Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 10 — Celebrating the NCTE African American Read-In

Make plans to join thousands of other readers in a celebration of African American literacy during the month of February!  Tune in for recommendations of both old and new titles by distinguished African American authors who write for teens.  Featured books range from historical novels to contemporary explorations of African American life in both urban and suburban settings.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of titles recommended in the podcast (as well as these additional recommendations) to take to the library or book seller.

Recommendations in this episode include

• Copper Sun by Sharon Draper (Atheneum, 2007)
• Day of Tears by Julius Lester (Hyperion, 2005)
• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic, 2007)
• Guardian by Julius Lester (Amistad, 2008)
• Street Love by Walter Dean Myers (Amistad, 2006)
• Game by Walter Dean Myers (HarperTeen, 2008)
• When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright (Simon & Schuster, 2008)
• After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 2008)
  

• Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis (Wendy Lamb Books, 2004)
• The First Part Last by Angela Johnson (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
• The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake (Hyperion, 1999)
• Bang! by Sharon Flake (Hyperion, 2005)
• If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 1998)
• Hush by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 2002)
• Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 2003)
• Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 2009)
  

Published December 22, 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.