2004 Teen Booklist from
NYPL
Teens searching for
a good book can connect with the best books published with
The New York Public Library’s “Books
for the Teen Age, 2004.” The
Office of Young Adult Services is proud to present its yearly
mega-booklist of approximately 1000 titles. With over 500 new
titles in 61 subject sections and old favorites, teenagers
12--18 years old can connect with worlds of mystery and suspense,
romance, adventure, poetry, the arts and more. With “Books
for the Teen Age, 2004” teens will discover a whole new
realm of exciting reading.
Teen readers vary tremendously in interest, maturity
and reading ability. To meet these varying needs, the chosen
books differ greatly in difficulty and depth. Books are organized
in five general sections: Creative Arts; Science; Here/Now;
One World; and Action and Adventure. In turn, these are further
broken down into subcategories such as Humor; Mind and Body;
Working; USA: Black America; and Do-It-Yourself.
Teen interest is piqued with a variety of intriguing
subject areas: Adventures in Ideas; The Power of Words; The
Changing Scene; Getting it Together; Looking Good; Make Up
Your Mind; Overcoming Odds; and Young Love. More straightforward
categories are also available; Teen Novels and Short Stories;
The Americas; The Universe and Beyond; Athletes; Brain Food;
The Movies and TV; Women, and Planet Earth. In addition, the
List does not shy away from the serious subjects teens seek
information about, and includes categories on War and Peace;
AIDS; LGBTQ: Being Gay; Drugs; Love and Sex; The Middle East;
and Crime and Justice.
Designed with original cover art, each double-paged
spread incorporates one or two sidebars containing jacket blurbs
or direct quotes of texts to heighten interest in top-notch
books. With so many titles to choose from, teens have the opportunity
to find a story they can identify with. In Birdland (Scholastic, 2003) Tracy Mack writes, “Velley
cleared his throat and told us that for the assignment, we
could write, paint, sing, or create any other expression we
could think of. He said this would gives us a chance to portray
our neighborhoods as we saw them...He also said that, symbolically,
creating something was one way to rebuild the pieces of our
damaged city and repair our broken hearts. ‘True healing,’ he
said, ‘begins with imagination.’” And in Mamá,
(Rayo, 2003) Maria Perez-Brown writes “My mother’s
story is a classic tale of survival...It is a story of a woman
who had a dream to make sure that her children’s lives
would never repeat her own. My mother was relentless in her
mission.”
A sampling of the authors
that made this year’s
list include: Sting, author of Broken Music (Dial,
2003); Michael L. Printz and Coretta Scott King, Award winner
Angela Johnson, author of The First Part Last,
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2003); Jan Greenberg
and Sandra Jordan, Runaway Girl (Harry
N. Abrams, Inc., 2003); and Cornelia Funke, author of Inkheart (Chicken House, 2003).
New titles are indicated with asterisks, and durable
favorites from earlier lists carry through, as well. All the
books on the list are displayed year-round at Teen Central
Nathan Straus Young Adult Center at the Donnell Library Center,
20 West 53rd Street. Every New York Public Library Branch includes
books from the list in their collections. A list of Branch
Libraries and addresses is included on the back page.
“Books for the Teen Age, 2004” is
available from the Office of Branch Libraries, The New York
Public Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y 10016. Copies
cost $10.00 each. On mail orders there is a charge for mailing
and handling.#
