Each year in April, originally just out of curiosity, I run a report to determine which books are the most circulated. I usually can guess, but sometimes there are surprises – this year, not so much. The report also provides me with a great bulletin board and display option for the end of the year. This year the top 10 titles are:
Number 10. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
“Bobby’s carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.” This is the third year the book has been on the list.
Number 9. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
“Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.” This is the first time Blood and Chocolate book has been on the list. I attribute the revised interest in this older title to be due to the Twilight phenomenon. The Silver Kiss by Klause is also on the top 25 list.
Number 8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
“A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.” Speak has been on the list off and on over the last seven years.
Number 7. Shattering Glass by Gail Giles
“Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the school nerd into Prince Charming.” I have to plead guilty to “pushing” this title every year. It is one of the two that I can usually entice the fellas into reading. Ms. Giles made it so easy for me by writing such a grabbing opening paragraph. I simply have the unsuspecting male read it and they’re hooked. In case you haven’t picked this one up, the opening lines are:
“Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was too much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn’t realize it until the day we killed him.”
Number 6. Payback by Paul Langan
“Originally published as The gun. Bluford freshman Tyray Hobbs, the class bully and tormentor of Darrell Mercer, is determined to get revenge on Darrell, the only boy who ever stood up to Tyray.” The Bluford High series is a relatively new series for WS. I was lucky enough to receive a small monetary donation from our local public library’s “Friends of the Library” association to purchase two sets of the series. Townsend Press is a godsend by selling them for only $1 each. All of the titles in the series are constantly checked out!
Number 5. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
“After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.” This is another title I “push” with my male/reluctant readers. I tell them it’s like reading an action-adventure television show – constant action. Usually, they’ll come back for the rest of the books in the Alex Rider series. Very few have ever brought it back unread.
Number 4. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
“Bella must choose between her friendship with Jacob, a werewolf, and her relationship with Edward, a vampire, but when Seattle is ravaged by a mysterious string of killings, the three of them need to decide whether their personal lives are more important than the well-being of an entire city.”
Number 3. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
“When the Cullens, including her beloved Edward, leave Forks rather than risk revealing that they are vampires, it is almost too much for eighteen-year-old Bella to bear, but she finds solace in her friend Jacob until he is drawn into a “cult” and changes in terrible ways.”
Number 2. Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer
“Continues the story of the human Bella and the vampire Edward whose love is threatened by their difference, a werewolf named Jacob, and other outside influences.”
— drum roll please —-
And the number one circulated book at Wagener-Salley is…..
…. as if you haven’t guessed ….
Number 1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
“When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.”
No shock to me that the most circulated book would be Twilight. I guess to be fair, I should have grouped all of the Twilight saga together in order to give at least 3 other books a chance to be in the top 10, but I wanted to be absolutely correct in the top 10 list. We also have a copy of The Host by Meyer and it is in the top 25 list.
For the first time since I’ve been running the report, there isn’t a Sarah Dessen title on the top ten list. Sara Dessen and Melody Carlson books are EXTREMELY popular with the girls; however, no single title from these authors made the top 25 this year.
