Teenagers Who Don't Read Much

I've just been reading an interesting blog titled EarlyWord here  It's by, and for, librarians, but has some good book reviews.  The blog has one section of recommended books for young adults who don't do much reading.  The recommendations look interesting, but--because my main focus is to find books that will lead to other books--I added this:

This is really my specialty, as I taught high school English for 35 years, and had my students do extensive independent reading.

For kids who really hate to read:  Non-fiction in their area of interest, either magazines or books.  A subscription to Sports Illustrated is worth its weight in gold.

For kids who read a little:  Xanth series (beginning with A Spell for Chameleon) by Piers Anthony if the teen is willing to entertain a bit of fantasy,  For more realistic kids, the Spenser novels by Robert B.  Parker are almost infallible.   Plus the first two Hinton books (Outsiders and That was Then, This is Now) are still incredibly popular, as is Forever by Judy Blue.  And there are always the Harry Potter books. 

For the girls, I’d go with a popular romance series or one of the dystopian series.

Series books are, by far, the best way to hook kids into reading.   I did extensive interviewing of my high school avid-readers, and described their reading paths in my book Keeping Kids Reading.