This year both the adolescent lit and children's lit classes at Harvard Graduate School of Education (where I moonlight when I'm not designing, reviewing, and blogging here at the Horn Book) will be taught in the spring semester. That means we're running them back-to-back and holding our book discussions out in the open with all of you.

Lauren Adams will once again teach adolescent lit (a.k.a. H810G) and I will take up children's lit (H810F) in late March after spring break. Lauren has a great list of books this year and once again starts things off with a book that ensures a meaty discussion: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. We won't require the students to comment on this book here because they have only just signed up for the class, but feel free to tell us what you think of it below and perhaps some students will find their way here, too.

Here's her complete reading list. Some weeks they are choosing books from this list rather than reading all of them.

January 26, 2016 (first class, intro to adolescent lit)
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

February 2 (windows and mirrors)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

February 9 (historical fiction and information books)
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Bomb: the Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steven Shenkin
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose
Marching For Freedom by Elizabeth Partridge

February 23 (fantasy and sci fi)
Feed by M. T. Anderson
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal

March 1 (illustrated books)
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís
Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

March 8 (last class, dessert)
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

I hope you will join us discussing these titles. We count on you blog readers outside the class to enrich our discussions. The more, the merrier — and meatier.

Happy reading!