Booksource Classroom is Booksource’s free, online tool that helps teachers across the country manage their classroom libraries. Among other features, teachers can inventory all their books and track student checkouts. We currently have thousands of students using our system to discover books they love! Knowing which titles are the most popular among that many students can help you discover which you’ll want to make sure are a part of your classroom library.
Want to know which titles are checked out the most in Booksource Classroom? Keep reading to find out!
1-5. Dog Man series
by Dav Pilkey
Follow the adventures of Dog Man, the crime-biting canine who is part dog, part man, and ALL HERO as he digs into deception, claws after crooks and rolls over robbers. (Most popular titles include: Dog Man, Lord of the Fleas, Dog Man & Cat Kid, A Tale of Two Kitties and For Whom the Ball Rolls.)
6. Green Eggs & Ham
by Dr. Seuss
This classic story is still a favorite among audiences young and old. It takes a lot of effort for Sam-I-Am to convince another person to try green eggs and ham.
7. My Friend is Sad
by Mo Willems
When Gerald the elephant is sad, Piggie is determined to cheer him up, but he soon finds after many tries that it only takes the simplest thing to change Gerald’s mood.
8. Can I Play Too
by Mo Willems
Gerald the elephant and Piggie learn to play catch with their new friend Snake, even though Snake doesn’t have any arms! Friendship and problem-solving come together in this emergent-reader book.
9. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
by Mo Willems
Mo Willems’ humorous Pigeon character is another favorite for young readers. When the bus driver decides to take a break from driving, a wild and wacky pigeon pleads and begs to take his place, capturing the antics of a preschooler’s temper tantrum.
10. I Love My New Toy
by Mo Willems
Piggie can’t wait to show Gerald her brand new toy, but when it gets accidentally broken, their friendship may be in jeopardy.
11. Pete the Cat
by Eric Litwin
Meet Pete the Cat, a huge favorite for young readers. Pete goes walking down the street wearing his brand new white shoes. Along the way, his shoes change from white to red to blue to brown to wet as he steps in piles of strawberries, blueberries and other big messes.
(For even more Pete, check out these free Pete the Cat home resources from publisher Harper Collins.)
12. The Thank You Book
by Mo Willems
Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. Piggie wants to thank EVERYONE, but Gerald is worried Piggie will forget someone important.
13. Bad Kitty Meets the Baby
by Nick Bruel
Kitty’s owners are home with a big surprise for Kitty. But what is it? Kitty, reeling in horror, thinks it’s a dog. The neighbor cats are convinced it’s a cat. But we all know that it’s really a BABY!
14. Hi, Fly Guy!
by Tedd Arnold
While out on a search to find the perfect creature to bring to “The Amazing Pet Show,” a young boy encounters a friendly fly who is more than happy to lend him a hand, in an amusing tale about a very unlikely friendship.
1. Guts
by Raina Telgemeier
Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. She eventually returns to school, where she’s dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina’s tummy trouble isn’t going away, and it coincides with her worries about food, school and changing friendships.
2. Sisters
by Raina Telgemeier
Raina can’t wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren’t quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she’s also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn’t improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture, they realize they must figure out how to get along.
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney
Greg records his sixth-grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive.
4-7. Dog Man series
by Dav Pilkey
Follow the adventures of Dog Man, the crime-biting canine who is part dog, part man, and ALL HERO as he digs into deception, claws after crooks and rolls over robbers. (Most popular titles include: Dog Man, Lord of the Fleas, Dog Man & Cat Kid, A Tale of Two Kitties and For Whom the Ball Rolls.)
8. Ghosts
by Raina Telgemeier
Catrina and her family are moving to the coast of Northern California because her little sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn’t happy about leaving her friends for Bahia de la Luna, but Maya has cystic fibrosis and will benefit from the cool, salty air that blows in from the sea. As the girls explore their new home, a neighbor lets them in on a secret: There are ghosts in Bahia de la Luna. Maya is determined to meet one, but Cat wants nothing to do with them.
9. Drama
by Raina Telgemeier
Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead she’s the set designer for the drama department’s stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn’t know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together?
10. The Stonekeeper
by Kazu Kibuishi
The first in the Amulet graphic novel series, Stonekeeper introduces us to Emily and Navin. Emily and Navin’s mother are dragged down the basement stairs of their old ancestral home by a mysterious creature. Giving chase, the kids find themselves in a magical, dangerous world of man-eating demons, a mechanical rabbit and shadowy enemies.
11-13. I Survived Series
The most terrifying events in history are brought vividly to life in this fictional intermediate chapter book series. Readers will be transported by stories of amazing kids and how they survived. (Most popular titles include: The Attacks of September 11, 2001, The Shark Attacks of 1916 and The Sinking of the Titanic.)
14. Kristy’s Great Idea
by Raina Telgemeier & Ann M. Martin
In this graphic novel adaptation of the classic Babysitters Club novel, we meet Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia and Stacey, best friends and founding members of The Baby-sitters Club. Whatever comes up—cranky toddlers, huge dogs, scary neighbors, prank calls—you can count on them to save the day.
1. Guts
by Raina Telgemeier
Raina wakes up one night with a terrible upset stomach. She eventually returns to school, where she’s dealing with the usual highs and lows: friends, not-friends and classmates who think the school year is just one long gross-out session. It soon becomes clear that Raina’s tummy trouble isn’t going away, and it coincides with her worries about food, school and changing friendships.
