Hi All,

I am a Teacher's Aide for a program for adults with severe and profound mental disabilities. We are trying to get books that are a little more age-approriate for them and that they would find interesting to listen to when someone reads to them. Can anyone make any good suggestions? We are thinking books that are perhaps at a middle-school level. They have plenty of picture and short storybooks in the classroom, but we want to expand what we are reading to them (you never know what they pick up on). One of our students loves being read the Harry Potter books, for example, but I am just not sure what else is out there. Any help would be very appreciated!

If they like the Harry Potter books, then you might want to try the Percy Jackson series, The Hunger Games trilogy, and the Septimus Heap series. They might also enjoy the Series of Unfortunate Events books; great vocabulary in these and the characters end up in the most interesting of situations. I am especially fond of The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix; just about everything she's written is wonderful.  You might look into authors like Lois Lowry, Robert Cormier, and Avi, too.  All write good, realistic fiction, for young adults with characters that are easily relatable to all ages. 

Young adult books have come a long way in the last ten years, as far as subject matter.  Some get a little graphic in terms of sex and/or violence for the middle school years, so if any of your students are especially sensitive to either area you might want to have someone read the books first.  The ones I've suggested are all reasonably tame.

Hope this helps.

Have you ever tried audio books with this group?  I have a Meg Cabot that is called Rules for Girls that might hit the fancy of some of the females.  If you are interested, please message me before you would request.  Vicky

Thank you for your help and suggestions everyone, I appreciate them!