What Are They Reading for Fun?
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compiled by Marlene Charnizon -- School Library Journal, 04/26/2010
Julie Shatterly, W.A. Bess Elementary, Gastonia, NC:
Thanks to my love of all tales from North Carolina, our students check out Charles Harry Whedbee’s Outer Banks Mysteries & Seaside Stories (1978) and Nancy Roberts’s Blackbeard and Other Pirates of the Atlantic Coast (1993, both John F. Blair). Teachers have sparked a love of Adam Blade’s “Beast Quest” series (Scholastic), anything by Roald Dahl and Geronimo Stilton (Scholastic), plus Henry Winkler’s “Hank Zipzer” books (Grossett & Dunlap). A number of our fifth graders surprised me with the variety of new titles they have requested: Lisa Graff’s Umbrella Summer (HarperCollins, 2009), Siobhan Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery (Random, 2008), Mac Barnett’s The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (S & S, 2009), and Jeff Smith’s "Bone" graphic novels (Scholastic).
Our nonfiction readers strongly reflect their taste for cooking in “Fun Foods for Cool Cooks” (Capstone), racing biographies like Connor Dayton’s “NASCAR Champions” series (Rosen) and basketball with Lisa Wade McCormick’s Michael Jordan (Children’s Pr., 2007), Matt Christopher’s Great Moments in Basketball History (Little Brown, 2009), and, last but not least, One Standing: North Carolina 2009 NCAA Champions (Pediment, 2009).
Rachel Artley, Watertown Elementary School, Watertown, TN:
Students in our rural area constantly beg for series books. They are discovering Suzanne Collins’s “The Underland Chronicles” (Scholastic), Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Abrams), Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” (Hyperion), and Brandon Mull’s “Fablehaven” (Shadow Mountain). There has also been renewed interest in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels (Dell) since it is the focus of Rebecca Stead’s Newbery winner When You Reach Me (Random, 2009), which they are also devouring when they can get their hands on it.
Students are reading several books from our state award nominees (the Volunteer State Book Award), and the most popular are Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic, 2007), Barbara O'Connor’s How to Steal a Dog (Farrar, 2007), and Barb Bentler Ullman’s The Fairies of Nutfolk Wood (HarperCollins, 2006). Nonfiction books about animals and pets are hot topics, and drawing books are in constant circulation; the series “A Kid's Guide to Drawing” (Rosen) seems to be the most popular. As a result of “Percy Jackson,” children are reading Greek mythology, too.
Christine Markley, Washington Elementary School, Barto, PA:
The students at Washington Elementary, located an hour north of Philadelphia, are enamored of nonfiction. Cookbooks, including Rachael Ray’s Classic 30-Minute Meals (Lake Isle Pr., 2006) and Brekka Hervey Larrew’s Cheesecake Cupcakes and Other Cake Recipes (Capstone, 2008), fly off the shelves as readers dream about food; occasionally, samples even make it into the classroom. Sy Montgomery’s The Tarantula Scientist (2004), Saving the Ghost of the Mountain (2009, both Houghton), and his other nonfiction titles are also favorites. The hottest new series here is “You Choose,” with books subtitled “An Interactive History Adventure” (Capstone). Our boys cannot get enough of immersing themselves in the past. Girls are enjoying the fiction series “Claudia Cristina Cortez” by Diana G. Gallagher (Stone Arch). Other fiction favorites are “Doll People” by Ann M. Martin (Hyperion), Betty G. Birney’s titles about Humphrey, a hamster (Putnam), and the mystery series “The Sherlock Files” by Tracy Barrett (Holt).
