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Not Broken: An Aromantic/Asexual Spectrum Booklist

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The other day, I was (re)watching the Netflix show Heartstopper, based on the Webtoon/ graphic novel series by Alice Oseman. I was glad the plot put some focus on the character Isaac, who comes to understand he’s aroace (aromantic/asexual). Aromantic means he feels no romantic attraction to anyone, and asexual means he feels no sexual attraction to anyone.

Often the A in LGBTQIA+ feels as much of an outlier as students struggling to understand what’s different about them; trying to define a personality trait by an absence rather than a presence of something. Though everyone on the ace spectrum experiences it differently, it can be common for kids to feel that they are “broken” or lacking in some way. Also common is worrying, quite realistically, about their future: being alone, not being anyone’s priority, not being “enough” as just themselves, and dealing with the aphobia of people trying to “fix” them or make them “normal.” Many may also mourn the loss of a future they assumed they would have, in our geared-for-pairs adult society.

For these students, knowing they are not alone in feeling the way they do can be a huge relief, as can reading about how other aro/ace people have handled their own challenges. Knowing that relationships and futures don’t need to follow set courses to provide satisfying lives is the first step on the path to building those futures. And fortunately, there are more resources and representation available to students on the ace spectrum than there have been in the past. Below is a lengthy list of books with middle school, high school, and college level protagonists on the aro/ace spectrum. Check them out!

For more information about the ace spectrum, check out AVEN, The Asexual Visibility and Education Network.

Middle School

Some of these have high-school-age protagonists, but are appropriate for 7th-8th grade.

Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfrid.

Eighth grader Lizzie’s study of asexuality in science class leads her to understand her own asexual identity as she embarks on a journey toward self-discovery and self-advocacy.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger.

Elatsoe lives in a slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry.

Rick by Alex Gino.

At 11, Rick is growing uncomfortable with his best friend’s explicit talk about sex and his father’s jokes about girls, then he discovers the Rainbow Spectrum club at school, where he can explore his identity and learn that maybe he is asexual.

Clariel: the lost Abhorsen by Garth  Nix.

In the Old Kingdom, Clariel has blood relations to the Abhorsen and the King. She dreams of a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan.

A-okay by Jarad Greene.

“When Jay starts eighth grade with a few pimples he doesn’t think much of it. But when his acne goes from bad to worse, Jay’s prescribed a powerful medication that comes with some serious side effects. Meanwhile, school isn’t going exactly as planned. All of Jay’s friends are in different classes; he has no one to sit with at lunch; his best friend, Brace, is avoiding him.” –Publisher.

Hazel’s theory of evolution by Lisa Bigelow.

Hazel loves reading encyclopedias, but has no answers for the questions of eighth grade. How can she make friends when no one understands her? What’s going to happen to one of her moms who’s pregnant again? Why does everything have to change?

Every bird a prince by Jenn Reese.

After she saves the life of a bird prince and becomes their champion, seventh grader Eren Evers must defend a forest kingdom, save her mom, and keep the friendships she holds dear–if she is brave enough to embrace her inner truths.

High School

The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy by Mackenzi Lee.

“Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor–even if she has to scheme her way across Europe to do it.” –Amazon.com.

Arden Grey by Ray Stoeve.

“Sixteen-year-old Arden Grey finds escape in her love of film photography as she navigates toxic relationships and how they influence her identity.” –OCLC.

All out: the no-longer-secret stories of queer teens throughout the ages edited by Saundra Mitchell.

“And they don’t kiss at the end” by Nilah Magruder. Maryland, 1976. Dee loves roller-skating but has been avoiding the rink ever since she broke up with Vince. No one can understand why she did it, and she does not know how to explain it. It’s just that she does not understand why people like kissing and dating, and she has no words to express that.

“Walking after midnight” by Kody Keplinger. Upstate New York, 1952. At 18, Betsy is a washed-up movie actress stranded in a small NY town, at midnight, having missed a train. While looking for a hotel, she encounters a diner waitress named Laura. Even though Betsy has never felt any urge to do anything even remotely intimate with anyone, maybe Laura will be different. 

Vanilla by Billy Merrell.

Told in a series of blank verse poems, two boys Van (called Vanilla) and Hunter tell of their relationship which began before they were teenagers, but foundered in high school, mostly because Hunter thinks they should be having sex and Vanilla is not so sure.

Radio silence by Alice Oseman.

When Frances and Aled spend the summer collaborating on her favorite podcast, they realize they understand each other in a way no one else does.

Is love the answer? By Uta Isaki.

Manga. “A poignant coming-of-age story about a young woman coming into her own as she discovers her identity as aromantic asexual.”

Here goes nothing by Emma K. Ohland 

When eighteen-year-old Beatrice comes in frequent contact with neighbor Bennie, she starts to question her asexual identity, her place in her friend group, and her plans for the future. Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Planning perfect by Haley Neil 

Summer vacation quickly becomes complicated for Felicity Becker as she tries to plan a perfect wedding for her mom, figure out her feelings for her friend Nancy, and wonder what dating will look like for her as an asexual person.

Aces wild : a heistby Amanda DeWitt

After recruiting his closest friends—the asexual support group he met through fandom forums—all Jack has to do is infiltrate a high-stakes gambling club and dodge dark family secrets, while hopelessly navigating what it means to be in love while asexual. Easy, right?

Love Letters for Joy by Melissa See

Joy starts to wonder if she has missed out on a quintessential high school experience. She is asexual, but that’s no reason she can’t experience first love, right? She writes to Caldwell Cupid to help her, and finds herself falling for the mysterious voice behind the letters. 

Paper planes by Jenni Wood

Graphic novel. After a life altering incident, Dylan and Leighton are sent to a summer camp for troubled youth. They both need a good evaluation at the camp. Otherwise, they’ll be sent away, unable to attend high school with their friends. 

Love points to you by Alice Lin

“When Angela Wu offers Lynda Fan the chance to design characters for her Otome game, Lynda discovers things she never knew about herself or her heart.” — Publisher.

