Beach reads for guys!

It's not too late to get your kids reading this summer. Check out the PhotoPeach below for great ideas for summer beach reads for guys!

Resources

Need more ideas? Check the links below for surefire winners for the toughest reluctant readers! 

Quick Picks for Young Adult Readers

From the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the Quick Picks is published annually.

According to the site, this list identifies titles aimed at encouraging reading among teens who dislike reading for whatever reason. Fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels and manga are included. 

Books for your Guy-brary!

From teenreads.com, this male-centric reading list is added to each month.

Out of this world titles for reluctant male readers!

This weeks post will focus on science fiction titles. These titles are sure to grab the most reluctant reader's attention and make those pages fly!

Red Rising - Pierce Brown

Set on Mars, Darrow is a Red. In this color cast society, a Red is the lowest clan. Darrow lives below ground on Mars. He is a helldiver, a miner doing the most dangerous work of all. Life is cheap as a Red and miners and their families don't live long. But the sacrifice is worth it, or so they think. For generations, the Reds believed they were the only humans on Mars. They mine helium-3, a mineral necessary to make Mars habitable for humans as Earth lays dying light years away. What they don't know is that Mars has been inhabited for generations, ruled by the Golds. When 16 -year-old Darrow sees his bride Eo killed by government forces, he is recruited by a revolutionary group committed to overthrowing the Golds. They know the truth about the society that lives above ground. Driven by grief, Darrow agrees and undergoes harrowing operations, brutal combat training, and tutorials in everything from reading and writing to which fork to use at dinner.  The plan? Darrow will infiltrate Gold society and beat them from the inside.

Book 1 in the Red Rising series, hand this one to readers ready to move on from Percy Jackson or the Hunger Games series. Intrigue, brutal battles, and a righteous cause fuel the action in this fast-paced read. 

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

The year is 2044 and life on Earth is no picnic. Global warming and an oil crisis have destroyed life as we know it, and poverty is overwhelming. To escape this grim landscape, most citizens choose to live their lives online, jacked into OASIS. OASIS is a vast, virtual world where players can be and do whatever they want. Seventeen-year-old Wade Watts is no different. An orphan since 11, he lives in a vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City. Wade has no hope for a better life, until the death of the creator of OASIS. When James Halliday dies, it's announced he left no heir to his massive fortune. Instead, he left three Easter eggs buried in OASIS and the first to solve the riddles and find all three will inherit everything. Wade, like everyone else on Earth, wants to find those eggs. Wade, to his surprise, stumbles upon the first egg, and now he's in it to win it. But so is an evil corporation, who will stop at nothing to win the grand prize, including murder.

Likable characters, references to the 1980's, and a love of video games make this a great book for reluctant readers. Give this one to the gamers in your library!

Ashfall - Mike Mullin

Alex, 15, just wants a quiet weekend eating junk food and playing video games. His parents and sister are visiting family for the weekend and Alex is happy to stay behind. That is until the earth starts shaking, his house starts tilting, and fire breaks out. Not an everyday occurrence in small town Iowa. As Alex escapes, he sees his town and neighborhood are destroyed. What they don't know is a super volcano beneath Yellowstone has erupted and this is only the beginning. Transportation, communication, water, food, and medical services are in short supply or non-existent. Citizens form gangs and within hours murder, assault, and theft are commonplace. Alex knows being on his own is dangerous. His only hope of survival is to walk hundreds of miles to find his parents in Illinois. But when the world has gone crazy, getting there won't be easy.

This is a great choice for readers who love survival and action stories. Fans of the Walking Dead will love this trilogy!

Getting reluctant male teens excited about reading!

Get 'em reading

A big challenge secondary media specialists face is engaging reluctant readers who don’t see the
value in reading for pleasure. While there are female students who don’t want to read, many boys in
the secondary grades seem to take not reading as a badge of honor. It’s my mission to find books that
resonant with teenage boys, books with characters and situations boys identify with, lots of action and
a fast moving plot that grabs the reader.

I Hunt Killers is the first title in the Jasper Dent trilogy by Barry Lyga. Jazz is a likable 17-year-old boy
counting the days until he graduates and gets out of his small town. He lives with his grandma, has a
great best friend, and a hot girlfriend. But Jazz has one big problem - his dad. You see, dear old dad
is the most infamous serial killer in America. He’s now in prison for life, but casts a long shadow over
Jazz’s life. Jazz wants to move on and forget he ever had a dad, and just when it seems like that
might be possible, bodies begin turning up in Jazz’s town. The catch? The murders are exact copycats
of the crimes Jazz’s dad committed.  Is Jazz following in his dad’s footsteps? Is he committing the
murders but waking up with no memory of committing the crime? If the killer is someone else, can
Jazz stop them before they strike again?

This trilogy is a great choice for 9-12 grade reluctant readers. Jazz’s relationship with his girlfriend
and best friend are realistic, full of humor, and the dialogue is fun. Pages fly as you try to figure out
who is committing the crimes. Dark, gruesome, with a touch of humor, this book appeals to readers
who like to watch thrillers, true crime, and horror movies. Pair this read with the nonfiction graphic
novel, My Friend Dahmer. Want more information? Click here: Jasper Dent Series

Lockdown: Escape from Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith is the first book in his
series about a prison of the future for juvenile offenders. Alex, framed for the murder of his best friend,
is sentenced to life in prison. But Alex is not going to a normal prison. He is going to Furnace, a prison
built to house the most dangerous, evil juvenile offenders in England. Furnace is buried a mile
beneath the surface of the Earth, and once you go into Furnace, you never come out. No phone calls,
letters from home, or visits with your lawyer break up the monotony of life in Furnace. Alex resigns
himself to his fate until realizes something more is happening at Furnace. Young prisoners are taken
out of the cells late at night by huge, hulking men with silver eyes, never to be seen again. The
corridors are stalked by creatures with monstrous teeth and the warden is just plain evil. Alex knows
death is preferable to what awaits him if he is taken out of his cell at night. He begins to plot the
inconceivable, his escape from the inescapable.

Hand this series to readers looking for nonstop action, a whip smart protagonist, and heart pounding
scenes where the reader is left holding their breath, waiting to see if Alex is caught. If your readers
can’t get enough of books like this, give them Joe Ducie’s Rig trilogy next. To see all of the titles in
the series click here: Escape from Furnace

Jason Bourne and James Bond fans need look no further than to Allen Zadoff’s
Unknown Assassin trilogy. The first book, I am the Weapon, introduces  Boy Nobody. At ten, he watched his father die at the hands of a black ops agency.
The agency takes Boy Nobody in and trains him to be a government assassin. At 16, he’s sent into
the field for his first kill. His specialty: killing high-placed targets, making it look like natural causes.
He is trained not to question, not to think, not to feel. But that changes when he is sent to New York
to kill the mayor. There he meets the mayor’s daughter and begins to have feelings for her. But when
you are a black ops assassin you don’t get to change your mind about your career. If the agency even
suspects that Boy Nobody is having doubts he will be the one facing a nameless assassin.

Filled with twists and action, with a little coming of age angst thrown in, give this book to readers who
like spy thrillers, political intrigue, and action titles. For older students who have finished the trilogy try
the adult series Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz. To find out more about the trilogy
click here: Unknown Assassin

Instilling a passion for reading is not always easy and many times I get visits from students who “just
can’t get into this book”. The books above are surefire winners for my hardest cases and more
than once I’ve had a student tell me “this is the first book I’ve finished since elementary school.”
Next post, science fiction recommendations for your toughest reluctant readers!

Check out what author Jason Reynolds has to say about reading!