Shopping List for At-Risk Readers

A few weeks ago at TLA, I had dinner with a group of wonderful, lively and knowledgeable educators. It was so great to talk books! I mentioned that I had received a grant to purchase books for a writing/literacy program that I help run in Santa Cruz Juvenile Hall. I explained that the students there seem to really like poetry, gritty fiction (both realistic and fantasy) and biographies that reflect their often difficult backgrounds. Did they have any suggestions?
By the end of dessert (Mine was a fabulous crème brulee), the group put together this great list. I can’t wait to do my shopping.

Special thanks to Texas school librarian Susan Geye for taking notes during the discussion and organizing into helpful categories.

Please feel free to add other recommendations!


Poetry
Skin Deep: And Other Teenage Reflections by Angela Shelf Medearis.
Quiet Storm: Voices of Young Black Poets by Lydia Omolola Okutoro
The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur

NonFiction
Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
My Life in Prison by Stanley “Tookie” Williams
The Shadows of My Life by Danielle Lessard

Short Story Collections
Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in Their Lives
by Sharon G. Flake

Series Books for Reluctant Readers
The Bluford Series, Townsend Press
Orca Soundings, Orca Book Publishers

Novels in Verse
Burned by Ellen Hopkins
Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Emako Blue by Brenda Woods
Impulse by Ellen Hopkins
Keesha’s House by Helen Frost
Make Lemonade (Bk. 1) by Virginia Euwer Wolff
True Believer (Bk. 2) by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Street Love by Walter Dean Myers

Fiction (Listed by author in alphabetical order)
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia, In the Forests of the Night (Bk. 1)
Demon in my View (Bk.2)
Shattered Mirror (Bk. 3)
Midnight Predator (Bk. 4)
Booth, Coe, Tyrell
Coy, John, Crackback
Crutcher, Chris, Whale Talk
Davidson, Dana, Jason & Kyra, Played
De La Pena, Matt, Ball Don’t Lie
Draper, Sharon, Tears of a Tiger (Bk. 1)
Forged by Fire (Bk. 2)
Darkness before Dawn (Bk. 3)
Dueker, Carl, Night Hoops
Flake, Sharon G., Money Hungry (Bk.1)
Begging for Change (Bk.2)
The Skin I’m In
Bang!
Flinn, Alex, Breathing Underwater
E. R. Frank, America
Glovach, Linda, Beauty Queen
Grimes, Nikki, Bronx Masquerade
Halliday, John, Shooting Monarchs
Hill, Ernest, A Life for a Life
McNamee, Graham, Acceleration
Martinez, Victor, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
Myers, Walter Dean, Monster
Porter, Connie, Imani all Mine
Shan, Darren, Lord Loss (Bk. 1)
Demon Thief (Bk. 2)
Slawter (Bk. 3)
Bec (Bk. 4)
Vaught, Susan, Trigger
Volponi, Paul, Black and White
Rueker Park Setup
Rooftop
Whyman, Matt, Boy Kills Man
Williams-Garcia. Rita, Like Sisters on the Home Front
Woodson, Jacqueline, If You Come Softly
Wyeth, Sharon Dennis, Orphea Proud
Zahn, Timothy, Dragon and Thief (Bk. 1)
Dragon and Soldier (Bk. 2)
Dragon and Slave (Bk. 3)
Dragon and Herdsman (Bk. 4)