Immoral code by Lillian Clark

Told from five viewpoints, high school friends Bellamy, Nari, Reese [aroace], Keagan, and Santiago team up to hack into Bellamy’s absentee billionaire father’s business accounts to skim enough money for her MIT tuition

The rhythm of my soul by Elin Dyer

Taryn Foster has her eyes set on becoming the first aro-ace ballerina in Roseheart Ballet Academy’s company of professional dancers, and all she needs to do is graduate. But she’s haunted by the ghost of her dead sister-and now she’s living for the two of them. 

Tash hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee

Fame and success come at a cost for Natasha “Tash” Zelenka when she creates the web series “Unhappy Families,” a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina—written by Tash’s eternal love Leo Tolstoy.

Beyond the black door by AdriAnne Strickland

Soulwalkers—like Kamai—can journey into other people’s souls while they sleep. But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it…

College

Loveless by Alice Oseman.

Georgia has never kissed someone or particularly even wanted to; at the prom afterparty she is surrounded by couples making out, and she really does not know what is wrong—but in college she comes to understand herself as asexual/aromantic, and to capture the part of her identity that has always eluded her.

Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie.

Aisha Un-Haad, seventeen, and Key Tanaka, eighteen, have risked everything for new lives as mechanically enhanced soldiers, and when an insurrection forces dark secrets to surface, the fate of humanity is in their hands.


Being ace : an anthology of queer, trans, femme, and disabled stories of asexual love and connection edited by Madeline Dyer.

Discover the infinite realms of asexual love across sci-fi, fantasy, and contemporary stories. Whether adventuring through space, outsmarting a vengeful water spirit, or surviving haunted cemeteries, no two aces are the same in these 14 unique works that highlight asexual romance, aromantic love, and identities across the asexual spectrum.

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao.

Aromantic and asexual students Sophie and Jo, engaged in an online feud as the creators of popular relationship advice accounts “Dear Wendy” and “Sincerely Wanda,” unwittingly become real-life friends and navigate their shared aroace identities as they face the challenges of college life.

Tell me how it ends by Quinton Li.

Iris can predict the future and uncover secrets with her tarot cards. Marin comes to her for help to rescue a falsely imprisoned witch. Marin is aromantic, asexual, nonbinary, and has ADHD.

Until the last petal falls: a queerplatonic retelling of Beauty and the beast by Viano Oniomoh.

When Eru was eleven years old, he met an unforgettable boy, and then forgot him. Ten years later, after his parents’ sudden deaths, Eru uncovers some truths and finds that the fate of the village, and that of the boy he’d been made to forget, could lie in his hands.

Let’s talk about love by Claire Kann

Alice, who is asexual, is done with dating. But then she meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for. Is she willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood?

Ace of hearts by Lucy Mason

When a sports injury loses Felix his scholarship, bestie Hesper proposes a year-long marriage of convenience for free tuition at the college where she works. When Hesper reveals her asexuality, Felix must reassess everything he thinks about love and sacrifice.

Short Story Summaries

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Some years ago, I got annoyed by the lack of summaries in short story collections. Teachers often asked for recommendations of stories featuring a particular theme, but most short story collection reviews or summaries did not detail the plots of each story. While asking AISL colleagues was a good work-around, I decided that I needed to start summarizing and reviewing every short story I read in a collection, and post my reviews on GoodReads. So I did. While it certainly takes more time to stop after each story (whether read in print or listened to in audio) and write up a summary/review, I’ve now amassed a decent if somewhat eclectic collection of short story summaries that I can share with teachers.

Then it occurred to me that I could share my summaries more broadly by posting them on a LibGuides page. I cobbled that together a few days ago, though I don’t think the organization or layout is the best. Perhaps someone reading this will offer some good advice? I ended up posting the books in a tabbed box, with tabs for different genres, and a table of contents on the side. I wish the lengthy texts didn’t sprawl all over the page, impeding browsing, but the two options for hiding text remove all of the line breaks differentiating the stories. For ease of reading, I capitulated to the text-on-page option. In addition, middle school and YA titles share space in some genres, so I put the middle school titles at the top.

As an example, here’s the text of my reviews for “You are here: connecting flights” by Ellen Oh.

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“Paul: Something to declare” / by Christina Soontornvat. Paul and his family are flying to Thailand, his parents’ and his grandmother’s home country. Paul is very close to his grandmother, who does not speak English. She has something unusual in her carry-on that she doesn’t want Paul’s mother to know about. That will change when they get to security. I liked this one. It was affecting and touching, to see the close relationship between Paul and his grandmother, and the way he wonders about his own connection to a place that he’s only ever visited. And, of course, the microaggressions, always, and always—but also those who understand.

“Jae: Ground rules” / by Linda Sue Park. Jae’s mother works at the airport, and when his babysitter fell through, she had to take him to work with her. Her supervisor is mean about it, but Jae promises to stay in the break room. While he is watching the airport monitors, though, he sees a toddler wander away from her family at security, and they don’t notice. He decides he has to rescue her. I liked how this one showed how different people regarded Jae, so totally differently in such a short period of time. It really illustrates the stereotyping and racism people in his position face every day. It’s also a good story to talk about when is it a good decision to break the rules?

“Mindy: Standing up” / by Meredith Ireland. Mindy was adopted from Korea as a baby by her two dads. Now they are in the airport on their way to Korea so she can “reconnect with her culture.” Problem is, she really doesn’t want to because she feels no connection with it at all. After a racist incident on the concourse, in which her fathers stand up to the racist and make Mindy feel uncomfortable because she is just not the stand up and be noticed type, she runs off to be by herself. And she’ll learn something about herself. I liked this one too. I liked the tension between what Mindy thought she should be like and what she really was like, and how she found a way to understand that and still do something about it, I also thought that her feelings about being either too Asian or not Asian enough were poignant and understandable.

“Lee: Jam session” / by Mike Chen. Lee is 12, it is flying by himself to see his uncle. Lee has his Stratocaster guitar with him, and two security guards hassle him because “of course” no Asian kids play guitar. This was a painful one to read. I hate it that some adults in positions of authority can be so mean to children and so racist at the same time. I really liked Lee’s perspective, which I think will resonate with a lot of kids. I also thought the details were really well done.

