Student Book Recommendations

One of the last things I ask my students to do at the end of the school year is to make a list of books they would recommend to their peers. I give a copy of this list to each student as a place to start their summer reading. I'm also happy to share this year's list with all of you. I've read 90 of them already. How did you do?

Recommended Books 2009-2010

13th Reality series – Dashner
39 Clues series – various
Alcatraz and the Librarian series – Sanderson
Alchemist, The series – Scott
Alex Rider series – Horowitz
Aliens series – various
All-American Girl – Cabot
Among the Hidden series – Haddix
Antsy Does Time – Schusterman
Artemis Fowl – Colfer
Bear Dancer – Wyss
Bella at Midnight – Stanley
Body Finder, The – Derting
Breath - Winton
Candy Shop Wars, The – Mull
Charlie Bone series – Nimmo
Chasing Vermeer - Ballitt
Children of the Lamp series – Kerr
Chosen One, The – Williams
Christmas Jar, The – Wright
Christmas List, The – Evans
Christmas Sweater, The – Beck
Chronicles of Vladmire Tod, The series – Brewer
Cirque du Freak – Shan
Cleopatra VI - Gregory
Climbing the Stairs – Venkatraman
Clique series – Harrison
Cold Service – Parker
Counting Stars – Holmes
Courting Miss Lancaster – Eden
Crooked Kind of Perfect – Urban
Cry of the Icemark series – Hill
Cut – McCormick
Daniel X series – Patterson
Dark Hills Divide - Carmer
Darklight – Livingston
Deadly Little Secret – Stolarz
Deathwatch – White
Deep & Dark & Dangerous – Hahn
Deep Down Popular – Stone
Diary of a Wimpy Kid series - Kinney
Don’t Don’t Tell Jokes – Sachar
Double Identity – Haddix
Dragon Keeper - Wilkinson
Dragon Slippers series – George
Dune series – Herbert
Dusty Britches – McClure
Elantris – Sanderson
Ella Enchanted – Levine
Ender’s Game series – Card
Eragon series – Paolini
Esperanza Rising – Ryan
Ever – Levine
Everest series – Korman
Extraordinary Adventures Alfred Kropp – Yancy
Fablehaven series – Mull
Face, The – Koonz
Fairest – Levine
Farworld series – Savage
Giver, The – Lowry
Going Postal – Pratchett
Goose Girl series – Hale
Guardians of Ga’Hoole series – Lasky
Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie – Shaffer
Harry Potter series – Rowling
Heart Only Knows, The – Blair
Heat – Lupica
Heir Apparent – Van Velde
Hoot – Haaisen
Host, The – Meyers
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Ford
Hourglass Door, The series – Mangum
House of Night, The series – Cast
How to Survive Middle School – Gephart
Huckleberry Finn – Twain
Hunger Games, The series – Collins
I’d Tell You I Love You series – Carter
Ice – Durst
Ida B. – Hannigan
Immortals series, The – Noel
Inkheart series – Funke
Island series – Korman
Jinx – Cabot
Just One Wish – Rallison
Kate’s Turn series – Crane
Key to Rondo, The – Rodda
Keys to the Golden Firebird – Johnson
Last Song, The – Sparks
Lean on Me – Weyland
Lemon Tart – Kilpack
Levan Thumps series – Skye
Leviathan – Westerfeld
Lightning Thief, The series – Riordan
Line, The – Hall
Lord of the Rings trilogy – Tolkien
Luxe, The series –Godberson
Magician Trilogy, The – Nimmo
Maximum Ride series – Patterson
Maze Runner, The – Dashner
Missing series – Haddix
Molly Moon series – Byng
Morganville Vampires series - Caine
My Fair Godmother – Rallison
My Life in Pink and Green – Greenwald
Mysterious Benedict Society, The – Stewart
Notebook, The – Sparks
Number the Stars – Lowry
Old Willis Place, The - Hahn
Of Mice and Magic series – Farland
Once Upon a Marigold – Fern
Out of the Dust – Hesse
Peak series – Smith
Pendragon series – MacHale
Persuasion – Austen
Peter and the Starcatchers series – Berry/Pearson
Predator series – various
Prelude to Glory series – Carter
Pride and Prejudice – Austen
Princess Bride, The – Goldman
Princess Diaries, The series – Cabot
Princess of the Midnight Ball – George
Rag and Bone Shop, The – Cormier
Ranger’s Apprentice – Flanagan
Raymond & Graham – Knudson
Rebel Angels – Bray
Rune Lords series Farland
Running Out of Time – Haddix
Sammy Keyes series – Van Draanen
Santa Maybe – Mace
Secret Life of Bees, The – Kidd
Secret, The – Byrne
Shiver – Stiefvater
Silverfin – Higson
Small Gods – Pratchett
Stolen Children – Kehret
Stop Pretending – Sones
Summer Ball – Lupica
Summer of the Monkeys – Rawls
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow – George
Sunflower, The – Evans
Sunrise Over Fallujah – Meyers
Surgeon, The – Gerritsen
Surviving Antarctica 2086 – White
Switch – Horowitz
Tale of Despereaux, The – DiCamillo
Tantalize – Smith
Teens at War – Zullo
Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series – Heimerdinger
Tower of Strength - Lyon
Traitor -Gray
Tunnels – Williams
Two Little Girls in Blue - Clark
Twlight series – Meyers
Uglies series – Westerfeld
Un Lun Dun – Mieville
Undaunted, The – Lund
Uprising – Haddix
Vampire Diaries, The series – Smith
Vampirates series – Somper
Variant – Wells
Walk to Remember, A – Sparks
Walk Two Moons – Creech
Ways to Live Forever – Nicholls
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town – Holt
Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls
Where the River Runs North – Morton
Witch & Wizard series – Patterson
Witch Child – Rees
Witness – Hesse
Wuthering Heights – Bronte

Press Release: Lu Ann Staheli Wins Best of State: Non-Fiction

Lu Ann Brobst Staheli has been named Utah’s 2010 Best of State Medalist in Literary Arts: Non-Fiction. In the past year, Staheli saw the publication of her first full length book, When Hearts Conjoin, “Which Way—Do-It-Yourself or Traditional?” as a featured cover article for The Writer Magazine, “Bringing the Library Back to Life After the Library Dragon is Slain” in Library Media Connection Magazine, and Fablehaven Teacher’s Guides for Shadow Mountain Publishers. In addition, Lu Ann had articles published in Desert Saints Magazine, Your LDS Neighborhood, and Meridian Magazine, while she continues to write professional book reviews for LMC, The ALAN Review, and The SIGNAL Journal.

A former member of the Spanish Fork City Arts Council and columnist for both the Spanish Fork Press and the Spanish Fork News, Lu Ann is a popular speaker, having delivered workshop presentations for the League of Utah Writers Round-Up, Utah Council of Teachers of English Language Arts, Utah Educator Library Media Association Spring Conference, LDS Storymakers Conference, WriteWise Publishing Book Camp, UELMA Fall Workshop, and two area chapters of the League of Utah Writers in the past year.

Staheli uses her vast knowledge of publication to coach aspiring authors and is a Senior Editor for Precision Editing Group (PEG). Her efforts to teach others the craft of writing has resulted in more than fifty new authors seeing their first books published in the last two years, and a bevy of other authors finding their books best-sellers or as finalists and winners of the Whitney Award since its inception.

Named Best of State Educator K-12 in 2008, Lu Ann recently saw the release of her second biography, Psychic Madman, co-written with Jim Karol. Her upcoming projects include The Business of Marriage with Dino Watt and a biography with entertainer and humanitarian Alan Osmond.