Fellow teachers, I have a problem.
A book-buying, grant-writing, donation-receiving, classroom-library-growing problem.
After making it my mission to build a gigantic classroom library, Karnes & Noble has gotten a little…well, out of control. It has grown to over 3,000 titles, many of which are dog-eared and well-loved, but all of which are wonderful reads.
The problem is, I’ve left the classroom for a while, and…I’ve got wayyyy too many books, and wayyyy too few bookshelves in my tiny townhome.
Luckily, I know a few (thousand) deserving teachers whose students would love these titles.
(Yes, I’m talking about you!)
If you don’t mind the Sharpie-d KARNES emblazoned on their spines, then enter to win one of twenty boxes of books I’m giving away! Nothing would make me happier than knowing that all of these books will wind up in the hands of students who will fall in love with them. (I’ll also be happy to have my guest room regain the title “guest room,” rather than its current moniker, “Amazon book storage warehouse.”)
There are five ways to enter the giveaway:
- Complete this 5-minute readership survey to help us tailor our writing to your needs.
- In the comments section of this page, leave your name, school name, grade level(s) taught, and a list of the 5-10 most popular titles in your existing classroom library.
- Like our Facebook page, then post to the page a brief description of one of your favorite reading or writing assignments you do with your students. (Example: I love the multigenre research paper the best!)
- Using the hashtag #3TTbooks, tweet us an excerpt (pictures welcome) from a text you might use for a craft study or mentor text, as well as your school name and grade level(s) taught. (Example: a picture of the first page of Peak by Roland Smith, or a picture of the first page of Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon.)
- Subscribe to TTT, comment on an old post from which you learned something you loved, and then share that post via Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #3TTbooks.
Feel free to enter as many times as you’d like–you may just wind up with two big boxes of books at your classroom door!
And as a consolation prize, even if you don’t win, you’ll be helping to build–and have access to–a toolbox of assignment ideas, book excerpts, classroom library titles, and other useful resources that will be of eminent use to all of us in the fall.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Three Teachers Talk readers–for getting these books into the hands of kids, and for being with us on our teaching-writing journey every day!
Three Teachers Talk 
I’m Cora Hyndman and I teach 8th grade at Lake Geneva Middle School.
Student favorites this year include:
Dear Martin
Boy 21
Lies I Told
Refugee
The Hate U Give
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I’m Gretchen Egner and I teach freshmen at Waukesha South High School in Waukesha WI. Most popular books from last year: The Fifth Wave, If I Stay, Gone Girl, An Abundance of Katherines, Looking for Alaska. 🙂
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[…] books to add to your classroom library. You all helped me reduce my shelf load last year with a big book giveaway, but there’s still some more #booklove to dole […]
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[…] Ask Shana for books. She loves to give away books to fellow workshop teachers. […]
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In the comments section of this page, leave your name, school name, grade level(s) taught, and a list of the 5-10 most popular titles in your existing classroom library.
Hello! I’m Russ Anderson from Fremd High School in Palatine, IL. I teach English and reading classes in grades 9-12. The most popular titles in my class library are the following:
Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
Every Day by David Levithan
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler
Thanks for running this giveaway, and good luck next year!
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Hi! I’m Colleen Kiley at Mount Abraham Union HS in Bristol, VT
Some popular titles this year:
1. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
2. We Were Liars by e. lockhart
3. every day by david leviathan
4. I Am Number 4 by Pittacus Lore
5. Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
6 & 7. I’ll Give You the Sun AND The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
8. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Nevin
9 & 10. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock AND Boy21 by Matthew Quick
Thanks!
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[…] the spirit of all the books we’re giving away (winners announced tonight!), today’s mini-lesson is one of my favorites to do with […]
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I’m Lauren Deal, 9-10 English teacher at First Flight High School on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The ten books receiving the most votes in my students’ end-of-year Book Whisperers Awards were Everything, Everything; Eleanor & Park; Room; Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock; The 5th Wave; Boy Nobody; Exit, Pursued by a Bear; Red Queen; All the Bright Places; and Every Day. Thank you for a blog that encourages the RIGHT things to happen in classrooms – it motivates me to be a better teacher!
