Pascack Hills Librarian Megan Pettigano found it difficult to label any of the books she has read over the years as her “favorite.” She views reading as a journey that will affect people no matter the book and finds something within any book to impact her regardless of the quality. 

“Even when I hate…or dislike the book immensely, I still get something from it,” Pettigano said, “I gave the book a chance, and on to the next one.” 

Pettigano’s dearest book is constantly changing. She loves to have access to a variety of books; she thinks it opens up conversation with faculty, staff, students, and parents in spite of her personal feelings toward the literature. 

Along with keeping her options open with the books themselves, Pettigano likes to keep a variety of the medium as well. Whether it be a physical book, Ebook, or audiobook, Pettigano is sure to happily have a conversation about the work. 

“During my masters program at Rutgers, we had to read a ridiculous amount of books every week and they encouraged using audiobooks,” Pettigano said, “Prior to the class, I hated audiobooks, but now I prefer them, depending on the voice actors.” 

Even though Pettigano found it difficult to label one book as her favorite, she did not wish to leave the Hills community without any recommendations. 

Here are Pettigano’s recommendations and her reasons for reading them.

“All My Rage” by Sabaa Tahir

This book has won the Printz Award and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature this year. Pettigano also read all Tahir’s works and “loved” them all.

“Anything” by Tiffany D. Jackson

Jackson writes books with unreliable narrators, keeping the story consistently interesting in the eyes of many readers, including Pettigano. 

“Port Chicago 50” by Steve Sheinkin

 While this is an older book, Pettigano insists it is worth the read. 

“Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr

Pettigano thinks that many more students at Hills should give Doerr’s novel a read. Hills English teacher, Virena Rossi, shares the same opinion as she credited “Cloud Cuckoo Land” as one of the books that reinforced her love for reading. 

“Quite a few things” on WEBTOON

For students who are more drawn to Ebooks or graphic novels, Pettigano would recommend “Quite a few things” on the free mobile app, WEBTOON.