The Parenting Adolescents Collection:
Guides to the Best Books for Teens and Pre-teens

• OVERALL GUIDES
  Best Books of All Kinds for Children and Youth
  
  
• Guide to Best Books for Boys
  
  
• Guide to Best Books for Girls  
  
  
• Guide to Best Books for Young Teens
  
  
• Guide to Best Books for Young Adult Readers
  
  
• Guide to Multicultural Books for Children & Young Adults
  
  
• Guide to Books for African-American Kids
  
  
• Guide to Books for African-American Girls 
  
  
• Guide to Books for African-American Boys
  
  
• Guide to Books in Spanish for Children & Young Adults (Guida Anotoda)
  
  
• Guide to Books for Kids about the Native American Experience
  
  
• Guide to Holocaust Literature for Youth
  
  
• Guide to Science & Technology Reference Books for Young People
  
  
• 101 Best Web Sites for Kids

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This page updaed 11/17/01. Copyright Karen Martin 10/98, all rights reserved.

OVERALL GUIDES TO BEST BOOKS
FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH

ParentingAdolescents offers three excellent overall guides to literature for all kids and youth. Start with our favorite, and navigate from there. (Be sure to check all of the different kinds of guides in our Main Menu for overall guides to multicultural books, African-American literature, etc.). When you click on a book cover or underlined text, you'll be taken to the amazon.com page devoted to that particular guide, where you can get more information about the book and ordering instructions.

The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children, by Eden Ross Lipson, to be published November 14, 2000, by Three Rivers Press.

In this perennial favorite, the book editor of the New York Times personally reviews and recommends books for children of every age, including adolescents and pre-adolescents. This year's edition contains more than one thousand new entries. References the great books of the twentieth century and the best of the last decade. The six categories are arranged by the age of the child: Wordless, Picture, Story, Early Reading, Middle Reading, Young Adult. In each category, all the information you need to locate a book at amazon.com, your local bookstore, or at the library is given:

• title,
• author and/or illustrator,
• publisher of hardback and/or paper edition and publication year

The entries also include notation of

• any major awards the book has received, as well as
• a list of related titles.

Perhaps the most popular feature of this Guide is its inclusion of numerous subject/topical indexes: indexes by reading level, by subject, books for reading aloud to toddlers, books for young people coming of age, books about religion or tolerance, funny books, and so on. This feature makes it easy to find just the right book for a particular child or youth. There are more than 300 beautiful illustrations taken from the books featured, and the wide margins allow room for notes by parents or kids--which books were read when, and how the child liked them. So the Guide also becomes a Record.

Highly recommended--will make holiday shopping and gift-giving all year round easier and more meaningful. Get it at amazon.com at a 10% discount, and you make a small contribution to ParentingAdolescents at the same time! Click to go to amazon.com -- and thanks!

Books to Build on : A Grade-By-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers (Core Knowledge Series)
by E. D., Jr Hirsch (Editor), John Holdren (Editor), Delta, 1996.

Like The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children, this is a popular tool. Designed as a supplement to the Core Knowledge series (What Your Kindergartener Should Know, etc.), it could serve as a useful, annotated bibliography for parents and teachers. Parents interested in home schooling may find this one particularly useful.

Books are arranged according to seven main curricular areas: Language Arts, World History and Geography, American History and Geography, Visual Arts, Music, Science, and Math. Each of these areas is divided by grade levels (K-6) and then by other topical subdivisions, under which are annotated 5 to 10 books and other media, such as software or recordings.

The topics do not remain constant across all the grade levels, so it could not be used to find books at all grade levels on monkeys or the British government. Each entry notes the publisher and date of publication. The reading level is not indicated for any of the titles, although the books are subdivied by grade in school. Items that the authors "admire most" are designated "CC," or Core Collection.The book begins with an essay by Hirsch and Holdren that details their philosophy and rationale. Each of the seven main subject areas begins with an introduction that lays a curricular foundation and sketches the scope and sequence for the subject.

The book has a single subject, title, author, and illustrator index. Check it out at amazon.com, where you can buy it at a discount, while making a small contribution to this web site. Thanks!

 The Best in Children's Books, the University of Chicago Guide to Children's Literature, 1985-1990, by Zena Sutherland, Betsy Hearne (Contributor), Roger Sutton (Contributor), Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991. Hardcover.

Couldn't find much info on this book with the fascinating cover...looks like a griffin eating a book? But the University of Chicago published it--how good is that? Check it out at amazon.com.

Through Indian Eyes: the Native Experience in Books for Children, (Contemporary American Indian Issues No. 7), by Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale (editors), 4th edition (August 1, 1998) Amer. Indian Studies Center.

From Amazon.com: Essays, poetry, bibliography, and critical reviews of children's books by and about Indian peoples. A dependable and honest guide for parents and instructors interested in teaching kids about the diversity of Native America. Order it through this link to amazon.com, and you automatically make a small contribution to this web site!

