The purpose of this page is to serve as a guide for library professionals who are interested in nominating books for the Quick Pick list. The nominations are closed for the 2007-2008, but late winter (2008) they will re-open for 2008-2009.
This selection guide, is from my experience over the past two years of participating as a Committee member. For the 2008-2009 year, I will be the Chairperson and am hoping that these guidelines will bring many excellent field nominations from library professionals.
To prepare an annual annotated list of recommended books appropriate for reluctant young adult readers.
The list is for young adults (ages 12-18) who, for whatever reasons, do not like to read. The purpose of this list is to identify titles for recreational reading, not for curricular or remedial use.
Quick Pick books are for students who do not like to read therefore the books must grab their attention. Quality of the literature is not a large consideration when looking for appropriate books to nominate. Here are a few characteristics to guide you in your nominations. Big thanks to the great Rollie Welch of Cleveland Public Library for this great description.
Here are some great examples of good Quick Pick nominations with appealing covers
Here are some examples of Quick Pick nominations with covers that do not appeal to reluctant readers
These books with the unappealing covers are pretty good books, but the cover is the thing with the reluctant readers. This is not a statement of quality against any of these books. In fact, Poison Ivy, is a great book that would have been a great pick for the committee, but with the bad cover it just wouldn't leave in the hands of RR's. Some of these books are being considered by Best Books for Young Adults, it is definitely not a quality issue. Quality is not a huge consideration in the Quick Pick realm. Our ultimate goal is to get kids reading; they start with something like PostSecret by Frank Warren, a gateway book, and move on to books with more text.
Right now, what is hot in teen lit is more urban in nature. Things that look rural or unsophisticated just don't move with the RR's. Look for some of the following titles and watch them go with your Reluctant Readers.
All images are courtesy of BarnesandNoble.com.