Greetings Everyone,

Why can't Jamar and Janiqua read? One reason is that they don't have enough books! I'm working at a middle school in Brooklyn where the books are so dated students have no interest in reading them. The budget allotted will not meet our needs.

If children are to learn to read and read well, they must read often.

I'm asking you to purchase one book for a middle school student.

We are launching a reading campaign with a kick-off date of September 30th. On that day we want to place a box of new, high-interest books on the desk of each teacher for distribution to each student in the class. We also want to be able to provide students with many more books so that they may read their way to proficiency.

What book genres interest our students? mystery, Manga, graphic novels, anything vampire and vampire and werewolf,

To make the process easy

* I'm attaching a list from which you may choose.
* Or, you may visit this website and choose from various genres:

http://teenspace.cincinnatilibrary.org/books/booklist.asp?id=justlikeme

Please send your book in time for our September 30th launch to

The Essence School
590 Sheffield Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11207
Attention: Claudy Makelele, Principal

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Love, light and peace,
Robyn

Some Book Suggestions:

MY MIDDLE SCHOOL PICKS

These books are not necessarily on the Department of Education list.  However, they are books that I believe our children should be exposed to and would benefit from reading. I encourage you to add to the list books that you have read, that are suitable for middle school students, that have made an impact on you. (ages 11 to 13—some 15 to 17 at my school!)

*Shades of Memnon  (The African Hero of the Trojan War and the Keys to the Ancient World Civilizations)   by Brother Q

*Shades of Memnon II  By Brother Q                           *Boys, especially, like these!

*Shades of Memnon II by Brother Q

*Slave Day by Rob Thomas

With Every Drop of Blood by James Lincoln Colllier

Wrango by Brian Burks

Ajeemah and His Son by James Berry

Just Like Martin by Ossie Davis

The Righteous Revenge of Atremis Bonner by Walter Dean Meyers

The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

Letters to a Young Brother MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper

Letters to a Young Sister Define Your Destiny

Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude McKay

Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

The Ear, The Eye And The Arm by Nancy Farmer (Science fiction set on the continent of Africa!)

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (also science fiction) Spellbound by Janet McDonald

True Believer by Virginia E. Wolff

Another Way to Dance by Martha Southgate

Francie by Karen English

Between Madison and Palmetto by Jacqueline Woodson

The Dear One by Jacqueline Woodson

Where Do I Go from Here by Valerie Wilson Wesley

Books Middle School Students Like

These books are not necessarily on the Department of Education list, but our children, if they are reading anything, are reading these.  If they are not reading, then they are more likely to read these. 

Grades 6 and 7—Boys

The Wimpy Kid series (girls too, but boys especially)

The Skeleton Key series  by Anthony Horwitiz (boys)

The Book of the Lion (boys)  ISBN9780142300343

Rite of Passage by Richard Wright

6 to 8th Grade—Boys

Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun by Arvella Whitmore

Leroy and the Old Man by W.E. Butterworth

Grades 7 and 8, Graphic Novels—Boys

Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan (vampires, wolves, ghosts)

Hunger Games by Susan Collins

Demonata

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson, and all Patterson books for teens

Shooter, by Walter Dean Meyers

8th Grade Bites    ISBN9780142411872

Grades 6 to 8, Girls

Forged by Fire by Sharon M. Draper

Jazmin’s Notebook by Nikki Grimes

The Skin I’m in by Sharon Draper

Grades 7 and 8, Girls

Fallen, by Lauren Cate  ISBN9780385738934

Sweet Little Lies                     9780061767609

By the Time You Read                       9781423116189

This I’ll be Dead

House of Night                       9780312567484

(vampire series by P.Cast)

The Year I Turned 16             9781416985976

Deadly Little Secrets              9781423134091

(I’m a) 9th Grade Slave                       9780142413425