The Jams

The Honor Jam features Newbery Honor-winning titles with protagonists in situations where staying true to themselves isn’t easy. As the characters wrestle with difficult decisions, your students will learn that sometimes the right choice takes courage, maturity, and understanding.

The Tyranny Jam features titles that focus on how characters handle themselves when put in
tough situations by strong—and not always just—leaders. With a variety of moral issues and differing
viewpoints in each novel, there will be plenty of topics to fuel great classroom discussions.

The American Classics Jam features quintessential young adult literature. The novels in this Jam are time-honored and required texts.

Created by Alan Sitomer and Michael Cirelli, teacher, poet and executive director of Urban Word NYC, the Poetry Jam is a collection of poetry featuring everything from hip-hop to Shakespeare and Tupac Shakur to Tennyson, accompanied by standards-based curriculum and cutting-edge multimedia projects.

The Dark Secrets Jam features novels that focus on family, love, and heartbreak—and the difficult choices that accompany all three. Featuring strong female protagonists all wrestling with dangerous secrets, this trio of novels captures what it means to be a teenager.

The Bad Boys Jam deals with real issues that teens face every day, like the constant search for acceptance, friendship, and even the desire for revenge. But as the characters in these novels will prove, having the courage to do the right thing isn’t always easy.

The Friends, Foes, and Crisis Jam explores the darker side of teenage angst. With subject matter centering on problems as serious as depression, racism, and life in jail, these novels are sure to grab students’ attention from the very beginning.

The Funny, Doofy Weirdos Jam celebrates the differences that make people truly unique. These three novels employ plenty of humor and engaging main characters to keep readers turning pages, but don’t let them fool you. The stories still delve into tough moral questions and tricky situations.

The Tough Being a Teen Jam focuses on the hard choices and difficult situations today’s teens often face. Tackling issues like teen pregnancy, bullying, and the quest to get into college, these novels show teens that they’re not alone.