This weeks Top 10 Tuesday prompt was a freebie, so I figured I’d share with you what I’ve done with my bookshelves this past month to “clean” them out.

I’m an English teacher who teaches 10th-12th grade. It has always been a DREAM of mine to own an enormous library, and when I decided to go into teaching for my career, the dream expanded into not only having my own enormous library, but having an enormous classroom library as well.

I teach in a small town school, so there aren’t as many books in our library as other bigger schools. Because of this, I like to add as many books as I can to my classroom library for kids to read; the more diverse, the better!

Basically, how I pick what books leave my personal shelf and join my classroom is a very simple formula: I don’t like the book enough to want to reread it (or it doesn’t have any special meaning to me at this point), but I liked the book enough where I think my students would like it (or I didn’t like it but it still has the vibe that’s perfect for my students). If there’s any adult books, or absolutely terrible books that I think no-one should read….they get donated and don’t get the honor of being displayed in my classroom.

Since my first year of teaching, my classroom library has grown significantly, but here are 8 books I recently took from my personal bookshelf and added into my classroom!

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Published on April 7, 2015
Genres: LGBTQ+, Young Adult
Pages: 333

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met.

Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story—wrapped in a geek romance—is a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli.

I remember loving this book a few years ago, but not loving it enough that I needed to keep my own personal copy. I think this was a great addition to my classroom since it has LGBTQ+ representation, and I definitely need to expose my students to more diverse things (#smalltownproblems).

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House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
Published on August 4, 2020
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 416

In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last--the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge--and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sister's deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who--or what--are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family--before it claims her next.

This fantasy was absolutely amazing. It was like a murder mystery type book and it kept me interested the entire time.

From my OG review: “Erin Craig created the most wonderful atmosphere. I wanted to be there, in their community by the ocean. Annaleigh (which I love that name by the way) was a fun character to follow. She was brave but also still had a lot of immaturity to her, which felt realistic.”

Lucky for me is I have two copies of this book, so one of them made it’s way to my classroom.

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Looking for Alaska by John Green
Published on September 24, 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 272

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.

Ugh. What a classic. I mostly brought one of my cherished copies to my classroom because I wanted to recommend this to any student that would listen to me. I already have this one checked out by a student and it makes my heart so happy.

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Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
Published on November 5, 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 336

Be careful of the dark, dark wood…

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

I remember enjoying this book for the most part, but it wasn’t a book I was going to reread at any point in my life. I had a few students in mind when I brought this one to the school, and someone checked it out right away!

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The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, Book One) by Suzanne Collins
Published on September 1, 2009
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
Pages: 384

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Still, if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

I brought my OG copies of The Hunger Games trilogy for my students to read, but only because I recently purchased brand-new copies for myself. I originally read these books for the first time when I was in seventh grade (over 14 years ago, wow). I reread the entire series again two years ago, and I was still obsessed with it. I wanted my students to be able to obsess over it too!

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Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Published on January 16, 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 288

In this unforgettable debut novel, an Indian-American Muslim teen copes with Islamophobia, cultural divides among peers and parents, and a reality she can neither explain nor escape.
 
Seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school.

But in the aftermath of a horrific crime perpetrated hundreds of miles away, her life is turned upside down. The community she’s known since birth becomes unrecognizable; neighbors and classmates are consumed with fear, bigotry, and hatred. Ultimately, Maya must find the strength within to determine where she truly belongs.

I purchased and read this one for a Young Adult Literature class, and I’m so glad I did. It’s an Own Voices story about a Muslim-American teenager struggling with Islamophobia. I did enjoy this one, but I wanted to give my students an opportunity to access it as well.

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American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Published on April 9, 2024
Genres: Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Young Adult
Pages: 233

American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.

I also purchased this one for a Young Adult Literature class. I am currently in the process of purchasing more graphic novels for my classroom, because I think they are perfect choices for hesitant readers. I donated most of my young adult graphic novels, even though I adore them!

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To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Published on July 10, 2018
Genres: Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 384

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Lara Jean’s love life gets complicated in this New York Times bestselling “lovely, lighthearted romance” (School Library Journal) from the bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series.

What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?

Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

I read the first two books in this series a few years back, and it just wasn’t for me anymore. I think it is a series I would have adored in high school, but as an adult, I am more picky about the YA I choose to read. I do, however, think a lot of my students would love this series! A lot of my female students are on romance kicks right now, and I have already seen some grab this series off my shelf.

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Those are some of the books I have recently added to my classroom library! One of my number one goals as a teacher is to encourage a love of reading and hopefully having access to a wide variety of books help me with that!

Leave your Young Adult literature recs down below!! I am always looking for new books to purchase!

Until next time, xx