Reading & Listening, Grades 6-12
E-Books, Audiobooks, & Movies
How to Use Hoopla (video)
A Boston Public Library resource: "Browse the collection of over 30,000 documentaries, classic films, world cinema, popular movies and films for children of all ages."
A Boston Public Library resource:
Full-color popular magazines available to stream or download to mobile devices. Most magazines (English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese) are available with no waiting lists, no checkouts, and no limits.
Read free books on an iOS or Android device (sorry, they're not available on Chromebooks). You'll need login credentials from your school librarian. See the slideshow to the right for directions.
Podcasts
Listen by clicking on the links below. If you like podcast, add it to a podcast app on your phone or tablet.
"What Should I Read Next?": Resources for Choosing Your Next Book
Bibliographies
(Lists of Great Books)
Be sure that you are logged into your BPS Google account before clicking here.
*This is a Boston Public Library database, so have your BPL card number ready!
*This is a Boston Public Library database, so have your BPL card number ready!
YALSA’s Teen Top Ten The Teens' Top Ten is a "teen choice" list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year!
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult ReadersPopular Paperbacks for Young Adults Each year, the Popular Paperbacks committee creates lists of books to encourage young adults to read for pleasure. The lists of popular or topical titles are widely available in paperback and represent a broad variety of accessible themes and genres.
Best Fiction for Young Adults YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee presents fiction titles published for young adults in the past 16 months that are recommended reading for ages 12 to 18.
Great Graphic Novels for Teens An annual list from the Young Adult Library Services Association.
Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Each year, YALSA's Amazing Audiobooks Blogging Team selects and annotates an annual list of notable audio recordings significant to young adults from those released in the past two years.
Read Kiddo Read James Patterson’s site dedicated to making kids readers for life.
Book Awards
Click on each link for lists of current and past winners.
Alex Award
YALSA Nonfiction
Printz Award
Morris Award
(for first-time authors)
Sibert Award
(for informational books)
Newbery Award
Coretta Scott King Award
(for African-American authors & illustrators)
Pura Belpre Award
(for LatinX authors & illustrators)
Stonewall Book Award
(for LGBTQIA+ books)
Asian & Pacific American Award for Literature
American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award
Arab-American Book Award
Batchelder Award
(for books translated into English)
Sydney Taylor Book Award
(for books authentically portraying the Jewish experience)
Fiction Genre Guide
Fiction Genre Definitions
Many school libraries have spine stickers telling you that the book is of a certain genre. A genre is a category of books that are similar in their subject, style, or format. Here’s a quick guide to genres from former Boston Arts Academy librarian Allegra D’Ambruoso.
Realistic Fiction: stories that seem like they could reasonably happen;
Historical Fiction and Classics: stories published or written about the past (we’ve picked 1970 as the “past.” Any fiction written before 1970 or about the world before 1970 is in this section);
Mystery & Adventure: survival stories, lost in the woods stories, mysteries, murder, etc. Not all mysteries are detective stories, so take a look here for realistic stories that have an air of mystery or adventure.
Non-realistic Fiction: stories that could not (or should not be able to) happen in our world as is. This is where vampires, werewolves, ghosts, other planets, aliens, futuristic dystopias, steampunk, etc. exist.
Graphic Novels: “sequential art,” stories with a visual component that plays an important role in the book (i.e., comic books).
Picture books You can read to a young friend or just enjoy it yourself.