2. Smile
by Raina Telgemeier
In this coming-of-age true story, Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader, but one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear and even a retainer with fake teeth attached—on top of all that, there’s a major earthquake, boy confusion and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.
3. Drama
by Raina Telgemeier
Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead she’s the set designer for the drama department’s stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn’t know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together?
4. Sisters
by Raina Telgemeier
Raina can’t wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren’t quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she’s also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn’t improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture, they realize they must figure out how to get along.
5. The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
The first novel in the worldwide best-selling series. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
6. The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, Khalil’s death is a national headline. When it becomes clear the police have little interest in investigating the incident, protesters take to the streets and Starr’s neighborhood becomes a war zone.
7. Wonder
by RJ Palacio
August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid, but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.
8. (TIE) The Crossover series
by Kwame Alexander
Crossover: “With a bolt of lightning on my kicks … The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. ‘Cuz tonight I’m delivering,” raps twelve-year-old Josh Bell. Thanks to their dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood—he’s got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it’s all on the line.
Rebound:Before Josh and Jordan Bell were streaking up and down the court, their father was learning his own moves. In this prequel to Newbery Medal winner The Crossover, Chuck Bell takes center stage, as readers get a glimpse of his childhood and how he became the jazz-music worshipping, basketball star his sons look up to.
10. New Kid
by Jerry Craft
Winner of this year’s Newberry award, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real. Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds-and not really fitting into either one.T
11. The Stonekeeper
by Kazu Kibuishi
Emily and Navin’s mother are dragged down the basement stairs of their old ancestral home by a mysterious creature. Giving chase, the kids find themselves in a magical, dangerous world of man-eating demons, a mechanical rabbit and shadowy enemies.
12. The Maze Runner
by James Dashner
Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. Friendship, dystopian futures and fantasy combine in this popular title.
13. Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Driven by the secrets and vengeance that mark his street culture, 15-year-old Will contemplates over the course of 60 psychologically suspenseful seconds whether he is going to murder the person who killed his brother.
14. Awkward
by Svetlana Chmakova
After shunning Jaime, the school nerd, on her first day at a new middle school, Penelope Torres tries to blend in with her new friends in the art club, until the art club goes to war with the science club, of which Jaime is a member.
1. The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, Khalil’s death is a national headline. When it becomes clear the police have little interest in investigating the incident, protesters take to the streets and Starr’s neighborhood becomes a war zone.
2. Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
Driven by the secrets and vengeance that mark his street culture, 15-year-old Will contemplates over the course of 60 psychologically suspenseful seconds whether he is going to murder the person who killed his brother.
3. One of Us is Lying
by Karen M. McManus
Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident.
4. The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
The first novel in the worldwide best-selling series. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
5. Everything, Everything
by Nicola Yoon
What if you couldn’t touch anything in the outside world? Never breathe in the fresh air, feel the sun warm your face … or kiss the boy next door? Maddy is a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world, and Olly is the boy who moves in next door and becomes the greatest risk she’s ever taken.
6. (TIE) The Fault in Our Stars & Paper Towns
by John Green
The Fault in Our Stars: Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
Paper Towns: One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin “Q” Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q’s neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.
8. On the Come Up
by Angie Thomas
The highly anticipated second novel from Angie Thomas, the author of The Hate U Give, returns to the world of Garden Heights in a story about an aspiring teen rapper and what happens when you get everything you thought you wanted.
9. The Maze Runner
by James Dashner
Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. Friendship, dystopian futures and fantasy combine in this popular title.
10. Scythe
by Neal Shusterman
Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe’s apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation, they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to take the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives.
11. Dear Martin
by Nic Stone
Justyce McAllister is top of his class, captain of the debate team, and set for the Ivy League next year, but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. He is eventually released without charges (or an apology), but the incident has Justyce spooked. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood, he can’t seem to escape the scorn of his former peers or the attitude of his prep school classmates. The only exception: Sarah Jane, Justyce’s gorgeous—and white—debate partner he wishes he didn’t have a thing for. Struggling to cope with it all, Justyce starts a journal to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But do Dr. King’s teachings hold up in the modern world? Justyce isn’t so sure. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up. Way up. Much to the fury of the white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. And Justyce and Manny get caught in the crosshairs.
12. The 57 Bus
by Dashka Slater
The true story of two teenagers and the crime that changed their lives, this riveting nonfiction book for teens about race, class, gender, crime and punishment tells the true story of an agender teen who was set on fire by another teen while riding a bus in Oakland, California.
13. Refugee
by Alan Gratz
Josef is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world … Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America … Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe … All three kids go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, shocking connections will tie their stories together in the end.
14. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
by Jenny Han
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
15. The Sun is Also a Star
by Nicola Yoon
Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.
Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store–for both of us.
16. Looking for Alaska
by John Green
First drink. First prank. First friend. First love. Last words.Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
17. The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.
18. If I Stay
by Gayle Forman
In a single moment, everything changes. 17-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck.
19. All American Boys
by Jason Reynolds & Brandon Kiely
In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.
What are the most popular books in your classroom library? Tell us in the comments!
[…] we examined the most popular books checked out by students using Booksource Classroom, our free, online tool that helps teachers across the country manage […]
[…] growing increasingly popular with the students of today. A quick scroll through our recent post, The Most Popular Titles in Booksource Classroom for Every Grade, will show that an overwhelming amount of these titles are being checked out of classroom libraries […]
[…] track the books their students are checking out, so we recently took a look at the most checked out titles in Booksource Classroom to see what kids are reading […]
[…] The Most Popular Titles in Booksource Classroom for Every Grade […]