State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson unveiled an additional 285 award-wining titles Friday to the Recommended Literature: Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve list.

“The books our students read help broaden their perspectives, enhance their knowledge, and fire their imaginations,” Torlakson said. “The addition of these award-winning titles represents the state’s continued commitment to the interests and engagement of California’s young readers.”

The Recommended Literature: Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve list is a collection of more than 8,000 titles of recommended reading for children and adolescents. Reflecting contemporary and classic titles, including California authors, this online list provides an exciting range of literature that students should be reading at school and for pleasure. Works include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama to provide for a variety of tastes, interests, and abilities.

The additional titles in the Recommended Literature: Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve list offers an increase in the stories of diverse peoples and lifestyles, giving California’s students the opportunity to engage with works that represent both themselves and others and encourages 21st century literacy that prepares students for career, college and the world beyond high school.

The recent additions also include multilingual authors, which offer students in California more opportunities to celebrate multilingualism and see the contributions of those who speak and write in multiple languages.

Visitors may search the interactive database by author, title, annotation, illustrator, translator, subject, grade span, and language. Local school officials and teachers are encouraged to use this list as a resource in designing standards-based instructional programs.

The Recommended Literature: Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve list is coordinated by the California Department of Education (CDE) and developed with the assistance of teachers, library consultants from school and public libraries, administrators, curriculum planners, and college professors. For more information about the literature list, visit the CDE Recommended Literature List web page.