“Ari: Guidelines” / Susan Tan. Ari is traveling with her six year old brother. When their flight is diverted because of weather, she is stuck with trying to entertain her brother, and also stuck with someone from the airline as a chaperone, who, like, seemingly everyone else, is totally confused how Ari can be both Asian and Jewish. In the Food Court, something happens that makes Ari realize that maybe she is ready for her bat mitzvah after all. I liked the plot of this one, and can see how frustrating it is when people stereotype you, and think that there’s no way you can be something you are. What I found irritating, in terms of the writing, were the endless numbered lists. I realize that was a representation of how the main character thought, but I found it annoying—though that’s only personal taste!

“AJ: A kind of noble” / Randy Ribay. AJ’s mind always lingers on ways that he has failed. Now he’s at the airport with his basketball team, thinking about how badly he played in the last game. Then he stands in line behind two of his meaner teammates, and hears them being racist and trash-talking the only other Filipino kid on the team, who could not come to the international tournament with them. That kid also happens to be AJ’s best friend. Will AJ be strong enough to stand up and say something? I liked how this showed how small acts, both negative and positive, can affect you, and how you can build on the positive acts and change the highlight reel in your mind.

“Natalie: Costumes” / by Traci Chee. Japanese American Natalie is going on vacation with her white best friend Beth, and Beth’s family. While at the airport, Natalie has a lot of uncomfortable feelings with some of the comments Beth’s parents make, as well as comments that Beth makes. Can she get Beth to understand why it’s not OK to say things like that? I like this one as well, with its vivid ways of describing the different feelings that Natalie has in different situations. I also liked the up to date knowledge about Manga and anime. This is another situation that I’m sure happens all the time in friendships among kids, and it is good to see a representation of it, and a representation of how Natalie decides to deal with it. One of the most memorable quotes from the book, for me, was: “My face is not a costume.”

“Henry: Grounded” / Mike Jung. Henry is with his dad in the airport. They are both Korean, American, and autistic. Henry wishes there were any books about characters like him, because both he and his dad, who is a librarian, love books. Henry has an idea about what his book character would be like, and that serves him well when a bully tries to mess with him. This was a quiet story, with a lovely relationship between father and son, understanding each other. I liked the intersectionality of it, because Henry is right.

“Camilla: Big day suitcase” / by Erin Entrada Kelly. Camilla‘s mother is Filipino, and her father is white. Camilla and her sister Greta, are in the airport with her mother, on their way to the Philippines, so they can see where they came from. Camilla does not feel Filipino, since she is white-passing, as she learns when her best friend says that she looks “normal.“ Then Greta tells Camilla about always having to be “it” when kids at her school play Chinese tag about Covid. It gets Camilla thinking. This was another fairly quiet story about family relationships and those microaggressions that kids like Greta face every day, and Camilla realizing what is happening. This is a good one for kids who don’t feel part of their genetic heritage.

“Jane: Questions and answers” / by Grace Lin. Jane is Taiwanese American, and she is in the airport with her mother, her little sister, and her grandfather, who was injured in what he and Jane’s mother insist on calling in “accident.” Jane knows it was not an accident because she was there, and she wonders if it really is the right thing, not to call attention to themselves and to the bigger issue at hand. Jane’s family is reflective of many of the other families described in this anthology, in not wanting to draw attention to the anti-Asian microaggressions and hate. I liked Jane really thinking about it and making her own decision.

“Khoi: Lost in translation” / by Minh Le. Khoi is Vietnamese American, and he is at the airport with his parents, getting ready for his first trip ever to Vietnam. He’s worried that he will be a disappointment to everyone, but a strange dream helps him sort some things out. This was a short one, and the only one so far without any microaggressions or bullying. I think a lot of kids in Khoi’s situation probably have this same feeling, so they can sympathize with him, and hopefully also come to feel as he does about his trip.

“Soojin: You are here” / by Ellen Oh. Soojin and her parents live in New York, but after a hate crime destroys their business, Soojin’s mother insists on moving back to Korea, while her father insists on staying. Soojin desperately wants to stay in New York, but her mother is dragging her to Korea. When they get stuck in the Chicago airport for a while, they encounter all the other characters from all the other stories, and Soojin’s mother begins to see that perhaps there are more reasons to stay and then go. I liked this one for all the people who stood up to the bullies, and for the hope that there’s still enough good in America to make it worthwhile. I thought the author incorporated all the other characters really well, and it was fun to remember their stories as well.

“A note from the editor” / by Ellen Oh. The author talks about why she decided to put this anthology together, the origins of the term “Asian American,” and why it’s so non-descriptive of all the people from that part of the world.

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Feel free to explore my reviews if you are in search of stories with specific themes for your teachers or students!

The Outsiders: Body Bios

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Our seventh grade English teacher, Kacie Simpson, always comes up with great projects connected to the books her classes read. This year, after reading S.E. Hinton’s classic, The Outsiders, pairs of students created these “Body Bios.” Each poster depicts a character from The Outsiders, alongside visual metaphors and quotes to represent their inner character and history. Below is a sample “Ponyboy” poster, by Angie and Yihan, with all of its parts explained.

Kacie says that even the kids who weren’t great artists learned from the work. For instance, one student drew a character as a square, because he thought it was funny (or perhaps had played too much Minecraft!). Ms. Simpson told him he had to have a purpose behind his choice of shape that connected to the book. Giving a presentation was part of the assignment, so when he presented to the class, this student connected the shape to the character being strong like a rock, which showed Kacie that he’d actually put some thought into it. Here are a few more samples of the posters.

Sodapop by Ellie and Lucas.
Two Bit by Amber and Phoebe.
Dally by Cecilia, Lade, and Angela.
Sodapop by Daksha and Riana.
Darry by Avni and Ashleen.
Johnny by Hannah and Ferris.

Promoting a Diverse Collection

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When a parent asked if I could contribute some booklists to a weekend cultural fair she was planning, I was thrilled. The event offered an excellent opportunity to further the library’s promotion of reading culture at the school, as well as to share our dedication to building a diverse collection. In addition, it provided motivation to review and reflect on our previous collection development efforts. As I’m passionate about building a diverse collection, I decided to go overboard, knowing I could use the results in future aspects of my work. I focused on two things: 1. Our vision of having mirror, window, and sliding glass door books, as described by Rudine Bishop Sims. 2: Avoiding a “single story” collection, in which, for example, we only had Jewish books about the Holocaust, or Native American books about the frontier.

