Thursday, February 10, 2011

A Core Collection for Young Adults (book and CD)


Welch, R.J. (2011). A Core Collection for Young Adults (2nd Ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman. ISBN: 978-1555706920.

Expert author Rollie Welch, a longtime member of YALSA’S Best Books Committee and Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, makes collection building easy for school and public librarians through this extraordinarily sound, field-tested and diverse selection of recommended, acclaimed and award-winning titles. This remarkable new tool has been extensively revised and expanded to include a comprehensive, up-to-date guide to over 1,200 must-have titles across 34 different genres that will appeal to teens of all different ages, genders, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds.

Along with material that spans the gamut of fiction and non-fiction subgenres, from action and adventure to fantasy to history to science-fiction, Welch includes a number of innovative new sections dedicated to more specific interests, like supernatural beings, edgier “almost-street” literature, coming-of-age tales, graphic novels, religious-themed fiction and new classics.

Each title includes full bibliographic information along with an annotation that provides a brief plot and character summary, an audience recommendation, and content advisories. A companion CD-ROM offers titles and lists in various formats (Excel, Word) to facilitate easy collection maintenance, selection, and acquisition.

Novice and veteran librarians alike will find this to be the ultimate go-to-source for YA collection development.

(book description)