YALSA'S Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers Guide for Nominations

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.

 

 

Charge

 

To prepare an annual annotated list of recommended books appropriate for reluctant young adult readers.

 

 

Purpose

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 Selection Characteristics

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.

 

1. The cover will draw them to the book.
2. After examining the book, they open it.
3. The beginning sentences and pages encourage them to read more.
4. They finish the book!
5. They share it with their friends.

 

Appearance/Cover

• The cover should attract readers to it.

• Nonfiction should be very visual in nature.
• Opening is enticing, within the first 10 pages something happens to make them want to read and/or know more.
• Book should be shorter in length (150 pages or so), otherwise it might be overwhelming.
  • Notable exceptions: Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

• The book should be relatable to the teen world and what is at the moment, "hot."

 

 

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.

 

 

 

What's Hot

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.