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Banned Books

From The Guardian, in honor of Banned Books Week 2010, here the the 10 most-banned books in American schools and libraries. Many of the books that grace this and other banned books lists are wonderful for the classroom, and several from this Top Ten will be reviewed on this site in short order.

Soon to be Reviewed:

The following books will have reviews posted on TeachYALit.com as soon as possible. (The list below is not in any particular order. If you have reviews or lesson plans of any of these books--or others that you feel should be added to the list, please email info@teachyalit.com for details on how to submit those materials for publication here.

• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Gatherine Blue by Lois Lowry
• Messenger by Lois Lowry
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Tex by S.E. Hinton
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

While the site has been launched, we're obviously still ramping up in the content department. We LOVE feedback and help. Again, if you have any recommendations regarding books to add to this list, or reviews of these texts, or lesson/unit plans for them, please contact us. At the moment we cannot pay you for any contributions, but we will give you hearty thanks and attribution.

Welcome to TeachYALit.com - The YA Lit Review!

Greetings and welcome!

At the moment, this website is just a kernel of an idea. It's an offshoot of my current reading/writing/book review blog, which can be found here.

While I include YA Lit on my other blog, I wanted to create a different vehicle that would focus exclusively on young adult literature. I'd like this site to serve several different purposes:

• Be a resource for teachers/educators who want to find and share great ideas for books to include in classroom libraries, bridge texts to canonical literature, or any other lesson/unit plans that would benefit from the inclusion of great YA lit.
• Be a resource for students who devour books faster than the publishers can print them, can't find a book worth reading that feels real and relevant, or need suggestions for books to read for school projects, book reports, or just plain pleasure
• Be a resource for parents who want to read with their kids, steer their children towards some great books, or relive their own middle and high school glory days by reading books for teens.
• And, of course, I hope the format and content of this site proves to be useful and welcoming to anyone who has an interest in young adult literature.

The primary content for a while will focus on reviews and commentary on individual books, authors, or series. For now, this site is hosted by blogger, and it will likely stay that way for the early part of its life, while we let it evolve and adjust to the type/amount of traffic it generates. In the not-too-distant future, however, I anticipate migrating this to a larger and more flexible hosting service in order to add features and functionality. Possible additions include a wiki for lesson/unit planning, file storage for media and other ancillary materials, and user forums to promote more flexibility in organizing and contributing to discussions.

As a former teacher and administrator in both middle and high school settings, I have a huge collection of YA lit in my own personal library, so I have a pretty large backlog of books to review here. I'll start posting those immediately, but in the meantime, please comment with suggestions for books to include, lesson/unit topics, or anything else that seems relevant! Guest posts are most heartily welcome; if interested, you can email me here.