Book Review: 500 Great Books for Teens by Anita Silvey

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (2006)
Hardcover: 416 pages
Cost: $26
Also available at local libraries

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Anita Silvey, a professor of children’s literature, set out to write a book that would help parents and teens (grandparents and teachers too) find the very best books available for young adults. I think she accomplished her mission and then some!

Using exemplary writing and wide-appeal as her criteria, Silvey examined classic and contemporary books, got input from teens and folks who work with teens, and selected the 500 best. These are organized into twenty-one groupings – ranging from the familiar genres such as “Fantasy,” and “Mysteries” as well as newer subject areas such as “Edgy, Trendsetting Novels,” and “Many Cultures, Many Realities.”

In an easy, conversational tone, Silvey introduces each chapter by noting the general qualities of the genre and then describes each book in two or three paragraphs. Her descriptions include everything you need to know: title, author, recommended ages, and page count as well as an outline of the basic plot and some of the issues raised by the book.

In the book’s introduction Silvey laments that we often burden teens with books we believe they should know. A teen reader is quoted as describing one such books as, “ ... [a] book that should come with a fork so that you can stick yourself while you read it, because it is so dull.” Silvey aimed to stay away from the “fork” books.

Certainly, I recognized quite a few page-turners as I perused the 500 selected titles. And giving parents and teens ideas for what will get teens turned-on to reading is exactly what a book like this should do. Something in here is bound to excite even the most reluctant reader – if not in “Fantasy,” than “Mystery” or “Ghosts” or “Humor” or “Romance” or “Poetry” or “Sports” or …

Roxane Lehmann, Ph.D.
As reviewed in Vol. 2, Issue 3 of safety-net-work
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