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Lauren, your Book Whisperers Awards sounds like a fantastic idea! 🙂
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I teach sophomores and seniors at Wylie High School in Wylie, Texas. Some of the most checked out titles from my classroom library this year were: Room, Brain on Fire, Lone Survivor, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and The Bean Trees. This year was a the first year I incorporated independent reading in my classroom on a Book Love level, and I’m amazed and inspired by the results! Even if I don’t win a box, I think wha you’re doing is great and I’ll keep expanding my classroom library the way I started it: begging sweetly and hanging out way too much in Half Price Books clearance sections.😉
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Meggan, that sounds like a wonderful way to keep building your library! 🙂
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Jamie Schaal- McDowell Exchange School- 8th grade ELA
My 100 students read over 2,000 books this year, and the most unputdownable titles were:
Everything, Everything
If You Come Softly
Red Queen & Glass Sword
The Razorland Trilogy
Octavia Nothing
Throne of Glass Series
The Ashfall Trilogy
The Raven Boys
Slam
Escape From Furnace series
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Carol Leyendecker
Van Buren Middle School Albuquerque NM
Grades 6,7,8 (gifted and general ed)
Crossover and Booked
Ready Player One
We Were Liars
Out of my Mind
Fish in a Tree
Rules
All American Boys
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What a wonderful idea! I currently teach 10th graders at an urban high school in Connecticut. Some of the more popular titles from my current classroom library are: Mosquitoland, Paint Me Like I Am, Elsewhere, Hole in My Life, No Easy Day, I Am A Seal Team Six Warrior, and Unwind. I just began incorporating daily SSR in April, and it took off! I am so pleased. Thank you for the opportunity.
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Julee Boland, Washtenaw Technical Middle College, 9-11
Absolutely True Diary of a Parttime Indian
Anything by Sonya Sones
Looking for Alaska
Maze Runner (and all sequels and prequels)
Locomotion & Peace, Locomotion
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Hi! I’m Angie Head, and I teach English 11 and Reading Intervention at Gloucester High School. Last year Eng 12. Some of the most popular titles this year included:
Eleanor and Park
Legend series
Ellen Hopkins-all
Gym Candy, other Carl Deukker
13 Reasons Why
Boy 21
Everything, Eveything
5th Wave
Miss Peregrine’s
Rot and Ruin series
Colleen Hooever, especially Slammed
Snitch and any Van Diepen
***we have 3 days of school left and I’m missing more titles than ever, including new and favorite books- Hairstlyes of damned, perfect chemistry series, several Ellen Hopkins, and Eleanor and Park :((
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My name is Stephanie Gemmen and I teach at Grant High School. I teach English 9, English 10, and English 11.
Favorites this year included:
Mosquitoland
I’ll Give You the Sun
We Should Hang Out Sometime
I Will Always Write Back
Winger
Four
I am excited that more non-fiction is coming out in YA lit because my students are soaking it up, which is awesome! I am a young teacher who received books through Donors Choose last year but I am always looking to continue to grow my classroom library!
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Donna Friend, Hebron High School, Eng 2 & 3. The books I keep losing & replacing: 13 Reasons Why, Every Last Word (it was signed!), The Murder Complex, The Sky is Everywhere, Crank, Perks of Being a Wallflower…
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Karen Drake @ Lee-Davis High School in VA teaching juniors and seniors. Some of this year’s favorite books were Caged Warrior, Lockdown, Exit: Pursued by a Bear, Hyperbole and a Half, An Ember in the Ashes, Winger, I Am Number Four, and Red Queen.
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Kara Freebury. Carver-Edisto Middle School. 7th grade.
1. The House of Scorpion and sequel The Lord of Opium
2. Matched/Crossed/Reached
3. The Maze Runner
4. The Silo Series, especially Wool
5. Genesis
6. Life As We Knew It- 1st book in 4 book series
7. The Flappers Series- Ingenue, Diva and Vixen
8. The City of Ember
9. The Dork Diaries
10. The Percy Jackson Series
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Ryan Bowser
Maple Park Middle School
7th Grade
Ms. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Riggs
Literally everything by Riordan
Black and White by Valponi
Prisoner B-3087 by Gratz
Butter by Lange
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Andrea Anderson 9-10 ELA @ Parkway Central High in Chesterfield, MO
1. Winger by Andrew Smith
2. Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
3. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
4. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
5. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
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Ann Engelhart
Westerville North HS Westerville, OH
English Language Learners 9-12
Favorites are Multi-cultural and hi-lo books such as The Breadwinner, Homeless Bird, Tears of a Tiger, Bluford series, The Fault in Our Stars, and anything soccer-related.
