What The Kids Are Reading

I write about what I am reading, but today I am going to focus on what the kids at my school (upper grades, like fourth and fifth) check out over and over.

The Warriors series by Erin Hunter (who I just this week learned is three women). I have to say I am not a big fan of animal books. About once every two years I try Watership Down because it is such a classic and can never get through it. I did enjoy Rabbit Hill though and that is all about animals. At any rate, I need to give these a try.

The Shadow Children by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I talked one of my fifth grade teachers into reading this out loud this fall and it has created quite a run on these books. I try to get the students to read them in order, but we only have one copy of each and they are constantly being checked out. I love this series because it is set in a dystopian society, but it is not bogged down with a lit of stuff that kids don't understand. It is simple and straightforward.

Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Again a series I just cannot get into. Must be my sunny, upbeat personality, but these books are such downers. They are big with the middle grade set, though.

The Orphan Train Adventures by Joan Lowery Nixon. The first book in this series is one that the fifth graders do as a novel study so there is always a spiked interest in these books in the fall.

Power of Five series by Anthony Horowitz. I am delighted that these are catching on. They are about five special children who are born to stop "the Old Ones" (really powerful beings) from taking over the world. This fall one girls asked for an adventure type book that was kind of scary. I gave her Raven's Gate (the first) and now she has read all of these I had and they have caught on with others. I love Anthony Horowitz and hope that Alex Rider catches on soon because I love that little spy!

As you can see series books still remain popular. I can't say I blame them, when you connect with an author and a character, you just want to see them over and over. It's like visiting a favorite friend!