What my senior students are reading - a list!

One of my annual tasks, and it is a joyous one, is to take a close look at the books recommended by Grade 6 students as they leave our school. This is a part of their Year Book entry along with friends, food, movies and nicknames.

For a change this blog entry (my final one for 2011) is simply a list. I think this list is interesting for several reasons. There is a great mix of titles here. Nearly every child talked about a different book and this makes me smile because so many of these books were titles I enjoyed too. I am always happy to see the students make such great choices from the abundance of our wonderful school library. I feel proud that nearly all of these books are in our library because of me. At a time when there is talk of taking away the position of Teacher-Librarian I wonder if the children (in a school with no teacher-librarian) would produce such an eclectic list. There are only two titles on this list which were read as class novels – The Phantom Tollbooth and Nips XI.

Here is the list in no particular order :

Deltora Quest series by Emily Rodda
Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Nips XI by Ruth Starke
Locket of Dreams by Belinda Murrell
Charlie Small Journals
Harry Potter series
Varjak Paw SF Said
Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
Alice Miranda series by Jacqueline Harvey
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
EJ12 series by Susanah McFarlanne
UFO in USA by Dave Hackett
Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Anastasia’s Album by Hugh Brewster
Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
Treasure Fever by Andy Griffiths
Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney
Hugo Pepper by Paul Stewart
The Gizmo by Paul Jennings
Cherub series by Robert Muchamore
Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
Marley and me by John Grogan
The day my bum went psycho by Andy Griffiths
Darren Shan series
High Rhulain (Redwall) by Brian Jacques
Hocus Pocus Jellypoo Blues by Laura Milligan
Silk Umbrellas by Carolyn Marsden
Red Dog
Just Annoying by Andy Griffiths
A dog called Grk by Joshua Doder
Holes by Louis Sachar
Raven’s Mountain by Wendy Orr
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth
The invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Misadventures of Bartholomew Pif by Jason Lethcoe
Conspiracy 365 January by Gabrielle Lord
Percy Jackson series
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
Guardians of G’Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky
Runaway Train by David Belbin
Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech
The amazing adventures of Chilly Billy by Peter Mayle
Spy Dog by Andrew Cope
Dark Materials series Philip Pullman
A long walk to : a novel by Linda Sue Park
Ingo by Helen Dunmore
Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton
Tins by Alex Shearer
Boom! by Mark Haddon
Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo
Ivory Rose by Belinda Murrell
Gone by Morris Gleitzman

In addition to these titles which are all in our school library some more sophisticated students cited Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Tomorrow when the war began by John Marsden, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and a number of surfing biographies. Why not add a comment to my blog and let me know which titles you have read on this list or which titles you might add.

Happy New Year!