Friday 5 January 2018

Teen/YA reading group favourite books of 2017 by Savita Kalhan


Here’s my yearly round-up of some of my teen reading group’s favourite library books of 2017. The reading group ranges from ages 11 to 15 years old, and is a mix of boys and girls – with most of them reading three or four library books a month on top of any other reading they do. The kids are enthusiastic and love talking about the books they've enjoyed, books they would recommend, and books they haven't liked as much. They write review cards, which go up on on the teen reading group board in the library. 

In many ways it was a challenging year for us: the library was closed for two months while it moved premises, the catalogue of books available has diminished, with many books that are ‘missing’ not being replaced, and many books published in 2016 and 2017 not being bought for the library.

But, nonetheless, here is the list of some of my teen group's favourite books, in no particular order -

Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence
The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Beetle Boy by MG Leonard
Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
Shadow Magic by Joshua Khan
Gorilla Dawn by Gill Lewis
      
Booked by Kwame Alexander


The Harder They Fall by Bali Rai
Phoenix by SF Said


The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce


We all like having a choice in what we read. Some of us can buy books, and some of us use the library. I would really like to see 2018 be the year which brings back more choice of books for kids, and for their availability to be better reflected on the book shelves. And there should be at least one copy of every teen and young adult book published in a year on the library shelves.

Don’t you agree?





2 comments:

Penny Dolan said...

Library provision is so patchy for young readers now. I did enjoy this post and their selection and huge congratulations for all the energy you must put into keeping this group continually enthused - and hooray to all the young readers too. Most impressive!

Savita Kalhan said...

Thanks, Penny! Yes, it is lots of work, but incredibly rewarding, so well worth it!