In the end, I brought the following lists, items, and links to the fair:

  • Printed articles about mirrors/windows/sliding glass doors, and the “single story.”
  • Two poster-sized grids, one for middle school fiction and one for upper school fiction. These featured diversity on one axis and genre on the other. I filled the grids with covers of relevant books from our collections, either print or eBooks. I felt proud that out of about 162 books, only three did we not own. I wanted to demonstrate that if you wanted a fantasy book with Native American characters, we had it. If you wanted a horror book with characters with disabilities, we had it. I realize that the categories are broad strokes, and you could get more and more granular, just as with a diversity audit. In addition, what if you wanted a science fiction book featuring a Black character with a disability? So the grid is not perfect, but it was a start to represent what we value in building our collection.
  • Double-sided printouts of the grids with only the titles and authors.
  • A LibGuide featuring all of the books in tabbed boxes, with summaries and links to the eBook if we had it. I created boxes organized by diversity and by genre. The LibGuide also included the DEI list for parents and families, and other sources of diverse booklists.
  • Bookmarks created by my colleague with a QR code to the LibGuide.
  • A cart with thirty middle school and thirty upper school books, plus a scanner so I could check out books at the event.

I ferried many of the items to our Campus Center on the Friday before, including the cart of books, my easel with the two grids, and the booklists. On Saturday, I arrived early with the parents who were setting up. They assembled a cornucopia of tables representing various cultures, including a ton of delicious-smelling food! The event itself was lively (and tasty!), and I did get on the “stage” to present a one-minute explanation of what I’d brought. Though I didn’t get a lot of attention, I talked to a number of people and checked out a few books. I now have the grids posted in the library, and hope my work will be featured in one of our weekly parent newsletters. I really enjoyed the opportunity to consider the diversity of our collection, and look forward to using what I’ve learned to further build a collection that will best serve our students.

Classroom Book Recommendation Display

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by Rebecca Moore and Kacie Simpson

Overlake’s seventh-grade English teacher, Kacie Simpson, is passionate about reading. “Establishing a culture of reading, where students are excited to read, has been something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” she says. One issue she considers is how students can find good books to read. She knows parents also wonder about this, as they often request book recommendations for their children. While Kacie loves reading, of course, she knows that, “collectively, my students have read more books than I have.” Thinking how she could harness this resource, she decided to create a classroom “display where students could give book recommendations and share the types of books they are interested in with their peers.”

For her display, she created a large wall poster of a bookshelf. Next, she printed blank book spine templates in different sizes, to vary the height of the “books” and make the shelf arrangement look more natural. Students copied or recreated the spine of a book they would recommend to their classmates, choosing the template that made the most sense for the book. For in-class work, Kacie provided scissors and colored pencils, though several students also worked at home to have more time and add more detail.

While the students worked in class, Kacie noticed a lot of “great conversations about books.” She heard many positive comments, like, “Oh, I love that book!” That worked well for her goal of instilling in the students the knowledge that “the best source of what to read is their peers,” because seventh graders know what other seventh graders tend to enjoy reading. In the finished spines, Kacie found it interesting to see that fantasy was the most popular genre by a mile, and that Rick Riordan scored as the most popular author. The titles that surprised her the most were the non-fiction titles Blue Chip Kids, by David Bianchi, and Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, books that she doesn’t “always associate with 12-13 year olds reading.”

When students finished the spines, Kacie organized them roughly by genre on the poster “shelves.” To add to the display’s welcoming appeal, Kacie added a picture of her cat sleeping on a shelf, as well as some “additional decorative touches.” As a librarian, I love it, and think it was an amazing project!

Partial Booklist

Note: I couldn’t read all of the titles, which is why this is partial

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

The Martian, Andy Weir

Scythe, Neal Shusterman

Space Case, Stuart Gibbs

The hunger games, Suzanne Collins

Catching fire, Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

The ballad of songbirds and snakes, Suzanne Collins

Atherton: the House of power, Patrick Carman

One piece, Eiichiro Oda

The ultimate hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, Douglas Adams

Legend, Marie Lu

Foundation, Isaac Asimov

The lion of Mars, Jennifer Holm

The giver, Lois Lowry

Ready player one, Ernest Cline

Iron widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Animal farm, George Orwell

Home body, Rupi Kaur

What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, Randall Munroe

Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari

Little white lies, Gemma Townley

The naturals, Jennfer Barnes

The inheritance game, Jennifer Barnes

The final gambit, Jennifer Barnes

Spy school, Stuart Gibbs

One of us is lying, Karen McManus

Five survive, Karen McManus

A good girl’s guide to murder, Holly Jackson

The land of stories: the wishing spell, Chris Colfer

The Penrose Series, Tony Ballantyne

Wings of fire, Tui Sutherland

Throne of glass, Sarah J. Maas

The theft of sunlight, Intisar Khanani

The tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo

Keeper of the lost cities, Shannon Messenger

The school for good and evil, Soman Chainani

The hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

Harry Potter and the sorcerer‘s stone, J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the half-blood prince, J.K. Rowling

Summoner 3: The Battlemage, Taran Matharu

Red queen, Victoria Aveyard

Heartless, Marissa Meyer

The lost hero, Rick Riordan

The house of Hades, Rick Riordan

The lightning thief, Rick Riordan

The sea of monsters, Rick Riordan

The last Olympian, Rick Riordan

When you trap a tiger, Tae Keller

Two Degrees, Alan Gratz

The silent patient, Alex Michaelides

Ink and ashes, Valynne Maetani

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown, Steve Sheinkin

Front desk, Kelly Yang

Seaglass summer, Anjali Banerjee

Out of my mind, Sharon Draper

Simon sort of says, Erin Bow

The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Far from the tree, Robin Benway

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello‘s library, Chris Grabenstein

Blended, Sharon Draper

If he had been with me, Laura Nowlin

The Explorers Academy: the nebula secret, Trudi Trueit

Restart, Gordon Korman

Darius the great is not OK, Adib Khorram

Imogen obviously, Becky Albertalli

Wonder, R.J. Palacio

Posted, John David Anderson

The summer I turned pretty, Jenny Han

Prisoner B, Alan Gratz

Projekt, Alan Gratz

Grenade, Alan Gratz

The book thief, Markus Zusak

Little women, Louisa May Alcott

Pride and prejudice, Jane Austen

World in between: based on a true refugee story, Kenan Trebincevic, Susan Shapiro

The downstairs girl, Stacey Lee

Between shades of gray, Ruta Sepetys

Flooded: requiem for Johnstown, Ann Burg

The enigma game,

Blue Chip kids, David Bianchi

Reading Culture Survey

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At the start of the year, wanting to build our reading culture, a few teachers and I formed a reading culture committee. For our first action, we decided to survey the students about their reading. We would use their responses to determine our next steps. With the bribe of being entered into a raffle for homeroom cookies, over 70 of our 200+ middle schoolers responded, and here are their responses. For questions about “other” responses, if the responses were minimal or uninformative, I omitted the results here.

