Matching students up with great books for their wide reading is essential for engaging our often very busy teenage readers. There are always some titles that remain popular year in year out, but each year new titles emerge that make the experience of the wide reading program more dynamic and exciting. The library staff will work hard to get engaging books into their hands during their reading sessions, but knowing some of the most popular books and authors might also be helpful to parents as the summer holidays approach and there is more time to read.
However, without effort from the reader these wonderful stories remain undiscovered. Parents can help so much by assisting their children with establishing good habits of reading, setting aside regular times for reading when the home is relatively quiet and reading yourself when the children are reading, even reading to them or with them. Reading has enormous benefits academically but it is also wonderful for wellbeing and mindfulness, taking a break from those ever-present screens.
So, it is a joy to share with you what have been the top picks for our students in 2022.
We’ve seen lots of old favourite series continue in popularity, like Cherub, Alex Rider, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Once, Twilight and the trilogies of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner.
Some new series have emerged as popular, including Robin Hood by Robert Muchamore and the mystery books by Karen McManus, particularly her first, One of Us is Lying. Trilogies that begin with Scythe and The Prison Healer seem to always be out on loan.
Biographies of sporting heroes and, interestingly, Atomic Habits: An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones by James Clear have been popular choices with students across several year levels.
BookTok has drawn attention to many young adult books and the ones in that category which have been popular among the Year 7s include Legend, They Both Die at the End, A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder, We Were Liars and the graphic novel series Heartstopper. We have a number of these titles as audiobooks as well and they can be accessed on the Library Catalogue.
The fantasy genre is often popular with avid readers and authors Brandon Sanderson, Sara J Maas, Lynette Noni, Leigh Bardugo and Kendare Blake have been among the most borrowed authors in the CLI Library this year.
Other stand-out books this year have included Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue, The Fall by Tristan Bancks, and The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks, one of our Literature Festival authors this year.
The library Instagram @carey.library is featuring photos of these and other popular books, held by our enthusiastic Year 7 readers, until the end of the year. Follow our Instagram for a constant stream of great new books and what is trending in the library.
Marg Moran
Head of the CLI Library
