I love coming across exciting lists of books or programs involving books.
The National Book Foundation has one I just heard of called BookUpNYC. Here is the blurb from their website:
BOOKUPNYC AT A GLANCE
The National Book Foundation is committed to using innovative approaches to encourage young people to read for pleasure. Recent studies show that middle school age children are at great risk to stop reading on their own. Through BookUpNYC, we are addressing this issue and introducing young people to America’s rich literary culture. We believe that if young people aren’t readers, they haven’t yet found the right books. Working in weekly, after-school sessions with writer/instructors, BookUpNYC helps young people identify their interests and guides them toward finding quality books they will enjoy. BookUpNYC is an expansion of our settlement house program and builds on the successes of that program.
Here’s how BookUpNYC works:
- Sessions are held once a week for a minimum of twelve weeks, allowing for a stronger relationship to form between resident authors and students.
- The primary focus is on reading and creative, reading-related activities that enhance the appreciation of reading as an interactive, imaginative pursuit.
- Children read from a selection of challenging material including short stories, books, and literary journals in addition to books recommended by the resident author.
- Participants go on field trips to “reading hot spots” including libraries, bookstores, literary organizations, and cultural programs such as author readings.
- Participants are supplied with gift cards to these bookstores, where they are able to buy their own books, supervised by the staff of the Foundation and writer/instructors.
- Each student receives a printed map of “reading hot spots” in New York City, which lists all bookstores, libraries, and literary organizations in the five boroughs including their addresses, phone numbers, website, and opening hours.
How cool is that? They also have a book list that I hate to admit I have only read 4 from (** indicates). I’ll get reading on this list in my free time.
Here is their book list:
Books Read in BookUpNYC
As a key part of BookUpNYC, each student reads and receives his or her own copies of a group of books each semester. Students also select titles for purchase on field trips. The following are some of the books read in BookUpNYC group sessions:
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
- Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks
- Blubber by Judy Blume **
- Tyrell by Coe Booth
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon
- Deep in the Mountains by Terrence Cheng
- My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier **
- Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat
- The Fire Thief Series by Terry Deary
- Drown by Junot Diaz
- Double Dutch by Sharon Draper
- The Sista Hood by E-Fierce
- The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake **
- Every Time a Rainbow Dies by Rita Williams Garcia
- Gemini by Nikki Giovanni
- Selected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
- Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones
- Madame President (How I Survived Middle School) by Nancy Krulik
- The Gun by Paul Langan
- Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
- Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
- Angry Black White Boy by Adam Mansbach
- El Bronx Remembered by Nicholasa Mohr
- What They Found: Love on 145th St. by Walter Dean Myers
- Graffiti Girl by Kelly Parra
- Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Boy Without a Flag by Abraham Rodriguez, Jr.
- Buddha Book by Abraham Rodriguez, Jr.
- When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
- Push by Sapphire
- Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld **
- Lena by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
- A People’s Trilogy of the United States by Howard Zinn
Best Book I Have Not Read 