Reading Text Sets

Sometimes the hardest thing about reading can simply be deciding what to read, or what to read next.  Text sets are groups of books that are connected somehow by subject matter, genre, or theme.  When read together, they offer teens a sustained reading experience over time.  Tune in to hear about texts sets organized around themes such as revolution and espionage, relationships with brothers and fathers, and buying and selling in America.

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.

Books featured in this episode include:

Protest, Conspiracy, and Civil Rights

• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad, January 2010)
• Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement by Rick Bowers (National Geographic, January 2010)
• They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Houghton Mifflin, August 2010)

Revolution and Espionage

• Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon and Schuster, October 2010)
• Lafayette and the American Revolution by Russell Freedman (Holiday House, September 2010)
• The Dark Game: True Spy Stories by Paul Janeczko (Candlewick, September 2010)

Relationships with Brothers and Fathers

• The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt (Wendy Lamb Books, September 2010)
• Hothouse: A Novel by Chris Lynch (HarperTeen, September 2010)
• Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel (Scholastic, September 2010)

Danger to Others, Danger to Self

• Stolen by Lucy Christopher (Chicken House, May 2010)
• You by Charles Benoit (HarperTeen, September 2010)
• I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña (Delacorte, October 2010)

Buying and Selling in America

• Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know about Fast Food by Eric Schlosser & Charles Wilson (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
• Get Real! What Kind of World Are You Buying? by Mara Rockliff (Running Press, June 2010)
• The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone (Viking, October 2010)

Resources for Creating Text Sets

Reading Ladders: Leading Students from Where They Are to Where We’d Like Them to Be by Teri Lesesne (Heinemann, February 2010)