Thursday, July 24, 2014

Top 10 Wildcat Favorite Books of the Year


And now for the top Wildcat Favorite books checked out in 2013-2014. The books in this section are the most popular fiction series books at my school and have a higher number of checkouts than other sections.  In fact, that is how I know what books to put in this section.  I use circulation stats and observations to determine which books will go in this section.  Our mascot is the Wildcat, thus the section title.  You can read more about this section here.


with 35 checkouts.
(Side note:  I have had to mark this book as a middle grade fiction book even though it has a very low reading level because of the content.  Nate's character is disrespectful to adults and often makes fun of his teacher's weight and his father's parenting. In one book,  Big Nate Out Loud, he asks his best friend "Is that a name or a male enhancement drug?"  After discussing it with the media committee at our school it was decided to keep these books on the shelves, but make them available to the upper grades only, hoping that they would be mature enough to handle the content and not imitate it.)


with 36 checkouts.


with 37 checkouts.


with 40 checkouts.


with 39 checkouts.


with 44 checkouts.

(side note: DOAWK books have also been labeled as Middle Grade Fiction books due to content.  I asked several teachers to read the first book in the series, and then it was discussed with the media committee and decided that because Greg doesn't seem to take responsibility for his actions and basically bullies his best friend, that it would be best for more mature readers.  See comments at the end of this post for more.)


with 45 checkouts.



each with 49 checkouts.


with 51 checkouts.


and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinnley
each with 54 checkouts.

I still don't understand the appeal of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. It may not be very "librarian" of me, but since I read these books a few years ago, I will not purchase any new DOAWK books for our elementary school.  After reviewing these books, our media committee agreed that we should keep what we have, but not add any more.  There is just too much good literature out there to spend the very limited budget our media center receives on these books. Perhaps they would be a better fit in a middle school, but elementary students are very impressionable.  As an educator, teaching good character is an important part of my job.  In my opinion, these books just don't send that kind of a message. I will not recommend or purchase a book just because it is popular if it doesn't add quality to our collection and I am convinced that they would not be as popular without the movie. We have selection guidelines in our county, and I just don't believe DOAWK books meet these guidelines.  In the meantime, the 24 copies we have (which, incidentally, were purchased before I took this position and/or before I read them myself to decide whether or not to purchase more) will just have to do.  Okay, I will get off my soapbox now.

You can read about 2012-2013's top 10 Wildcat Favorites here.  Next up, the top 10 Non-fiction books checked out in 2013-2014. Stay tuned!


*I'm an affiliate for things I've bought or used personally.  If you click through any referral links (if included), at no cost to you, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase.  Thank you for your support in this way.


1 comment:

  1. Always love these posts each year! Just one thing that stuck out to me.

    My students would be crushed if I didn't purchase the rest of the Wimpy Kid books. In fact, I think there would be a riot. They remain one of the most popular series in our school. As I learned in library school, every book its reader and every reader its book. Just because I have a personal quibble with a book, I'm not going to ignore peer reviewed selection aids such as SLJ and the students' interests. Ok. Now I'm off my soapbox as well ;)

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