What Are They Reading for Fun?
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compiled by Marlene Charnizon -- School Library Journal, 3/26/2008
The classics, for sure, continue to be fun, in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. Now, more chills and thrills are expected from R.L. Stine’s forthcoming “Goosebumps HorrorLand” series.
Julie Helt, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA:
Kids know the classics are fun: Eric Carle’s books, Curious George, Dr. Seuss, and R L. Stine’s “Mostly Ghostly,” “Rotten School,” and “Goosebumps” series. Marissa Moss’s “Amelia” books are rarely on the shelf. Nancy Krulik’s “Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo” (Grosset & Dunlap) and Dan Gutman’s “My Weird School” stories (HarperCollins) are devoured by chapter book readers. Other series favorites include Erin Hunter’s “Warriors” (HarperCollins), D.J. MacHale’s “Pendragon” (S & S), and Joseph Delaney’s “The Last Apprentice” (HarperCollins). Teens love anything with vampires and faeries, including Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr (HarperTeen, 2007). A coming-of-age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (MTV, 1999), who grew up in Pittsburgh, is almost always checked out.
Julie Ranelli, Queen Anne’s County Free Library, Stevensville, MD:
On Kent Island, children are reading some of the recent nominees for Maryland’s Black-Eyed Susan Awards, especially books like Stephanie S. Tolan’s Listen! (HarperCollins, 2006) and Asta Bowen’s Wolf: The Journey Home (Bloomsbury, 2006). Also circulating well is the easy reader Pirate Mom by Deborah Underwood (Random, 2006), featured on the state’s 2007 Blue Crab Young Reader Awards list. The kids also enjoy fractured fairy tales, including Jon Scieszka’s The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (Viking, 1989). Such series as Vivian French’s “The Tiara Club” (HarperCollins), Brian K. Vaughan’s “Runaways” (Marvel Comics), and “Babymouse” (Random) by Jennifer Holm, a Marylander, are popular as well.
Laura Lutz, Queens Borough Public Library, New York City:
Two standouts with reluctant readers of nonfiction are The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden, and The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan (both Collins, 2007). Recreational science books circulate well, among them, The Stunning Science of Everything by Nick Arnold (Scholastic, 2006) and Amazing Dinosaurs by Dougal Dixon (Boyds Mills, 2007). One of the books popular with those curious about the environment is Laurie David’s The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming (Scholastic, 2007). The Titanic continues to fascinate through such books about the disaster by Simon Adams (DK, 2004), Will and Mary Pope Osborne (Random, 2002), and Duncan Crosbie (Orchard, 2007).
