YALSA announces Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

Contact: Larra Clark


312-280-4389


lclark@ala.org

ALA News Release


For Immediate Release


January 2001

YALSA announces Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

(Washington, D.C.) -- The Young Adult Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has announced its 2001 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. The list was released during the ALA Midwinter Meeting held January 12 - 17, 2001, in Washington, D.C.

Compiled by an 11-member committee, the 79 titles on the list were published from late 1999 through 2000 and represent more than 40 different publisher imprints. The list is composed of 35 fiction and 44 non-fiction titles. The committee annually selects for the Quick Picks list, outstanding titles that will appeal to reluctant teen readers, aged 12 - 18 years old. Reluctant readers are considered those teenagers who, for whatever reason, choose not to read. Teen input is a vital aspect in the final decisions of the committee. The visual appearance of a book and the standard considerations in the quality of content also are equally important when selecting books.

The list is not intended for teenagers with reading disabilities, though someof the selected titles may be appropriate for those teens.

The top 10 titles are:

  1. "The Art of Optical Illusions," by Al Seckel
  2. "Angus, Thongs, and Full-frontal Snogging," by Louise Rennison
  3. "Cut," by Patricia McCormick
  4. "The Girls," by Amy Goldman Koss
  5. "Life is Funny," by E.R. Frank
  6. "The Rose That Grew From Concrete," by Tupac Shakur
  7. "You Hear Me?" by Betsy Franco
  8. "Deal With It: A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain and Life as a Gurl," by Esther Drill, Heather McDonald, and Rebecca Olds
  9. "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook," by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
  10. "The Princess Diaries," by Meg Cabot

An unedited draft of the 2001
Quick Picks for Young Adults is available online. A final edited, annotated list will appear in a March issue of
Booklist.

Members of the YALSA 2001 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers were: John Sexton, chair, Ashland Branch Library, Ore.; Linda W. Braun, LEO: Librarians & Educators Online, Maine; Lora Bruggeman, Downers Grove (Ill.) Public Library; Tammy Daubner, Perrysburg, Ohio; Lynn Evarts, Sauk Prairie High School, Wis.; Caryl McKellar, Alachua County Library District, Fla.; Melanie Rapp Weiss, Cuyahoga County Library, Ohio; Victor Schill, Fairbanks Branch Library, Texas; Kimberley Sharpe, Brooklyn Public Library, N.Y.; Henrietta M. Smith, University of South Florida, Delray Beach, Fla.; Cheryl Karp Ward, Penney Alumni Library, East Hartford High School, Conn.; Mary Long, Wilson Middle School, Texas; and Gillian Engberg,
Booklist, Chicago, Ill.