Young Adult

Your middle schoolers will love it because it has illustrations; you’ll love its profiles of 50 women who have had a significant impact on STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math).

Wow! If you’re an adult who does not check out young adult books, you would have missed out on this gem. What an amazing story of courage and sacrifice! This book belongs in every classroom library.

Great book about elite middle school runners trying to make the Junior Olympics from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds.

An Albert Einstein lookalike, Benny Wasserman makes you feel like a long-lost friend. Met him at a Chicken Soup for the Soul authors banquet and insisted on getting a copy of his book about all of our Presidents. Teens need to see books about famous people before they were famous, as there are plenty of gems in this easy read.

What a wonderful book with quirky characters. Your students will breeze through this set of tales from a small island town in Maine. A great read aloud for all ages, as the book reminds me a lot of Tom Bodett’s End of the Road. Glin Dibley’s illustrations are an added treat, the way Quentin Blake’s drawings add to Roald Dahl’s books.

I saw a great little Disney movie based on this book when I was a kid, and I actually sought after the book (a major deal at that time in my life). The boy who would be king learns courage out of necessity, and this is a wonderful legend.

Isn’t it great that the longest book I have recommended so far is a Newbery Children’s Book Award winner?  I read this book in Mr. Hobbs’s seventh-grade reading class, and I loved it.  I don’t remember why (I think it is about an island filled with the world’s greatest scientists, athletes, etc. – so that’s where Elvis went!).  I noticed it was on sale at Amazon.com for 28 cents.  Sally Struthers moment – for the price of a sip of coffee at Starbuck’s, you could read this delightful tale.

This is one of my favorite books of all time.  Please tell me how much you enjoy the adventures of Phileas Fogg and Passepartout, as I am writing my own travel memoirs about traveling around the world in 80 days and five hours.  If I only owned one book, it would be this Jules Verne classic.  Happy ending, wonderful journey.

When you talk about literature at cocktail parties, you sound pretty smart.  Here’s a two-for-one:  important literature by important author…AND IT’S SHORT.

Here is sci-fi at its best by a wonderful Los Angeles author.  Essential reading for those of us who consider books vital to society.

Before he started sleeping with his step-children, Woody Allen was a pretty funny writer.  I chose this book over Without Feathers and Side Effects because it is the shortest (Without Feathers is my favorite, though).

Anything by Shel Silverstein is fantastic.  Kids and adults alike love his silly poems.  That’s why his books are the most frequently stolen from libraries and bookstores.

For anyone who loves The Far Side or is looking for a way to get students interested in science, this is a wonderful book.

This Newbery Award winner is a must-read for grade 4-6 teachers.  Reminds us that children’s possibilities are endless.

Before I ever enjoyed books, my 7^th grade reading teacher recommended I read this (another Newbery Award winner).  I love this story, and I am even more excited about it now that I live near Catalina Island.