It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Book Lists

One of my favorite times of the year is the end-of-year book lists. Public libraries, journals, authors, publishing companies, educators—they are all posting their favorite books from the year. Are you a middle-grade librarian? There are lists just for the middle grades. Do you need to improve your picture book or graphic novel section? There are lists specifically for those. Not only are many people posting their favorite books of the year, they are also posting lists of books to look forward to in the year to come. For school librarians, this is a great time to start making those wish lists for new books we may want to purchase. 

School Library Journal's Best Books 2021

School Library Journal’s Best Books 2021

Whenever I am perusing these lists, I will also have a book review site such as Titlewave up to read the book reviews. If it looks like a book my students might like, I will add it to a wish list. If I think a list is particularly good, I will add it to a Wakelet board for future reference. Whenever I receive funding from the district, grants, or fundraisers, I have my wish list ready to go. Something new I started last year was showcasing several book lists to the students. I provided them with several book lists and had them pick their top three favorites for me to order. This let me know to order extra copies of certain books. I would also take a few books off of my wish list if none of the students seemed interested in those titles.

It seems like there are lists everywhere, but if you do not know where to start, I’ve listed some of my favorite book lists below.  

If you have a favorite book list not mentioned, please list it in the comment section. We are all #BetterTogether by sharing our favorite resources and lists.

Afoma Umesi's List of 100 Amazing Middle Grade Books Releasing in 2022

Afoma Umesi’s List of 100 Amazing Middle Grade Books Releasing in 2022

mm

Author: Amanda Jones

Amanda is the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, the 2020 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year, and a 21 year educator from Watson, LA. She’s a teacher-librarian and certified reading specialist at a 5-6 grade middle school. She is Vice President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and is the 2019 AASL Social Media Superstar Program Pioneer. Amanda is an active member of several committees for AASL and is on the Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Awards Committee. Visit her library website at lomlibrary.org and/or find out more about her at http://librarianjones.com/.



Categories: Blog Topics, Collection Development

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 reply

  1. Pernille Ripp has an excellent mock Caldecott list too!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.