The value of school libraries

Stephen Abram has written a brief post on his blog about the value of school libraries, with links to several studies that provide data on this topic. A brief quote:

...students, who attend schools with well-funded, properly-stocked libraries managed by qualified teacher-librarians, have higher achievement, improved literacy and greater success at the post-secondary level.

The post and studies are well worth a read for librarians, teachers and administrators.

New links

Booklist: Dystopian novels

Dystopian fiction addresses possible futures of human society and the planet earth, and it's usually pretty grim. One example that many students are familiar with is The Giver by Lois Lowry, and PRHS has a number of other dystopian novels available as well.

**April 9, 2010: updated to include new books and websites.

Feed by M. T. Anderson

The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Hunger Games (read my review) and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The city of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Gone by Michael Grant

Green angel by Alice Hoffman (read my review)

Devil on my back by Monica Hughes

Brave new world by Aldous Huxley

The giver by Lois Lowry

The declaration by Gemma Malley

The secret under my skin by Janet McNaughton

The knife of never letting go by Patrick Ness (read my review)

Life as we knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer (read my review)

How I live now by Meg Rosoff

The forest of hands and teeth by Carrie Ryan

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (read my review)

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

Clicking on the linked title will take you to the PRHS library catalogue so you can see if the book is checked in.

More dystopian booklists:

Best dystopian novels for teens
Dystopian fiction
Dystopian fiction for youth
Dystopias booklist (includes adult novels)
Top 10 dystopian novels list