Consumerguide: 1201 Best Web Sites for Kids, by Trevor Meers and Tony Caldwell, NewAmerican Library, 1999, paper.

Parent who reviewed this for amazon.com says it's very useful--and has safe web sites for kids of all ages (we assume that includes teens and pre-teens). Published last October; I don't see a new edition. Presumably most of the sites are still up and running, but you never know. Still, it's a place to begin--especially if you're new to the web. Get a copy at a pittance at amazon.com. Give it to a parent or a kid!--or use it yourself.

 Great Books for Girls, by Kathleen Odean, Ballantine Books, 1997. Subtitled More Than 600 Books to Inspire Today's Girls and Tomorrow's Women.

Books for toddlers to teens that feature female protagonists solving problems and shaping their own destinies. A guide for parents and teachers who want to raise strong, courageous women. Click here to get it at amazon.com at a 10% discount and automatically contribute to keeping this site free!. Thanks! [Yes,there is also a Great Books for Boys--go back to the Directory to select.]

The Holocaust in Literature for Youth : A Guide and Resource Book,by Edward T. Sullivan, Scarecrow Press, 1999.

Termed "well organized," "solid," and "exemplary," this guide to holocaust literature for youth of all ages can be obtained at a discount from amazon.com by clicking through from this page. When you buy a book at amazon.com by using a link at this site, you also make a small contribution to keeping the web site free. So, thanks!

Great Books for Boys: More Than 600 Books for Boys 2 to 14 by Kathleen Odean, Ballantine Books, 1998.

In the companion volume to Great Books for Girls, Odean, a librarian, offers a careful selection, from picture books to books for the older reader. Suggested age level for each book is given. Get it at amazon.com at a 10% discount and help this site at the same time! And thanks!

Best Books for Young Teen Readers : Grades 7-10 (Best Books for Young Teen Readers, Ed 1), by John Thomas Gillespie (Editor), R. R. Bowker, 2000. 850 pp.

We don't have much more information on this one than the title suggests. Go to amazon.com to get it at a discount.

Best Books for Young Adult Readers, 2nd ed., Betty Carter, Amer Library Assoc, 2000.

Midwest Book Review has high praise for Betty Carter et al.'s second edition of Best Books for Young Adult Readers. More than 1800 classic and contemporary books. Learn what teens are interested in and what books are out there to satisfy them. Considered a "must have" for librarians and teachers, and an authoritative guide for parents and young adults as well. Get it at amazon.com by clicking here.

Strong Souls Singing, African-American Books for our Daughters and Sisters, by Archie Given (ed.), Norton, 1998.

Over 100 books, plays, short stories, focusing on female authors and female main characters. Find good reading for girls or boys of any race. Get it at amazon.com by clicking here and benefit this site.

Spirited Minds, African-American Books for our Sons and Our Brothers, ed. by Archie Givens, Norton,1997.

Cited as an outstanding resource for grandparents, teachers, mentors, it progresses from books for very young children to books for older teens. The companion to Givens' Strong Souls Singing, the guide to books for African-American girls. Get it at amazon.com with benefit to this site.

Best Science and Technology Reference Books for Young People, by H. Robert Malinowsky, ed., Oryx, 1991.

Lists books in natural science, physical science,and technology, for readers from elelentary school through young adult. Some reviews. Get it at amazon.com with benefit to this site by clicking here.

Books in Splanish for Children and Young Adults: An Annotated Guide.

Series Vi/Libros Infantiles Y Juveniles en Espanol: Una Guia Anotada, Series VI, by Isabel Schon, Scarecrow Press, 1993.

Amazon.com quotes "Book News" as follows: "Citations are grouped by subject within sections according to country, from Argentina to Venezuela. The author has rated each entry as to artistic and literary appeal, and provides general grade level, ISBN and price. Appendices include contact data for book dealers in Spanish-speaking countries and the US." Get it at amazon.com with benefit to this site.

This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults, by Alethea K. Helbig, Agnes Regan Perkins, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994.

Booknews says: "An annotated bibliography of 570 of the best recent (through 1993) works for children & older teens in fiction, oral tradition, and poetry about African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American experiences and traditions. Each entry features a plot summary relating to themes, critical comments with a judgment of the book's value as an example of its genre, suggestions of other books by that writer, and related books of importance. Indexed by subject, grade level, author, title, and illustrator." Get it at amazon.com with benefit to this site.

Black Books Galore: Guide to Great African American Children's Books, by Donna Rand, Toni Parker, Sheila Parker, Black Books Galore. John Wiley, 1998.

Rave reviews at amazon.com. Winner of 1998 Parenting Magazine Parenting Leaders' Award, 1998. Authors are three African-American mothers. Books are age-rated. More than 500 books reviewed. Helplful indexes included (subject, author, etc.). Sounds like a winner! Get it at amazon.com at a discount.