Silvey, Anita. 500 Great Books for Teens. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 397 pages. Hardback $26.00. ISBN: 0618612963. Reference.500 Books is designed to be a resource for finding great books among the many young adult books on the shelves. The author worked in publishing, was an editor and is a professor of children’s literature so she is qualified to determine the 500 great books. However, she also polled teens throughout the US and included the ALA awards and honor books in her criteria.
The book is organized into twenty one genres: adventure and survival, autobiography and memoir, edgy trendsetting novels, fantasy, graphic novels, historical fiction, horror ghosts gothic, humor, information, many cultures many realities, mystery and thriller, plays, poetry and poetic novels, politics and social conscience, realistic fiction, religion and spirituality, romance, science fiction, short stories, sports and war and conflict.
Within each chapter, essays containing detailed descriptions of each book so both teens and parents would have a good idea of the content. Along with descriptions, recommended age group, publisher, publication date and page length are included. Award winners are noted. Controversy surrounding a book is included within the essay.
Following the 500 books, the author has listed additional titles for each genre that may be of interest to readers. Lists of titles by geographic location, both US and world, and historical time lines are provided by the author along with recommended audio books. There is one index containing title, author and subject information.
A great book for librarians, parents, teens and gift givers. Years worth of books to read can be found within these pages. I have already started making a list for my next visit to the library!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment