Product Details

• Author: Teri Lesesne
• Year: 2003
• Grade Range: 4-12

• Media: 248 pp/paper
• ISBN: 978-157110-381-9
• Item No.: WEB-0381

What do adolescents care about? Chatting on-line with friends, movies, their favorite bands . . . but many are also avid readers. What motivates some of these "typical teens" to become lifelong readers and others to slide by with the minimum amount of assigned reading? Teri Lesesne says the key is finding the books that get them hooked in the first place.

In Making the Match she focuses on three distinct areas that will assist teachers and librarians in steering students to the literature they love:

• Knowing the readers: discussion of important theories in the development of adolescents (mentally, physically, morally, socially) and how that information helps educators to reach these kids with books. This background information is brought home through the book's “snapshots” which profile many of the adolescents the author has worked with.
• Knowing the books: examination of the various forms, formats, and genres that YA literature has to offer, as well as what special challenges educators face when selecting quality nonfiction or realistic fiction, and the role picture books can play in this process.
• Knowing the strategies: an overview of concrete ideas for motivating students to read as well as follow-up activities for post-reading assessment. Strategies discussed include reading aloud, book-talking, alternatives to traditional book reports, and literature circles.

A delightful feature of the book that will help inspire teachers and students alike—as well as underscore the concepts contained in the text—is a series of vignettes by popular, award-winning YA authors that offer glimpses into their own feelings and memories of books and reading. Authors include: Sharon Creech, Jack Gantos, Chris Crutcher, Mel Glenn, Paul Janeczko, and others.

The book concludes with an invaluable set of appendices providing an FAQ on YA literature, bibliographies of professional materials, books by the vignette authors, and over twenty booklists with hundreds of books organized by genre or topic, all with suggested grade levels.

Table of Contents

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Contents
Foreword by Kylene Beers
Acknowledgments
Introduction
"My Life as a Reader in a Stolen Moment Talkin' Blues" by John H. Ritter
"On Reading, or a Reader Grows in Brooklyn" by Mel Glenn
Part 1: Knowing the Kids
"A Literary Quest" by Carolyn Meyer
1. What Is a Young Adult?
"Exploring Feelings and Desires in Books" by Jack Gantos
2. Adolescent Development: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Social
"Finding the Meaning Myself" by Chris Crutcher
3. What Young Adults Tell Us About Books, Reading, and Educators
"The Gift of Reading" by Joan Lowery Nixon
4. Getting to Know You: Using Surveys and Questionnaires
"What Reading Means to Me" by Chris Crowe
"The Richness of Books" by Jeanette Ingold
Part II: Knowing the Books
"The Hardy Boys Made Me Do It" by Paul Janeczko
5. What Makes a Book "Good"?
"A Reader, a Romantic" by Cynthia Leitich-Smith
6. Fiction Genres for Adolescents
"Writing to Make One Fall from Trees" by T. A. Barron
7. Moving from Fiction to Informational Books
"Reading: Natural and Essential" by Lori Aurelia Williams
"Riding the Roller Coaster" by Sonya Sones
Part III: Making the Match
"Lift Off" by Kimberly Willis Holt
8. Reading Aloud: The Power of the Spoken Word
"Wondering What's Around the Bend" by Sharon Creech
9. Booktalking: Making Personal Introductions Between Books and Readers
"Books Make Life Easier" by Michael Cart
10. Motivating Readers>
Afterword by Joan Bauer
"Teaching Kids to Love to Read" by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Appendixes:
Book Lists and Resources

Contributors' Works
Professional Works Cited

Teri Lesesne
There was never any doubt in Teri Lesesne's mind that she would one day become a teacher. "It is the only thing I ever considered becoming," she says. She loves to see kids' faces light up as they learn.
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