It’s time for another edition of Hot Books in My Middle School Classroom! Every month or so I like to share the books that are currently grabbing the attention of my sixth grade students. We just received our latest Scholastic Book order and it was a packed box!
The The 39 Clues Books are extremely popular right now. I can not keep my copies on the shelf in our classroom library and now three students have purchased the boxed set offered by Scholastic. Some of them are reading the books while participating in the online game while others are just in in for the story. Regardless, I am constantly seeing one title or another in the series open on someone’s desk.
This month Scholastic offered Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me in the book clubs and a few students ordered their own copy to reread. When You Reach Me was a big hit as our class read aloud earlier this year so I was thrilled to see it resonate enough that students would want to reread their own copy.
There were orders for a few perennial favorites this month, too. Speak found a few new readers this month, along with the classic The Incredible Journey. I also had a few more orders for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, from the last few students who did not yet order their copy.
I love to see what my students order because I sometimes learn about books I was not previously familiar with. For example, I had a student who recently ordered The Robe of Skulls: The First Tale from the Five Kingdoms (Tales from the Five Kingdoms), a fantasy book I have not read. Opening the box today, I was intrigued by the cover and just ordered a second copy for our classroom library. I also did the same with The Cupcake Queen, which might have the best cover ever!
Finally, informational books are always popular with my students. Recently, many of my students have been reading the Mythlopedia series from Scholastic. This month we had a few orders for the latest title in the series- She’s All That!: A Look-it-Up Guide to the Goddesses of Mythology (Mythlopedia). The books are set up to look like Facebook profiles and my students love them. I love them, too because they are a great way to share information about Greek mythology.
Those are just a few of the books that are popular in my classroom right now. What books are your students reading?
Filed under: Hot Books | Tagged: hot books in my middle school classroom |
The Reading Zone 
Do you think “When You Reach Me” would be a good read aloud for 5th grade? I haven’t had a chance to read it yet myself, but heard great reviews.
My kids absolutely LOVE the Lightning Thief series. They also love the Fablehaven books.
Many boys are reading The Ranger’s Apprentice series and the girls love The Unicorn Secret series by Kathleen Duey (in addition to many of the ones you mentioned). 🙂
I love this blog!
http://www.shannonkodonnell.blogspot.com
After one of my students did a “book boost” on the 4th Wimpy Kid, I asked the kids to raise their hand if they’d ever read a Wimpy Kid book. Over 20 hands shot up in the air! Needless to say, my kids are thankful for Jeff Kinney!
Yes to most of these, except Robe of Skulls and The Cupcake Queen. It’s good that you know your own students and what they like. Do try the Ranger’s Apprentice series; it’s been hugely popular in my library.
I just read The Robe of Skulls and I loved it! I can’t wait to book talk it to my lcass tomorrow. Another good one I got from the Scholastic Book Fair was The Seer of Shadows by Avi. It was also really good!
Do you have a blog feed I can save? I looked around but could not
The RSS feed is located on the main page in the top right-hand corner!