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Laura Trent
Clay Battelle Middle/High School
Grades 7 & 10
My students love dystopian novels like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver, Maze Runner etc. They also enjoy The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns etc. Science fiction such as Ender’s Game and A Wrinkle in Time were popular as class novels this year. The students also like classics like The Hardy Boys. Ellen Hopkins, Sarah Dessen, JK Rowling are also popular among the students.
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Crystal L Kelley, Goodnight MS in San Marcos, TX, 8th ELA and these books, among many, are quite active during the year: Eleanor and Park, Unwind, Uninvited, Me Before You, perks of being a wallflower and Cut by Patricia McCormick.
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Diane Reed, Morton Ranch JH, 7th gr Reading & English
My current classroom library is lacking since I am changing grade & content this year. My kids have enjoyed:
Smile & Drama (gone missing from my shelves)
Selection series
Unwind
The Testing
Divergent series
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My name: Kyle Nelson
My school: Lone Peak HS (12th grade)
Popular books in my library: we were liars (lockhart), perks of being a wallflower (chbosky), 13 reasons why (asher), my story (elizabeth smart), anything by john green, unbroken (hills brand), room (donaghue).
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Christine Colton
Hart High School
9th grade and ELD 2
Popular books:
Perfect Chemistry
Matched
The Sky is Everywhere
The Glass Castle
Paper Towns
Asking Alaska
Eleanor and Park
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Top 8
Eleanor and Park
What My Mother Doesn’t Know
Stick
To All the Boys I’ve Loved
Butter
Ready Player One
Thirteeen Reasons
Caged Warrior
Twisted
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Hi Shana-
I’m Leah Jurca and teach 12th grade English and AP Lit at Rockwall-Heath High School in Rockwall,TX. What a sweet gift you’re giving!
My most popular titles this year:
1. Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close
2. Room
3. Escape From Camp 21
4. American Sniper
5. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series
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I’m Katie Wrabel, and I teach English 12 and AP Literature at Tiffin Columbian High School. Popular titles this year:
Divergent
Fight Club
American Sniper
Percy Jackson series
Game of Thrones
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Markie Gunnells, English 9 at Wyoming East High School.
1. Anything by John Green, Rick Riordan, Nicholas Sparks, and Gillian Flynn
2. Asylum, Sanctum, and Catacomb
3. Me Before You
4. Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
5. Boy21
6. Tears of a Tiger
7. The Blind Side
8. Crank
9. The Girl on the Train
10. Rocket Boys
11. Any sports or graphic novel
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I’m Kyla Louis. I teach 8th grade ELA at Hood River Middle School in Hood River, Oregon. Student favorites this year have been:
I am the Greatest
Boy 21
This One Summer
Origin
Dumplin’
Salt to the Sea
The Rose Society
The Crossover
Everything, Everything
All American Boys
City of Bones series
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Kristin Seed
Greater Lawrence Tech Vocational HS
9th grade
Top Five Books right now:
13 Reasons Why
All American Boys
The Selection series
Nimona
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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I’m Anita Miller. I teach 7th grade ELA at Miami Trace Middle School. Some popular books in my library this year include: All of the Percy Jackson books, Eleanor and Park, All American Boys, A Child Called It, The Uglies series, Thirteen Reasons Why, Dumplin’, Wonder, Reason to Breathe, Tears of a Tiger.
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My name is Jana Estaniqui and I teach 7th grade at Fremont Midde School in Fremont, Nebraska.
Student favorites from my library include:
– The Running Dream
– The Crossover
– Stung
– The Maze Runner
– A Child Called It
– Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
– The Girl Who was Supposed to Die
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Emily Darr, Clever High School. Next year (for the first year ever) I’m solely teaching grades 11-12. Some of the most popular books in my library this year were Red Queen, All Our Yesterdays, The Perfect Chemistry series, Ghostopolis, and The Homelanders series.
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Jackie Smith /University High School /2611 E. Matoian Way MS UH134 /Fresno, CA 93740
I teach English 10. The titled that wouldn’t stay on the shelves this year (and are still checked out over the summer!) are: 13 Reasons Why, Feed, Miss Peregrine’s, The Passage & The Twelve, The 5th Wave & The Infinite Sea, and Marie Lu’s books (all).
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Melinda Buchanan, Sanger High School, grades 9&10.