  1. Anything else you’d like to say about your reading?

• I love reading, and I read mostly young adult fiction, fantasy, or romance. I don’t read as much as I used to because of the amounts of homework.
• I love to read and it is fun to see all the different ways the author wrote the book.
• I love finding out the answers to the mysteries performed by the book and author!!!
• I love reading ([My friend] made me write this, but it is true)
• I like reading adventure books and mystery books.
• I read a lot and like reading! but sometimes other things get in the way.
• I love reading especially when I need a break so I might join the focus club.
• No but I want to know why we are doing this survey.
• I get thirty minutes of reading time, because I listen to audiobooks in the car. I get no actual reading time at home, because [of other obligations].
• I really like to read on my own, but when someone tells me to read, I feel like I don’t want to read anymore.
• I like reading, but do less if I have too much other work or activities.
• I like writing books.
• Nothing about reading, but I love cookies!
• I especially love historical-fiction/fiction.

Conclusions
We can see that for students who read, while regular print books are still the most popular reading material, they are also reading multiple other formats. I find that encouraging, and hope by listing all of those options as reading, students who might not have considered themselves readers will re-think that.

Many students do not read a whole lot each week. We found their reasons telling, as the top two were too much homework and too many other obligations. Based on this, we decided we needed to find them more time to read at school. We are planning a “drop everything and read” wellness event, in which they will all read in their homerooms for a block. In addition, students who choose not to join an affinity group will instead join a “drop everything and read” group during fortnightly affinity group meetings. We are also working on setting up an evening for student writers to read from their works, since so many are writers.

Building reading culture is certainly a marathon! It’s especially so when all of us are so busy that our reading culture group finds it hard to meet. However, we are moving forward bit by bit, and plan to keep at it. If you have some great ideas that have worked at your school, please add them in the comments!

Voice Changing, B.O. and Zits, Oh My!

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Last month, I covered (no pun intended) books about female-identifying kids’ struggles with excess body hair. This month, I thought I should cover some male-identifying kids’ puberty struggles. Many books address the emotional struggles, with a side of the physical struggles, but I couldn’t find too many with a strong focus on the physical struggles. I suspect there are many more than I found, but the issues are embedded in the story as a whole and don’t merit their own subject heading. If you know of other titles that address these issues as part of the story, write them in the comments! Summaries from Worldcat or GoodReads.com.

Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy.

“The voice actor for a hit animated series, thirteen-year-old Nikhil must find the courage to speak out about what’s right when a group of conservative parents protest his openly gay status.” –Publisher. Note: Nikhil’s voice is changing, which means he can no longer play the character he loves so much, and he’s struggling to face that reality.

Pizza Face by Rex Ogle.

“Still struggling with a home life edging on the poverty line, Rex can’t afford to buy the acne medication or deodorant he needs, and bullies are noticing Rex’s awkward transformation.” –GoodReads.com.

The Amazing Life of Birds: The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech by Gary Paulsen.

“As twelve-year-old Duane endures the confusing and humiliating aspects of puberty, he watches a newborn bird in a nest on his windowsill begin to grow and become more independent, all of which he records in his journal.” –Publisher.

The Downside of Being Up by Curtis Sitomer.

“Thirteen-year-old Bobby Connor is a normal adolescent boy–at least he hopes he is–just trying to survive middle school. But it seems he’s being foiled at every turn, and even his own body is conspiring against him. And when his math teacher is seriously injured from the shock and fright of witnessing just how out of control Bobby’s changing adolescent body is getting, he starts to worry he’s anything but normal.” –Publisher.

Spurt by Chris Miles.

“Jack Sprigley isn’t just a late-bloomer. He’s a no-bloomer. It’s nearly the end of Year 8, and with puberty still a total no-show, Jack’s in serious danger of being left behind by his friends. But then he comes up with a plan to solve all his problems. It’s simple: all he has to do is fake puberty…” –GoodReads.com.

Shonen Note: Boy Soprano, Vol. 1 by Yuhki Kamatani.

“Inspired by the angelic sound of Yutaka’s voice, [his middle school] choir eagerly accepts him into their ranks. But when Yutaka’s voice begins to change as he enters puberty, the journey ahead will be one of self-discovery and reflection for not only himself, but also for those around him.” –GoodReads.com.

Then again, maybe I won’t by Judy Blume.

“Unable to accept or explain his family’s newly acquired wealth, his growing interest in sex, and a friend’s shoplifting habit, a thirteen-year-old finds the pains in his stomach getting worse and worse.” –Publisher.

A-Okay by Jaraed Greene.

“When Jay starts eighth grade with a few pimples he doesn’t think much of it at first…except to wonder if the embarrassing acne will disappear as quickly as it arrived. But when his acne goes from bad to worse, Jay’s prescribed a powerful medication that comes with some serious side effects.” –GoodReads.com.

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

Short story collection. Specific story: “How a Boy Can Become a Grease Fire.” A boy likes a girl, and his friends decide to help him with his BO, dry skin, and chapped lips, as well as accompanying him to her house so he can ask for her number. This one was just funny, and sweet/obnoxious of the friends. Those middle school crushes are aptly named.

