Armchair BEA - Picture Books to Young Adult

Yay!  Today's Armchair BEA topic is to discuss favorite picture books to young adult books!  This is my favorite topic since I'm a 5th/6th grade ELA (English/Language Arts) gifted intervention specialist for accelerated readers.  My students LOVE to read, so they need lots of good suggestions.  Because I'm a big believer in choice and wide and voracious reading, I have a large classroom library.  I challenged them with Donalyn Miller's 40 Book Challenge last year and will up it to 50 this coming year.  This is the first day of summer for us since school ended yesterday, so I will begin the Fifth Annual Bookaday Challenge and will e-mail the kids and challenge them to do it with me.  Therefore, we need lots of good ideas - picture books count in the Bookaday Challenge since some days you might have to fill in with shorter texts to meet the challenge.

I love children's literature because writers for children can capture the simplest things and make them meaningful.  I love the camaraderie created in a classroom when great books are shared and discussed.  I love the community of kids, teachers, and parents children's literature brings together.  I love teaching children, and I love teaching reading.  When my two favorite things come together it equals children's literature!!  This is going to be a long post, so get ready for lots of books!

My favorites:

PICTURE BOOKS

 

 

 

This might be my all-time favorite picture book because it's about my favorite theme topic: leaving a legacy (you'll see a few other recommendations in this list that have the same theme). I also love circular story structures.   City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems, illustrated by Jon J. Muth

 

 

Love, love, love this book - it's wordless!  Flora & the Flamingo by Molly Idle  Molly's newest book, Tea Rex is also a gem. 

 

 

 

hello! hello! by Matthew Cordell

I even own an original watercolor by Matthew Cordell!  Jealous?!

 

 

Unspoken by Henry Cole

Another wordless one!  My students loved this book.

 

 

 

This Is Not My Hat and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Hilarious.

 

 

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

 

 

Saturdays and Teacakes by Lester Laminack

If you ever get a chance to hear Lester read aloud, GO!

 

 

 

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco

 

 

 

All the Place to Love by Patricia MacLachlan

 

 

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

 

 

Okay, I could go on and on, but I'll move on to...

MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS

 

(Classics first)

 

 

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

 

 

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

 

 

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

 

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Now there's a cool graphic novel adaptation, too!

 

CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE GRADE NOVELS

 

 

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

 

 

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

 

 

 

Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles

 

 

 

Ida B. and True...Sort Of by Katherine Hannigan

 

 

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (really, ANYTHING by Kate DiCamillo is fantastic)

 

 

 

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

The audio version is fantastic!

 

 

 

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

 

 

One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

 

 

 

Bigger Than a Bread Box by Laurel Snyder

 

 

The entire Harry Potter series, of course!

 

Again, I could go on and on...

 

YOUNG ADULT

 

 

 

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

If I taught high school, we would be reading all of John Green's books AND watching all his Vlogbrothers videos!

 

 

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

 

 

The Absolute Value of Mike by Kathryn Erskine

This could be categorized as a middle grade novel, too.

 

 

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

This is also appropriate for a middle grade classroom.

 

 

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

 

 

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

I Am Messenger is also great!

 

 

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

 

 

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

 

 

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

 

 

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

 

I also love lots of the science fiction young adult novel series that are popular right now:  Delirium, Divergent, Cinder, Hunger Games, Matched, Legend, etc.

 

 

Okay, I'm done.  I knew I would get carried away, and I did!  I can't wait to read all the other Armchair BEA blog posts today!!