Revisiting Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday Weekend Picks

Last year, during the winter holiday season, I started posting Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday Weekend Pick on Fridays. It has now been a half year, 26 weeks, of posting books and it is time to do a review. This post will also give you a few more titles for your summer reading list. I started by selecting books that I believe deserve more attention. Generally, these are books that I would like to include in a class—if there were world enough and time. Of course, there never is enough room in a college course for everything. I am tracking the weekly picks on a single page within Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday blog. That page is entitled Weekend Picks and on that page, I put the date and link the cover image to a book review. Sometimes, I write a small blurb, but, unbelievably, I have other work I need to be completing. When I have decided on a book to highlight, I post it on my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts (I hope you are following so you get each post). My hope is that teachers and librarians might make this growing list available to students as a source of recommended books. In addition, I hope an academic or two might consider including these books in their courses.

The books I have chosen can be placed in several categories.

The first category is rather small. It is comprised of books by authors who are new to young adult literature. Sometimes I find them through a presentation at the ALAN Workshop- The Art of Holding On and Letting Go, a publishers recommendation--Girl in Pieces, or an author or an agent contacts me--Edna in the Desert. 

I mark the beginning of the modern era of Young Adult Literature as 1967 the year of The Outsiders and several other foundation texts. Fifty years have now past, and there now so many YA titles being published across multiple genres that it is hard to stay current. Many of us focus on a set of authors, a specific genre, or books nominated for awards. In the abundance of publication that is producing so many great books, I often feel that some of the early texts that helped established the field are being forgotten. To help counter this a bit, I often select books that I believe should be included in our courses and, certainly, in classroom libraries. Here are a few selections I have made from this category of "classic" young adult literature. May of these older books that I have selected have been: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry; Homecoming; and, one of my personal favorites, Berries Goodman, an early novel by Newbery winner Emily Cheney Neville. 

The next category are books that are new and grabbed my attention. I think everybody should know them. I am always watching for new books by authors I admire. Some of these new books end up being books that I think don’t get enough attention. For example, Read Between the Lines, A Time to Dance, We Were Liars, Out of Darkness, and Rhythm Ride are all books that should be on everybody’s list. Yes, I know that some of these books got some attention and some nominations, but it still isn’t enough. These are all great books on their own merits. 

Another category are books that I believe are standing the test of time. Some are award winners, some are by major authors, and some are books that I believe should stay on the shelves and, ultimately, in the hands of adolescents. Many of these are books that I haven’t seen referenced in a while or that I believe deserve continued attention. In this group are: Freaky Green Eyes, Fallen Angels, Copper Sun, Inside Out and Back Again, and The Realm of Possibility. 

Sometimes, I just pick a book that has been on my mind because of current events, or represent themes that I have been thinking about, or books that seem to be important in the current educational times. For example, Thirteen Reason Why has been in the news because of the Netflix original there has been more discussions of teen suicide and bullying. Regarding how I think books and themes; I frequently think about books that might help preservice teachers think about how they might introduce discussions of race in their future classes. Some of the books in this group include: Stella by Starlight, Chains, and Garvey’s Choice. In the current political climate, there are so many educational issues in the news that it is hard to know which one to think about. However, I found myself wondering about how schools will continue to work with LGBTQ students in the DeVos era of educational leadership. As a result, I have been thinking about books like, From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun. 

Once again, thanks for following the blog. 
For easy access the main blog page is here. The main blog page usually holds about six entries. It is easy to browse entries by the month by clicking on any month in the archive column on the main page.
The link to the weekend picks is here and each image is linked to a review..
The link to the contributors page is here. Currently, the contributor's page runs from the oldest at the top to the most recent at the bottom. Each contributor's post has the authors name and the title is hyperlinked to the page.