Laugh-Out-Loud Favorites

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I was sitting at my desk as the year wound up, students and faculty scattered to the winds, wondering what to write about for my July blog post. It was then that I heard my colleague, who was busy in the stacks, chortling away. Like me, she’s an inveterate audiobook reader, so I knew she was listening to something (rather than plotting nefarious pranks involving fake books and glitter bombs, not that I’ve ever thought about doing that, nope, never—do you know what glitter abatement costs? Me neither, but I can imagine my admins’ response to receiving that check request…). While I enjoy many books with humor, it takes a lot to get me laughing out loud, so a book with that capability becomes a precious favorite. Thus for the lazy days of July, what could be better than a book that makes you laugh so hard you re-separate a rib cartilage injury from your teens (for example)? Here are my favorites, starting with MS books and moving to YA and Adult books. I’ve included either my own GoodReads summary or a publisher/WorldCat summary, and a link to my full TL;DR GoodReads reviews. Please share your own favorite laugh-out-loud books in the comments!

The Tapper Twins Go To War (with Each Other). Geoff Rodkey (MS)

The war started over Poptarts. Maybe. Whatever; the start doesn’t matter so much as what followed. Claudia and Reece were out to get each other, and things just keep escalating. There was the fish episode, and the ill-conceived video episode, and the Megaworld episode…where will it end? Told by Claudia as an audiobook, with frequent interruptions to add in text threads between the parents, chapters by Reece or just commentary by Reece, and other characters as well.

The Best At It. Maulik Pancholy (MS)

It’s 7th grade, and Rahul, an Indian-American boy from Indiana, has a pretty good life. He’s got great parents, an extended “family” of other Indians and Indian Americans who’ve known him forever and love to feed him, a wonderful grandfather who lives with them, a younger brother who can be annoying but is basically ok, good grades, and a super-best friend in Chelsea. But there are down sides, primarily Brent, the local bully, and his football cronies, one of whom used to be a friend of Rahul’s, but they drifted apart. Lately, though, Rahul finds his eyes keep drifting back to Justin, and he doesn’t know why. He does know that he’s feeling the need to be “best” at something, though, and his attempts are both hilarious and painful to watch. He’s gamely supported by his parents and Chelsea, but more and more Rahul finds himself pushing everyone away, and has developed some worrisome OCD habits. 7th grade is not turning out to be his best year…but is there a way to save it?

My Most Excellent Year. Steve Kluger (MS-YA)

Ninth graders T.C., Augie, and Alejandra tell the story of their most excellent year. During this year, they all fell in love (Augie first had to realize he was gay, and T.C. had to stop taking dating advice from his dad), fought for social causes (T.C. taught Alejandra how to spam the Senate to get a baseball diamond built at Manzanar), performed brilliantly onstage (Augie’s interpretation of “Too Darn Hot” brought down the house), adopted a deaf six-year-old foster kid obsessed with Mary Poppins (he kept expecting her to come rescue him), and generally grew into their potential.

My Lady Jane. Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows. (YA)

Let’s face it: Tudor history has needed a reboot for a long time. Everyone knows all the scandals and battles and wives and what have you. Time for something new. Imagine that the world includes two kinds of people; those who can turn into animals, and those who can’t. The Tudors include many of the former, including Henry VIII (a lion who eats messengers). Because humans are human whatever their shape, there’s tension between the two types of people, which is about to come to a head. Henry VIII is gone, and his sickly teenage son Edward is on the throne, but dying slowly of ‘The Affliction.’ In a moment of weakness, he is persuaded to do two things: order the marriage of his book-loving cousin Jane Grey to the son of his most influential counselor, Lord Dudley. Gifford (or G, as he prefers), is a fine young man–when he is a man. From sunup to sundown, he’s a horse. So, Edward orders Jane to marry G, then appoints Jane his successor. What do you think the odds are for Edward at this point? Well, better than in the history we know, is all I can tell you.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. Mackenzi Lee (YA)

“Stop. I won’t let you take your trousers off in the middle of the street. That is a terrible idea.”

“Right. Well. Shall we keep kissing until we think of a better one?” In the 1700s, 18-year-old Henry Montague, Viscount of Disley, is a terrible rake. Expelled from Eton, he spends his time drinking, gambling, and tumbling in and out of bed with boys and girls rather indiscriminately, all while nursing a painfully unrequited crush on his best friend Percy. Their last hurrah–and Monty’s last chance at his inheritance—Is a year-long Grand Tour, at the end of which Monty and Percy will likely be parted forever and Monty will be stuck at home with his monster of a father. Despite being saddled with a “bear-leader” determined to make the boys—and Monty’s younger sister Felicity, who will be dropped off (most unwillingly) at finishing school)—behave, it doesn’t take Monty long to make some spectacularly bad decisions (nudity and theft are involved) that have them fleeing Paris. Beset by highwaymen, the three young adults lose their guardians and their possessions, and then find themselves being pursued across Europe by armed guards (thanks for that, Monty). Will they survive? Will Monty and Percy ever get together? Will Felicity sell them both to pirates for being SO annoying and useless? Stay tuned…

YOLO Juliet. Brett Wright, William Shakespeare (YA)

“Imagine: What if those star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet had smartphones? A classic is reborn in this adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays! Two families at war. A boy and a girl in love. A secret marriage gone oh-so-wrong… and h8. A Shakespeare play told through its characters texting with emojis, checking in at certain locations, and updating their relationship statuses.” –WorldCat.org

House in the Cerulean Sea. T.J. Klune (YA-Adult)

Linus Baker is different than all of the other drones—uh, case workers—at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. For one, he’s been there 17 years. For two, he actually cares about the children in the orphanages he investigates. His job is pretty much his life. He’s 40 something and lives alone with a cranky cat and nosy neighbor, and only vaguely dreams of more. So when he’s assigned to spend a month on an island, investigating the highly classified Marsyas Orphanage, he’s puzzled, dubious, nervous, and very slightly excited. The children on Marsyas are like nothing he’s ever encountered—a female gnome who wants to bury him in her garden, a tentacled green blob who wants to do his laundry, a sprite who wants to turn him into a tree, a wyvern who wants all his buttons, a were-pomeranian who hides from him, and, of course, the antichrist who loves doo-wop. Then there’s the master, the enigmatic, kind, slightly rumpled Arthur Parnassus, who sees something in Linus that he’s never seen in himself.

