Do you love YA literature? Are you totally clueless about it? Either way, we’re giving you a great way to read it! Starting March 3 and until June 6, read as many books as you can! This challenge, which many librarians participate in every year*, is about celebrating YA literature and the literary excellence bursting out of it!
The eligible books for the challenge are winners and finalists of illustrious literary awards or appear on prestigious selected booklists, and you can read any of them you wish (there are about 70 in total). Reading 20 books on the list means you have officially completed the challenge, although reading above and beyond is encouraged!
Every time you read a book, come into the library to put a sticker on the scoreboard and tell us what you’ve read. Surprises just might be in store for participants who are the first to read a certain title, who write a book review for the website, or who just who come in and tell us about what they’ve been enjoying!
The list of eligible books is available on a handy sheet so you can keep track of your reading. When they are available from School Library Journal, we’ve included recommended grade levels next to the titles. The checklist will also let you know whether a particular book is available through the Casti library; other titles you can find at your public library or favorite bookstore. Some titles make appearances on multiple lists, but you can only count them once.
After some deliberation, we decided that you can count books you’ve already read! So when you first sign up, be sure to collect stickers for the titles you read last year that are on our list.
Click here to download the checklist of eligible books (updated March 12 to reflect a bunch of new books that we bought!). And be sure to keep us apprised of what you’re reading! Every time you finish a book, check it off on this Google form. Once a week, we’ll show you the most popular titles.
But where are all the books?
The checklist of eligible titles will also let you know which ones are owned by our library. However, that doesn’t mean they’re checked in! While you’re waiting for a book to be returned, or if you want to read something we don’t own, now is your chance to find a great neighborhood bookstore to be your haunt or explore your public library! Some books may also be available as e-books, which you can download from your public library without even setting foot inside. We’re happy to teach you how you can borrow e-books from the public library. Just come in and ask!
Happy reading!
* We’ve modified it slightly to fit the Casti community, but you can learn about the original
challenge here: http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2014/02/03/yalsas-2014-hub-reading-challenge-begins/
