Book Talk Group

[Ally Thompson]

I would like to start a booktalk club for Middle school boys. Does anyone have a title that they have recently read that they could recommend?

[Nancy Antonuccio]

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is a great book that many of our middle school boys have loved! It's the first in a series so that will help them keep reading.

[Amy Brownlee]

Kids in our school love that book, too. The author's web site has a really amazing teaching guide to go along with it that includes discussion questions and tons of cool activities. The book is a great combination of adventure, mythology, and humor. The chapter titles are totally hilarious!

[Amy]

I recommend Peak by Roland Smith or the Boy Sherlock Holmes series by Shane Peacock.

[Amy Brownlee]

I've had success in the past using these books with middle school boys:
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen;
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan;
Phineas Gage: a Gruesome but True Story about Brain Sciece by John Fleischman (great nonfiction with lots of scientific info);
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin;
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (we also watched the move The Seeker to compare/contrast with this).

[bookwyrm]

My boys really like Alabama Moon by Watt Key. This is a book about a boy (Alabama Moon) who was raised by a survivalist father, when the father dies the boy who has never lived anywhere but in the woods with this father is moved to a group home. When he doesn't like living in the group home he breaks out, and brings all the boys from the group home with him to go and live together in the woods.

[Ally Thompson]

Thanks! It sounds like something the book club would love to read about!

[Stephanie Paul]

I booktalked Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman a few weeks ago and a few boys "who don't like to read" all wanted the book. Their classroom teacher had to decide who would take it out first. Cruise Control also by Terry Trueman is sort of a companion title about the same family. Our district did a literacy fair recently and the title chosen for middle school was Rules by Cynthia Lord. The boys seemed to like this one.

[Tricia London]

Travel Team by Mike Lupica was a hit with my Middle School Boy Group

[Miss M]

A couple that I would recommend are:
1) Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
2) Boy At War by Henry Mazer
3) anything by Mike Lupica
4) Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

[Jen Spisak]

Tiger by Jeff Stone. It has enough blood and violence for the boys, but it also teaches valuable lessons. Even my "nonreaders" love it!

[Karen Haggard]

My 6-8 grade boys have loved the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. Almost every boy I've recommended it to has come back for the next title in the series. There are five titles in the series so far, and the fifth one ended in a real cliff-hanger so my students & I eagerly await the next installment.

[Kate Hodgson]

The boys in our MS love the Cherub series - as soon as they read the first title in the series, they are totally hooked for the whole series. If your kids like Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider Series than they will love the Cherub series.