My 9th kiddos are coming in from a system that used AR in a punitive way, and the 9th graders are traumatized. From having to have “silent lunch” and no recess if they failed AR quizzes, to only being able read books on their level, I spend the first few weeks of school helping them overcome their aversion to reading.
Favorite titles this year:
Winger
Need
Shatter Me
The Walking Dead (Compendium 1 & 2)
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens
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Thanks for sharing your experiences with reading workshop, your book recommendations, and now your books! My name is Katie Sarginson, and I teach English 9 and 11 at Gridley High school in Northern California. Some of the most popular titles in my class have been Sold, Tweak, The Lovely Bones, Paper Towns, Noggin, A Stolen Life, Maze Runner, Lone Survivor, The Book Thief, and I Am the Messenger. Thank you! 🙂
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Kim Kroll, Lapeer High School in Lapeer, MI. I teach English 11 and AP Lang. Next year I will venture into English 12 for one hour.
Most popular this year:
1. Everything Everything
2. Any James Patterson
3. Speak
4. Any Harry Potter
5. Any Stephen King
I don’t have a lot of books because I switched subject areas 2 years ago.
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Cherish Donaldson, Ola High School, 10th grade-World Lit.
Just starting my library and practicing Book Love for one year, so many favorites… any of Ken Follet, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Frank McCourt was a fave of several, Jodi Picoult, Oscar Wao
Hoping for more current popular titles
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Lindsey Cary
Peru High School
Teach 9, 10, and 11
I Am Number Four
Mazerunner series
The Glass Castle
Digital Fortress
Winger
Paper Towns
Me Before You
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Ashley Pociask, The REAL School, 5915 Erie St, Racine WI 53402. Middle school reading and 10th and 12th grade English
My kids love anything by Marie Lu, Sarah Dessen books, I Am Number Four, The Maze Runner (and series), Red Rising (and hoping to get them into the rest of the series)
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Cyndi Faircloth and I’ve been teaching at Paradise Creek Regional HS, a small alternative high school that serves our county. (However, next year I will be teaching 6th grade ELA at the middle school!)
My HS students seem to consistently like: Harry Potter (girls) and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (boys). Other books that I talked about with a reader more than once:
Anything in the Halo series
The Kabul Beauty School
Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
and Crank
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Tricia Copeland – 6-8 grades, Lincoln Magnet School, Springfield, IL
Kids’ favorites: The Crossover, The Heir series, Need, Boy 21, any graphic novel.
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I’m Amanda Gaul. I teach 12th grade at Waukee High School in Waukee, Iowa. Some favorites include The Kite Runner, August: Osage County, The Selection (series), The 5th Wave (series), and Eleanor & Park.
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Janelle – 9th Grade Henry Sibley High School
This past year was my first year back in the classroom (after taking several years off to stay home with my kids…and I gave away all my books when I left the first time), so I haven’t really had a chance to build up my classroom library…My students really seem to like anything John Greene, Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover…
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Kerry Stoots- 8th grade at Perrysburg Junior High
Favorites include Legend, Gym Candy, This Is What Happy Looks Like, The Testing, See You at Harrys, The Crossover, and Everything Everything.
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Betsy Dye; Southeast High School; Springfield, IL Grades 9-12
1. Anything written by John Green.
2. The Hour I First Believed
3. Gone Girl
4. The Girl on the Train
5. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
6. The Rose that Grew from Concrete
7. The Crossover
8. The Run of his Life: The People vs OJ Simpson
9. The Skin I’m in
10. Anything written by Jacqueline Woodson
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Jill Huber. Annawan High School. Annawan, Il. Grades 9-12
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Some favorites this year:
1. We Were Liars
2. Paper Towns
3. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
4. Any graphic novel about war: Vietnam or WWII were favorites
5. The Longest Ride
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Mike Dayton at Mundelein High School in IL. I teach English 9 and AP Literature. Student Choice favorites include:
October Mourning
Forgive Me Leonard Peacock
Winger
Perfect Chemistry
Glass Castles
Boy 21
Twisted
Carter Finally Gets It
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
We Were Liars
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I’m Jeannean Berglund (berglund_jeannean@svvsd.org) and I teach English 10, English 11, AP Lang., and AP Lit. Some favorite books are the Divergent series and books by Patrick Rothfuss. I’m desperate to build the non-fiction portion of my class library which is woefully small.
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