Support current educational initiatives with a ready-to-use tool that will help you with selection, motivation, and skill building relative to titles published within the last five years.

New demands by Common Core and other national and state standards mean teachers and librarians need support in pairing high-interest content with skill building that speaks to those standards. This hands-on, research-based resource will help. Covering 100 titles, it guides you to topics, themes, values, and activities that meet national and state standards. The book's organization-by genres, topics, and themes-will enable librarians to serve customers with specific requests and help teachers build thematic units.

Focusing on recent young adult fiction and nonfiction (2010-2014), the guide offers a succinct plot summary, links to popular themes and genres, indication of reading levels, and an engaging booktalk for each title. It also includes guidelines for further promoting each book and extending knowledge through discussion. The author, a former middle and high school teacher, demonstrates how you can foster close reading through paraphrasing, comparison, and response and explains how to strengthen critical thinking among teens. Lists of related titles and notes on gender appeal can be used for readers' advisory.

Lucy Schall is a retired middle and high school teacher and a book reviewer for VOYA.