Popular books for intermediate readers
The following examples of young adult literature can be read from year 4 or 5 on, depending on the reading skills of the students. All the books deal with topics that are interesting and relevant for teenage learners. Don’t forget that the students are always given a choice — I haven’t found the perfect class-reader yet that would appeal to boys and girls, to read-a-holics and non-readers and to lovers of fantasy or love-stories alike.
I have taught some of these books in themed projects, such as “Teens in Trouble”, “Nazi Germany/ The Second World War”, “Cultural Values: Intercultural Awareness”, “Civil Rights”, …
In other reading projects I have offered a variety of books that appeal to the different tastes and needs in a class.
New project: 
The Refugee Experience
This project has been created in order to help intermediate learners understand refugees and their experiences and needs a bit better. The project consists of five steps: 1. bookchoosing, 2. reading the books at home, 3. online research tasks about the recent refugee crisis (to be done while the learners are reading the books). 4. post-reading tasks and 5. group presentations.
Click on the following picture to get to the teaching materials for all these steps.
Intercultural Awareness: Preparing for a class-trip
The project booklet: print with booklet setting to produce A5 booklets.
Hot new books
| John Green | |||
| Wintergirls |  Number the Stars |
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Great Books for a Civil Rights Project
| Monster | Durango Street | Spite Fences |
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| Roll of Thunder | Harriet Tubman | The Secret Life of Bees |
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Noughts and Crosses |
The absolutely true diary |
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Cultural Values: Intercultural Awareness
Several projects dealing with cultural awareness.
Crossing Borders
( A joint project of year 3 GIBS and the Socio-cultural competence class at KF-Uni Graz)
A quick tour of the project (a short powerpoint presentation)
Project Materials for the girls (Pölzleitner)
Project Materials for boys (Pölzleitner)
Discussion cards for this project
Project Materials: Pölzleitner (year 5, 2009)
Modern English Teacher: Paper about this project
Description of the project: Jennifer Schumm (year 5, 2009)
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| The Absolutely True Diary… | Two Moons | Goy Crazy |
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| Ask Me No Questions | La Linea | The War Between the Classes |
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| If You Come Softly | Ten Things I Hate .. | Children of the River |
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Teens In Trouble
For this project I present 5 or 6 of the following books. Then the students work in their reading groups with one of the general project packages that you can find on the intro page on “Young Adult Literature Projects”. All these books are real page-turners. Some of the declared “non-readers” in my classes have told me that they actually hadn’t known books could be so good. 😎
| Boot Camp |
Asphalt Tribe also called Can’t Get There From Here |
Gangsta Rap |
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| Grass | Give A Boy A Gun | If I Grow Up |
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| Monster | Holes | Jumped In |
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Addiction — Eating Disorders – Psychological Troubles
| Cut | Speak | Go Ask Alice |
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| Wintergirls | ||
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BEING DIFFERENT
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The Curious Incident of the Boy in the Nighttime |
Freak the Mighty |
The Man WhoLoved Clowns |
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| Colin Fischer | Bluefish | Wonder |
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The project handout for the students
Have a look at some of the best group presentations here:
| Mo and Benni | |
| Caro, Pauli, Laura and Rosa | |
| Sophie, Lena, Isi | |
Nazi Germany in the Second World War
| The Wave | The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas | |
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| Ausländer | The Last Train from Kummersdorf
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The Book Thief |
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| The Diary of Anne Frank | Maus | Number the Stars |
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| The Last Black Cat | The Boy at the Top of the Mountain | |
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Adventure
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Stormbreaker |
Peak
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Storm Runners |
Utopia — Dystopia (Trilogies and Quartets)
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Hunger Games |
Catching Fire |
Mockingjay |
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Uglies |
Pretties |
Specials |
Extas
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Divergent |
Insurgent |
Allegiant |
Box Set |
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Delirium
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Pandemonium |
Requiem |
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The Giver |
Gathering Blue |
The Messenger |
The Giver (Set) |
War Experiences
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| Teaching Materials | Teaching Materials | ||
Fantasy |
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The Alchemyst
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The Magician |
The Sorceress
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His Dark Materials |
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More great books…
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Stargirl |
Ophelia |
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Girls love these for private reading
Nicolas Sparks
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The Notebook |
Dear John |
A Walk to Remember |
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Lucky One |
A Bend in the Road |
At First Sight |
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Three Weeks WithMy Brother |
The Guardian |
The Choice |
Excellent but really fat books for read-a-holics
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Twilight |
New Moon |
Eclipse |
Breaking Dawn |
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Harry Potter 1 |
Harry Potter 2 |
Harry Potter 3 |
Harry Potter 4 |
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Harry Potter 5 |
Harry Potter 6 |
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