Meet the New Kids...New Books for a New School Year

One of my favorite things about a new school year is new books!  My avid readers are always waiting by the library door on the first day of school waiting to see if I have the newest book in their favorite series.  I am starting this year off with a book display of new books titled Meet the New Kids...New Books for a New School Year, in hopes that my avid readers will find what they are looking for and my reluctant readers will be lured by the shiny new books and the promise that they are the first to ever check them out!

Feel free to grab this poster from my flickr account!

One great way that librarians and teachers can meet the new kids of the literary world is through NetGalley, a digital book galley website.  It is completely free to sign up, but make sure you give as much information about yourself as possible in order to be selected to receive a large amount of galleys.  I made sure to include my blog address, school website and detailed information about how I select books for my school, help teachers select books for their classrooms and provide readers advisory for our students.  This information lets NetGalley know that you are a real person, not internet spam, that will read their books and recommend them to people in your schools and professional circles.  Once you have selected books, send in requests and watch your NetGalley home page fill up with books.  These books can then be downloaded onto your iPad or e-reader.  I have never received unsolicited emails from NetGalley so it is not going to clog your inbox.  I highly recommend this website because what is better than a free book that is so new you can't buy it yet?!  

My first read from NetGalley was Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz, based on a true story about a young Jewish boy who lives in Poland during World War II.  Yanek has lost all of his earthly possessions and every person that he loves.  He lives in ten different concentration camps, each of them increasingly more brutal than the last.  Can Yanek make it through the atrocities that he faces each day, or will he lose his desire to live?  This book is definitely worth a look.  It does not deviate much from what we typically think of when we talk about World War II novels, but your students, who are avid historical fiction readers, will enjoy hearing about the journey that Yanek experiences.  

I know you will all find something you will enjoy, and you will probably find many somethings!  Happy Reading!