In Other Lands. Sarah Rees Brennan. (YA-Adult)

Elliott’s mother left when he was young and his father basically stopped living—and stopped being a father—at the same time, leaving their snarky, too-smart, redheaded son to bring himself up, and he’s not doing the greatest job. He knows he has an abrasive personality and has no friends. Then a strange woman takes his class on a field trip to a, well, a field, and Elliott can see an immense wall the others can’t. He’s offered the chance to attend school in the Borderlands beyond the wall, and, having nothing to lose, he takes it; maybe he’ll get the chance to see mermaids? The camp that serves as a school for the Borderlands guards is nothing like what Elliott thought it would be, and he flat out refuses to be in the Guard side of the training because violence never solved anything—he’ll do the Council training course instead. His loathing of violence doesn’t stop him falling madly in love with a gorgeous elf called Serene Heart in the Chaos of Battle (“That’s so badass!”), and he pledges himself to her immediately, which doesn’t turn her off because in elf culture, women are the strong ones and men stay at home and embroider. Elliott’s not thrilled with most of the other recruits, including the impossibly charismatic Luke Sunborn, who reminds Elliott of all the boys who have everything and like to bully the kids who don’t—including Elliott. Unfortunately, Luke and Serene have already bonded over their love of sports and battle and everything else, and Elliott will have to put up with Luke if he wants to stay close to Serene. And so begin their years of training.

The Last Days of Summer. Steve Kluger (YA-Adult)

In the 1940s, Brooklyn Jewish kid Joey is plagued by nasty bullies and the lack of a father. He decides that Charlie Banks, third baseman of the NY Giants, will become his best friend and fill that gap. Through cunning, deceit, and smarts, he finds Charlie’s address and starts writing him. Charlie is less than thrilled, but just can’t seem to shake Joey. There’s just something about this persistent, annoying, resourceful, fearless kid that Charlie (like many, many others) can’t resist, much as he might want to. The book consists of their letters and notes, Joey’s notes to his local best friend Craig Nakamura, Joey’s report card (Obedience: F), letters to Joey from the White House Press Secretary in response to Joey’s letters, letters from Hazel, the Ethel-Merman-hating singer who is Charlie’s “Toots,” and so much more. Life is exciting and profane and sad, and a world war is just on the horizon.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Douglas Adams (YA-Adult)

“This is the story of Arthur Dent, who, seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out-of-work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with the words don’t panic written on the front. (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”).” –Publisher

How To Be a Normal Person. T.J. Klune. (Adult)

Gus sometimes wonders how this got to be his life. He runs a video rental emporium (who even rents videos anymore? Very few people, which is still more than Gus wants to interact with) in a tiny town in Oregon, he has an accidental albino ferret named Harry S. Truman who goes everywhere with him (you really don’t want to deal with a pissed-off ferret if you don’t), he reads encyclopedias for fun, has a flip phone and no internet, can quote all the Oscar winners in any category for any year, and his “best” friends are three elderly, possibly-sisters-possibly-polyamorous-lesbians who drive Vespas and wear pink leather jackets (I think). It’s an okay life, it is, really, but he can’t even quantify how much he misses Pastor Tommy, his sweet, loving, outgoing, usually-totally-stoned father. Gus doesn’t interact with many people, and he’s beyond awkward when he does, so when he encounters Casey, an asexual stoner hipster who seems to think Gus is beyond awesome, Gus is completely flummoxed. Maybe the Internet could teach him how to be a normal person?

To Say Nothing of the Dog. Connie Willis (Adult)

Hapless time-travel historian Ned Henry is in search of a horrendous Victorian artifact called ‘The Bishop’s Bird Stump,’ as part of a project to recreate Coventry Cathedral exactly as it was before it was bombed in World War II. Unfortunately, Ned has been doing so much time travelling that he’s suffering from time-lag, which disorients its sufferers and starts them quoting melodramatic poetry. Ned needs a rest, but the project’s financer, Lady Shrapnel, is ruthless in her pursuit of perfection–and the historians who will get it for her. Ned needs a safe place to recuperate, so travels to the Victorian era for a peaceful holiday drifting down the Thames River. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and Ned is soon embarked on a hilarious series of misadventures closely related to those encountered by the hapless heroes of Jerome K. Jerome’s hilarious ‘Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog.’

Thus Was Adonis Murdered. Sarah Caudwell (Adult)

“Set to have a vacation away from her home life and the tax man, young barrister Julia Larwood takes a trip to Italy with her art-loving boyfriend. But when her personal copy of the current Finance Act is found a few meters away from a dead body, Julia finds herself caught up in a complex fight against the Inland Revenue. Fortunately, she’s able to call on her fellow colleagues who enlist the help of their friend Oxford professor Hilary Tamar. However, all is not what it seems. Could Julia’s boyfriend in fact be an employee of the establishment she has been trying to escape from? And how did her romantic luxurious holiday end in murder?” –Publisher.

Some Like It Hawk. Donna Andrews (Adult)

The town of Caerphilly, VA, finds itself in a unique position this July; their rat of an ex-mayor mortgaged the town buildings then fled, at which point the ‘Evil Lender’ evicted all town employees from the buildings–except for Mr. Throckmorton, who barricaded himself in the courthouse basement with his beloved Archives. Unbeknownst to the Evil Lender, there is a secret tunnel into the Courthouse, through which those town residents in the know have been ferrying supplies and information to Mr. Throckmorton for the past year. Now, though, the Evil Lender seems to be stepping up its efforts to get Mr. Throckmorton out–including getting him accused of murder. It’s up to blacksmith Meg Langslow and her town friends to find out the truth and save not only Mr. Throckmorton, but the whole town.

Almost Like Being in Love. Steve Kluger (Adult)

Travis and Craig met at boarding school and fell in love their senior year, 1978. After a passionate summer together in NYC, they went to the opposite sides of the country for college, and fell out of touch. Travis became an unorthodox professor of American literature, who asks his students about Alexander Hamilton and baseball, as well as what to do about his 27th boyfriend. Craig becomes a lawyer, falls in love with Clayton, and they’ve been together 12 years. Then Travis finally has a revelation in 1998 that Craig is The One for him, and starts off on a picaresque journey to find him and get him back. What does Craig think about that? Well, that would be telling…

Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog. Jerome K. Jerome (Adult)

“‘We agree that we are overworked, and need a rest—A week on the rolling deep? —George suggests the river—’ And with the co-operation of several hampers of food and a covered boat, the three men (not forgetting the dog) set out on a hilarious voyage of mishaps up the Thames. When not falling in the river and getting lost in Hampton Court Maze, Jerome K. Jerome finds time to express his ideas on the world around—many of which have acquired a deeper fascination since the day at the end of the 19th century when this excursion was so lightly undertaken.” –Publisher.

Ways of Reading

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As I followed the “reading culture” thread on the listserv last month and scrawled lists of related books I need to investigate, it got me thinking about all the ways I read nowadays. More specifically, I thought about how differently I read now than I did when I was a kid. When I was the age of my current students, reading meant a print book, or maybe an article in a print magazine or newspaper. Now, though?

  • In the morning and evening, as I get ready for work or bed, I listen to audiobooks. I also listen to audiobooks on long car trips. For short trips, I prefer podcasts, though often that means reading-adjacent storytelling podcasts like The Moth or StoryCorps.
  • Professional articles I mostly read on my computer, though my school does subscribe to print versions of SLJ and Hornbook, which makes for a nice break from staring at screens all the time!
  • In my father’s last years, I called him daily to read him articles from The New York Times, Smithsonian, or BBC Travel, all of which I read on my computer (though I do maintain a print subscription to Smithsonian).
  • I review books for SLJ and Kirkus, and these days, I read all those on my computer.
  • For travel, or for books I need to read as soon as possible, I have a Kindle, or the Kindle app on my phone.
  • Before I go to sleep, I catch up on Webtoons, and read fanfic recommended by my friends’ kids or my students.
  • And yes, I also still read print books and graphic novels!

I’m sure that most of your reading lives are equally diverse, and I can only imagine what my students’ reading lives include! So often I think our students don’t consider themselves readers because they don’t read print books except for class, but they may well devour (or write!) hundreds of thousands of words of fanfiction online, or listen to serial stories on podcasts, or read articles in areas of interest online, etc.

So how do we celebrate all kinds of reading as we build a reading culture at school? Chris Young mentioned a few things in their recent post on using Beanstack to foster a culture of reading, with Book Bingo that included articles and audiobooks. That’s a great start! Perhaps I could start the year with a board inviting kids to write down all the ways they read, and then work from there? Perhaps I’ll get amazing ideas from books about reading culture, as well. I don’t yet know how I’ll approach it, but I know I want to take into account all kinds of reading.

Tell me in the comments all the ways you and your students read!

Covers of all the books I read in the last twelve months, flanked by my favorite Webtoons.

Our First High School Book Fair

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Every fall, when we do our big middle school book fair, my high school students tell me fondly of how much they loved the book fair and ask me why we don’t have one in the high school. The reason for that, of course, is that none of the big book fair companies offer a high school option and I was worried that working with an indie bookstore would require a lot more work on my end (let’s face it – Scholastic makes it pretty easy). When our on-campus bookstore decided it wasn’t going to purchase summer reading books for students, I decided it was the perfect time to try it out. My friend at our local indie was totally game, and it turned out she had just attended a bookseller conference session about how to do book fairs with schools! We did 3 days in the middle school at the beginning of the week then finished the week in the high school. My goal was to get students excited about books and reading before school ended in May and also have a convenient option for families to buy summer reading books.

Prep and set up was really easy. We made a list of titles that we knew students would like or listed genre-type things like “realistic fiction graphic novels,” “Karen McManus-style mysteries,” “romances like Caraval or The Selection.” Over a few days, we went back and forth with the store adding things to the list and changing up titles as needed, and we ended up with a list of 35-40 different titles for each division. I opted for a variety of titles with a few copies of each, rather than tons of copies of just a few books, to give our students lots of options. I also knew that we could easily order anything we ran out of and just deliver to students later. The bookstore ordered the books and set up a Square that we would use for checkouts during the fair. They also ordered some “treasures,” as Nicole so aptly described them a few weeks ago. I made a joke at one point about how we’d have fun pencils and bookmarks but nothing that smelled like chocolate, only for chocolate-scented erasers to show up – needless to say they were a hit. Once everything arrived, the bookstore rep brought everything to campus and we set up the books on a few tables, making levels with some display stands.

In addition to taking cash and card, we allow students to charge book fair purchases to their student accounts, which means a lot less handling of cash for all involved. In order to do this, we require students to have a form signed by a parent that gives them a budget they’re allowed to spend. All middle school students got a paper form to take home, high school students could grab a paper form in the library, and all parents in both divisions got an email with a link to an online form. We then keep a spreadsheet of purchases that we can turn into our business office and can pay the bookstore in one lump sum. The Square app that the bookstore set up allowed us to put students’ names in the purchase notes, so we could easily keep track of who purchased what, and the Square also made it really easy to pull a quick report and make sure our spreadsheet matched actual sales.

So how did it all work out? Our middle school fair was pretty par for the course – lots of traffic from 6th grade, less from 8th – but I did have one kid come back in the afternoon to say how much he was enjoying the book he bought that morning! For me, the high school was the really fun part. See, my fiction and narrative nonfiction books are in a “Reading Room” on the opposite side of the building from the Research Library where I spend most of my day, so I don’t often get a chance to have impromptu conversations about just-for-fun books with students. I loved being able to have these readers advisory conversations, and both students and teachers were excited to come shop for books. I had conveniently read most of the books on offer, so I was able to make lots of recommendations, and I had several students who would just sit and talk to me about what they’d been reading lately. We have a lot of discussions about how our students aren’t reading, and there are plenty that aren’t, but a lot still love it and just lack the time to read during the busy academic year. This was a nice reminder of that.

The only thing I would change is scheduling the fair during the high school field day. Our Research Library, where the fair was set up, is right off the football field, and my plan had been to be open during the field day powderpuff game as a nice break from being outdoors. However, it rained all day, the powederpuff game was postponed, and students were dismissed early, so I had very few visits that day. In a perfect world, I’d also move the fair to May, but that’s up to my business office and not me.

I loved working with our indie store, and we plan to make this an annual fair. It was so much easier than I was anticipating, and I left with all the warm fuzzy feelings, plus a few new books for the library. Have you worked with an indie bookstore for a book fair? How did it work for you, and what else would you recommend to those looking to try it out?