Building an ESL Collection for Young Adults

This annotated bibliography of more than 500 recommended books meets the needs of teachers and librarians for reading materials for young adults for whom English is a second language. Laura McCaffery, who has many years of experience with collection development of ESL materials for young adults, has selected the best books on a variety of topics to meet curriculum and personal interest needs of young adults. Most of the books selected were published between 1992 and 1998. The bibliography is organized by topic: adventure, mystery, and suspense; biographies; career, workplace, life skills, and parenting; folktales, myths, poetry, and classics; ethnic diversity; history and geography; nature and science; and sports. Indexes by author, subject, title, and ethnic group make searching easy.

Mainstreamed ESL students can use these books to better understand and make use of regular textbooks. Special ESL classes can use the recommended books as part of regular instruction. Most of the books recommended are for the intermediate or advanced beginner reading level in English, but some very easy books are also included. Most of the books are suitable for all learners from grades five through adult. Each entry contains a complete bibliographical citation, Fry Reading Level, Interest Level, Library of Congress subjects for cataloging, and a 50 to 200 word annotation describing the book and how it can be used by the librarian or teacher who is working with patrons or students. A list of distributors of print and nonprint ESL materials completes the work.

LAURA HIBBETS MCCAFFERY is Librarian in the Readers' Services department of the Allen County Public Library, where she has worked with the Fort Wayne Literacy Council and the Three Rivers Literacy Alliance to develop a collection of materials for patrons for whom English is a second language. She supervised the collection and has developed a collection development policy for literacy and ESL materials that is in use in the library. A former Young Adult librarian, she has served on the Publishers Liaison Committee in the Adult Lifelong Learning Section of the Public Library Association, where she evaluated materials for literacy needs.