Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 18 — New and Noteworthy Books for Teens

As another school year begins, there’s another set of great new books to share with teen readers. Tune in to hear book talks on some of the best titles published in 2009—titles that will keep teens reading once summer is over.

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

• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, September 2009)
  
• The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd (Holiday House, February 2009)
  
• Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan (Alfred A. Knopf, August 2009)
  
• Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick (Balzer + Bray, September 2009)
  
• Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr (Little, Brown and Company, October 2009)
  
• Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork (Arthur A. Levine, March 2009)
  
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman (Dutton, April 2009)
  
• King of the Screwups by K. L. Going (Harcourt, April 2009)

Other highly recommended new titles

• Angry Management by Chris Crutcher (Greenwillow, June 2009)
  
• North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley (Little, Brown and Company, February 2009)
  
• Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine (HarperTeen, March 2009)
  
• Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles (Candlewick, August 2009)
  
• Dopesick by Walter Dean Myers (Amistad, February 2009)
  
• Everything Is Fine by Ann Dee Ellis (Little, Brown, March 2009)

Published August 14, 2009

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.