Keep Reading This Summer with New Abe and RFL Books

Looking for some good books this summer? Check out the 2025-2026 Abraham Lincoln and the 2025-2026 Read for a Lifetime books. Then sign up to participate in the Abe Lincoln and RFL programs in the BW Library when school starts in August.

2025-2026 ABRAHAM LINCOLN BOOKS

Accountable by Dashka Slater

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kristen Miller

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyan Pham

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer

Plan A by Deb Caletti

Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Rez Ball by Byron Graves

Shut Up, This is Serious by Carolina Ixta

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

This is My America by Kim Johnson

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

2025-2026 READ FOR A LIFETIME BOOKS

#MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil

83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary by Don Brown

After Life by Gayle Forman

Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho

All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda

The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller

Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mar Julia

Call Me Iggy by Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado

The Collectors: Stories by A.S. King (editor)

Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay

The Glass Girl by Kathleen Glasgow

Heartless Hunter: The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli

Heir by Sabaa Tahir

James by Percival Everett

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Shut Up, This is Serious by Carolina Ixta

Snowglobe by Soyoung Park

Twenty-Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds

When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson

What’s on your Summer Reading List?

The school year has ended, but that doesn’t have to mean an end to good books! The BW English Department encourages students to enjoy reading this summer.

West Students Finish the Year with Over Three Million Pages

At the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, the BW English Department challenged the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes to a READING CONTEST.  How did they do?

Together, Belleville West students read 3,328,259 pages of pleasure reading in the 2024-2025 school year!  What does that mean?

If those pages were set out end-to-end, they would stretch 447 miles!  That’s all the way from Belleville to Columbus, Ohio (via the interstate highway system)—plus another 34 miles!

If you read one page per minute, it would take 2,311 days (that’s over six years) to read that many pages—without any breaks to eat or sleep!

If you had a penny for every page that Belleville West students read this year, you would have more than $33,282!

How did the classes stack up against each other?

The SENIOR CLASS finished the year with 630,906 pages of pleasure reading.  They read 132,449 pages in the fourth quarter, an average of 388 pages per senior.  These senior classes read the most pages per student:

Mr. Lodle, second hour – 888 pages per student

Mr. Reidelberger, third hour – 842 pages per student

Mr. Armknecht, seventh hour – 740 pages per student

Ms. Schaab, fourth hour – 674 pages per student

Mrs. Lewis, third hour – 536 pages per student

Mr. Lodle, first hour – 469 pages per student

Mrs. Story, third hour – 449 pages per student

Mrs. Story, sixth hour – 448 pages per student

Mrs. Story, seventh hour – 473 pages per student

The JUNIOR CLASS finished the year with 1,018,928 pages of pleasure reading.  They read 240,0603 pages in the fourth quarter, an average of 554 pages per junior.  These junior classes read the most pages per student:

Mr. Garland, first hour – 987 pages per student

Mr. Brunner, second hour – 890 pages per student

Mr. Schobert, third hour – 859 pages per student

Mr. Schobert, sixth hour – 798 pages per student

Mr. Schobert, second hour – 695 pages per student

Ms. Chalmers, first hour – 691 pages per student

Ms. Hodson, third hour – 695 pages per student

Mr. Garland, second hour – 665 pages per student

Ms. Guebert, sixth hour – 647 pages per student

Ms. Guebert, fourth hour – 583 pages per student

Mr. Garland, fourth hour – 574 pages per student

Mr. Schobert, fifth hour – 535 pages per student

Mr. Garland, fifth hour – 531 pages per student

The SOPHOMORE CLASS finished the year with 847,376 pages of pleasure reading.  They read 226,326 pages in the fourth quarter (their best number of the year!), average of 502 pages per sophomore.  These sophomore classes read the most pages per student:

Mr. Armknecht, first hour – 1298 pages per student

Mr. Armknecht, third hour – 977 pages per student

Ms. Hodson, sixth hour – 889 pages per student

Mrs. Lewis, second hour – 833 pages per student

Mrs. Schlich, fifth hour – 780 pages per student

Ms. Schloesser, first hour – 631 pages per student

Mr. Armknecht, sixth hour – 609 pages per student

Ms. Hodson, fifth hour – 600 pages per student

Ms. Schlich, seventh hour – 569 pages per student

Mr. Jenkins, second hour – 521 pages per student

The FRESHMAN CLASS finished the year with 831,049 pages of pleasure reading.  They read 218,717 pages in the fourth quarter, an average of 466 pages per freshman.  These freshman classes read the most pages per student:

Mrs. Short, seventh hour – 859 pages per student

Mrs. Story, fourth hour – 807 pages per student

Ms. Guebert, second hour – 800 pages per student

Ms. Guebert, seventh hour – 747 pages per student

Mrs. Short, fourth hour – 702 pages per student

Ms. Guebert, first hour – 697 pages per student

Mrs. Short, second hour – 695 pages per student

Mrs. Short, sixth hour – 650 pages per student

Ms. Rodgers, sixth hour – 552 pages per student

Ms. Rodgers, first hour – 549 pages per student

CONGRATULATIONS to the JUNIOR CLASS for reading MORE THAN ONE MILLION PAGES EACH!  Congratulations to all four classes on their pleasure reading totals for this year.  Keep reading this summer!

Students Celebrate 15 Years of Reading Program with Reading Carnival

This year, Belleville West is celebrating the fifteenth year of its independent reading program.  To mark the occasion, the English Department and the Belleville West Library hosted the BW Reading Carnival on May 8 and 9.  Students in English classes enjoyed book bingo, built Lego book covers, participated in a book walk, made a chain with their favorite book titles, crafted book bracelets, created personalized bookmarks, and snacked on classic carnival foods–popcorn, popsicles, and cotton candy.