Themed Book Lists

Mental Illness in YA — A Reading List

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 5 teens and young adults live with a mental health condition. This is a scary number but even scarier is being a young person who is experiencing signs of a mental illness. The following is a list of books that highlight mental illness in a […]

The Michael L. Printz Award

Named for a Topeka Kansas School Librarian, the Michael L. Printz Award exemplifies literary excellence in Young Adult Literature and is presented by YALSA on a yearly basis. Below are this year’s winner and honor books as well as some past winners. Please enjoy! 2017 Winner March: Book Three […]

April Fool’s — Trickster Tales From Around the World

Trickster tales are stories that have stood against the test of time. They often involve a mischievous animal character who loves to play tricks on his friends. Often times the tricksters will get what is coming to them but other times they get away with their pranks. Almost every culture has its own trickster tales […]

Winter is for Snow — But…It’s March for Goodness Sake

Having been buried in nearly 2 ft of snow this past week I thought I would share with you a post and reading list I did back in November at the beginning of the season. Now, similarly, more than 3 months later we have been pummelled with snow so that any hopes of an early Spring […]

The Chocolate Lily Book Award — British Columbia’s Reader’s Choice Children’s Book Award

The Chocolate Lily Book Award was the brain child of teacher-librarian, Karen Ehrenholz who was looking to connect her own daughters as well as her students to writers and illustrators in their own community. The award is a reader’s choice award which encourages grade school students to read and enjoy fiction written by authors and […]

The Chocolate Lily Book Award — British Columbia’s Reader’s Choice Children’s Book Award — Novel Category

A Year in the Life of a Total and Complete Genius By: Stacey Matson Arthur Bean, soon-to-be a rich and famous author, has set two goals for himself: to win the school writing contest and to win the heart of his secret crush, Kennedy. But his life has had some major twists and turns lately, […]

Scrub a Dub Dub Put Me In the Tub — Stories About Bathtime

Full disclosure…this list comes straight from my desire to take a shower (I can’t stand taking a bath). It has been a long and admittedly stinky week. Thanks to Winter Storm Stella we can no longer see the green grass which made us think Spring was around the corner. Silly Central NYers! That green grass […]

Great Reads from Across the Pond — The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize

The Bookseller, is one of the UK’s longest-standing magazines, serving as the business magazine of the book industry since 1858. In 2014 they launched the YA Book prize to award a YA title written by an author living in the UK or Ireland. The award honors great books for young adults with the aim of getting more […]

Lucky Leprechaun Reads

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year for the patron saint of Ireland. What began as a religious feast has now morphed into a celebration of all things Irish and in turn the Leprechaun has become the day’s mascot. In Irish folklore the Leprechaun is a type of fairy who we all know grants wishes […]

A Little Bit of Irish — YA Lit with an Irish Connection

Whether set in Ireland or written by an Irish author, these books are sure to make your St. Patrick’s Day a little greener. The Supernaturalist By: Eoin ColferIn futuristic Satellite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill escapes from his abusive orphanage and teams up with three other people who share his unusual ability to see supernatural creatures, […]

The Amelia Bloomer List of Recommended Feminist Literature

AMELIA BLOOMER PROJECT TOP TEN Born in 1818 in Homer, NY, just one town over from where I was born and have been raised, Amelia Bloomer was an American women’s rights and temperance advocate. The appropriately named Amelia Bloomer Project creates an annual booklist of feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18. Here […]

Pink is for Girls, Blue is for Boys

Long before becoming a parent I read a book that would forever influence how I raise my children, Redefining Girly: How Parents Can Fight the Stereotyping and Sexualizing of Girlhood, from Birth to Tween, by Melissa Atkins Wardy. Essentially it brings to light what we all see on a daily basis; all-pink aisles in toy […]

Happy Birthday! Celebrating Authors/Illustrators Born in March

March is a big birthday month for children’s authors and illustrators. In March we celebrate Rob Dillon (3/2), Patricia Maclachlan (3/3), Dav Pilkey (3/4), Mem Fox (3/5), Kenneth Grahame (3/8), Ezra Jack Keats (3/11), Virginia Hamilton (3/12), Carl Hiaasen (3/12), Diane Dillon (3/13), Sid Fleischman (3/16), Louis Sachar (3/20), Lois Lowry (3/20), David Wisniewski (3/21), […]

Presidential Picks

President’s Day is a day to was traditionally celebrated each year on February 22nd, George Washington’s birthday but has was changed to always be a Monday in order provide workers with a 3 day weekend. From George Washington to Donald Trump, America’s 240 year history has seen 45 presidents, some more popular than others. Celebrate presidents, past […]

The Lammys!

I remember reading Annie On My Mind as part of my YA Literature class during my Master’s program. We were assigned a title from each YA “genre” and that was our LGBTQ book I suppose. I guess at the time there probably weren’t many other choices, either that, or it was because that book was […]

ED — An Abusive Relationship

It seems as though there is a day, week, or month for everything. “Take Your Dog to Work Day”, “Appreciate your Name Day” (next week, by the way), and “Life Insurance Awareness Month”. It’s hard to wake up in the morning and remember what I am suppose to be aware of. It’s not that these […]

Check Out Charlotte — Another Award!

In the wake of ALA’s announcement of the Youth Media Award winners comes another important if only slightly lesser known award, The Charlotte Zolotow Award. Similar to the Caldecott, the Charlotte Zolotow Award is given annually to the author of the best picture book text published in the previous year. It was established in 1998 […]

Happy New Year! 2016 Books to Movies

If you’ve already given up on your New Year’s Resolution here’s a new one to sink your teeth into, read all the the children’s and YA books that will become movies in 2016, or sometime soon after. it’s a good idea to keep up with pop culture if you are a librarian that works with […]

PURE GRIT — Strong Women in Historical Fiction

Let me start off my saying that yes I know it is the holidays and I should be sharing a holiday themed list with you. Truth be told I didn’t do one and for me to try to put one together now would be a futile effort as most of your students are out for […]

The Great Depression Revisited

October 29, 2015 marked the 86th anniversary of the lethal plunge of the American stock market that threw the nation into a state of brutal economic turmoil. As the years past so do the primary source narratives of parents then grandparents and great grandparents who lived through difficult time in history. How then do we […]