For those of you who don’t know, most of my students read below what is considered grade level. Most of them tell me on a regular basis that they don’t like to read. I thought using this Top Ten Tuesday “Freebie” to feature books that they like might be a cool thing to do. Without further ado, here are the Top Ten Books My Students Love.

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. For more Top Ten Tuesdays, check them out here.

10. The Martian by Andy Weir. This was a “Swiss Army” Recommendation to one of the students in my class who couldn’t find anything he liked. Guy trapped on Mars. INTENSE.

9. Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi. Stunning art. Great story. Sometimes I think they feel like reading graphic novels isn’t really reading. I’ll take it.

8. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This one has been so popular that there is a huge chunk separated from the spine of the book. I should get around to replacing this one.

7. Zom-B by Darren Shan. Zombies. Racism. An androgynous main character. What more could you ask for?

6. Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper. I have at least one student each semester who recommends this book to their classmates. Classmate recommendation is so powerful, and in nine years of teaching, only one student has given it back unread.

5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. It’s the first recommendation I make when someone asks for something funny. On Friday, two of my boys were laying on the floor, listening to and reading along with the story. And they were giggling. I cannot express in words the level of awesome that was in my classroom at that moment.

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I teach a bunch of gamers.  Enough said.

3. Playground by 50 Cent. They’re drawn to the story by the author. It’s a good story. And he’s got the clout to catch the attention of many of my students.

2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I have a copy that has been annotated by students. Each student who picks it up has the opportunity to add annotations to this particular copy. It makes for a pretty neat read, I think.

1. Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman. Scary + Videos = a viral read. I think half of my second hour class read these last semester, and someone was always on the wait list.
It’s always a good thing when your students complain at you because they have to do something other than read.Viral reads FTW!

What books were/are viral at your school?

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Purchasing books via these Amazon links supports the replacement of books in my students’ classroom library. As of this writing, they’d like a new copy of Thirteen Reasons Why and more books in the Zom-B series. There’s a reason these are top 10, right? Thanks!