first Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee.