2014 Reading Lists Are Ready!

Click an image above to download a pdf file of its reading list.

The elementary reading list is on Natalie's site, The Pithy Python.

The Thing About Ebooks

An added feature in each list this year is information on the Paideia Library's new ebook offerings. Each booklet has information and links on how to get set up to borrow ebooks, and titles in the list that are included in the digital collection are marked with an E icon.

Why the big ebook push?  Well, it's especially exciting for me because our community can still borrow and read from the library collection even while the library is closed.  We have offered the "Summer Checkout" program for as long as I can remember (after all, what are the books going to do in the library over the summer?), but the ebooks can allow even more readers to enjoy the same title.

From the digital collection, the circulation period is a maximum of 3 weeks, and the book is automatically available to the next person right away (no waiting for an overdue book to be returned).  Over a 10-week period, a book can be checked out by at least three different readers, and possibly more, since ebooks can be returned early.

Plus More Lists of Lists!

There are so many zillions more good books than can be included in any one reading list, and yes, each year some good books are deleted from the list in order to make room for more new good books. So this year, the lists of awards for teen books are still in the front, but additional lists of lists are included at the back.  AND, check back to the pages of this blog over the summer for more reading suggestions. 

50 States of Young Adult Fiction

This is a geographic reading list I created (liberally adapted from one created by EpicReads.com) listing one YA novel set each of the 50 United States (plus a few territories).  Junior high readers can participate in a 'reading road trip' challenge, to read at least 5 novels set in states that touch one another -- as if they drove from the first state to the last.  Over the summer I will add to the list of novels for each state (in a blog post, so check back!), so readers have more than one option per state as they map their 'road trips.'  The current list is at the back of both the junior high and the high school lists, and if you click the map you can download a copy of the poster with cover images and QR codes for more info on each book.

FYI

The cover image on the high school reading list is slightly adapted from a free wallpaper image, "Tree of Books," created by Russian graphic artist Vlad Geramisov.  VladStudio.com is based in the eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk, just upriver from Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake in the world, and just across the border from Mongolia.  His art and characters are distinctively unique and a great deal of fun -- be sure to check out VladStudio's offerings this summer and beyond!  Geramisov's "Internet Cafe" wallpaper, of a group of nightowls reading on their iPads, was my MacBook desktop for ages.