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The Content Literacy Continuum: A Framework for Improving Adolescent Literacy

The Content Literacy Continuum (CLC) is a tool for enabling teachers and administrators to evaluate literacy instruction/services offered within a school and to formulate a plan for improving the quality of those services. This article describes the CLC’s five levels of service, along with practice examples and the teacher’s role at each level.

The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
David Simon, Edward Burns

The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner City Neighborhood

Genre:
Biography, Mystery / Crime, Nonfiction
Age Level:
YA

Fifteen-year old DeAndre lives in the projects of West Baltimore, and his parents, Fran and Gary, battle severe drug addiction. This book asks difficult questions: What happens when parents don’t parent? What is the community’s role? Simon and Burns went on to create the TV series “The Wire,” continuing their examination of life in Baltimore.

The Crazy Horse Electric Game
Chris Crutcher

The Crazy Horse Electric Game

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

Everything was going great for Willie Weaver, renowned pitcher and star of his baseball team. Until his accident, that is. Faced with multiple losses, Willie runs away from his home, family, and friends in Montana to start all over in L.A. Will he be able to put the pieces of his life back together?

croc
Stephan Pastis

The Croc Ate My Homework: A Pearls Before Swine Collection

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
Middle Grade

The Croc family is on a never-ending mission to eat Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra. Fans of graphic novels (or comic collections such as Calvin and Hobbes) and of the Timmy Failure series are sure to enjoy this collection.

The Crossover
Kwame Alexander

The Crossover

Genre:
Fiction, Poetry
Age Level:
Middle Grade

The Bell twins are stars on the basketball court and comrades in life. While there are some differences — Josh shaves his head and Jordan loves his locks — both twins adhere to the Bell basketball rules: In this game of life, your family is the court, and the ball is your heart. When life intervenes in the form of a new girl, the balance shifts and growing apart proves painful. Alexander eloquently mashes up concrete poetry, hip-hop, a love of jazz, and a thriving family bond. The effect is poetry in motion. It is a rare verse novel that is fundamentally poetic rather than using this writing trend as a device. There is also a quirky vocabulary element that adds a fun intellectual note to the narrative. This may be just the right book for those hard-to-match youth who live for sports or music or both. (2015 Newbery Medal Winner)

crucible
Arthur Miller

The Crucible

Genre:
Classics
Age Level:
YA

Set in Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s, Miller uses the story of the infamous witch trials as an allegory for the anti-Communist feelings and the McCarthy hearings in America during the 1950’s. As the fervor over identifying witches gains traction, innocent people fall victim to unwarranted accusations, with devastating results. What happens when intolerance reigns in a society? Looking for a cross-curricular connection? Students can study the historical events and people involved in the Salem witch trials while reading this play. Teachers can help students uncover similarities and differences between the history and the text.

The Cure book cover

The Cure

Genre:
Science fiction / Dystopian
Age Level:
YA

Before the Blight, becoming an adult was something teenagers looked forward to. But now, turning eighteen means certain death. Unless you prove yourself worthy of the Cure.

On her seventeenth birthday, Ashen Spencer is blindfolded and escorted to the massive, mysterious building known as the Arc to begin her year of training and testing in hopes that she can earn the Cure—a powerful drug given only to those deemed worthy to survive beyond their eighteenth birthday.
Ashen has a chance to rise up from her former life of squalor and be granted a place in society, if the Panel—the mysterious group of powerful men and women in charge of the Arc—deems her year a success. She’s assigned to work for twelve months as a servant for a wealthy family whose son is the most alluring young man she’s ever met. At first, Ashen is grateful for the opportunity to earn her place in a society she’s always dreamed of inhabiting.

But as time passes and she begins to learn the truth about the people she admires so much and the home she left behind, she realizes she has a choice: Be part of the disease…Or be part of the Cure.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Genre:
Fiction, Mystery / Crime
Age Level:
YA

Christopher has two mysteries to solve: who killed Wellington the dog and what happened to his mother. But Christopher, who has Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism, approaches these mysteries and the world itself in a unique and special way.

A tall carnival tent open at the bottom with a man walking through the entrance
Rick Riordan

The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities

Genre:
Fairy Tales, Folktales and Myths
Age Level:
Middle Grade

A cave monster … an abandoned demon … a ghost who wants to erase history … a killer commandant … These are just some of the challenges confronting the young heroes in this highly entertaining anthology. Ten bestselling and award-winning middle grade authors contributed to this collection: Roshani Chokshi, J.C. Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, Carlos Hernandez, Kwame Mbalia, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Sarwat Chadda, Graci Kim, and Rick Riordan, who also served as the editor.

The Curse of the Campfire Weenies
David Lubar

The Curse of the Campfire Weenies

Genre:
Thriller / Horror

Thirty-five stories of laughter and terror to tickle your horror bone. Full of thirsty vampires, hungry insects, vengeful teachers, evil power tools, singing Girl Scouts, and other terrors.