Best Books for Young Adult Readers: Grades 7-12

Best Books for Young Adult Readers, a title in Bowker's Best Books series, is designed to help librarians, teachers, and other media-related professionals meet both the curriculum-related and recreational reading needs of students in grades 7 to 12. Its goals are to help librarians evaluate the adequacy of existing collections, to provide reading guidance to young adults, and to assist in preparing bibliographies and reading lists. The book contains over 6,500 titles, about two-thirds of them non-fiction, that have been recommended for library collections by at least two of the nine most prominent young-adult book review sources. The citations to these titles contain full bibliographic information for identifying and ordering the books, along with a helpful, brief summary of content. The arrangement of the book is by broad subject, ranging from literary form to history and geography to recreation and sports. Almost 260 pages are devoted to indexes by author, title, and subject/grade level. Although it's unlikely that many parents will want to buy this book, partially because of price, it should be seriously considered for purchase by school and public librarians, along with the companion volume Best Books for Children.