Fall 2025 First Chapter Friday picks are here!
In an effort to organize myself and to encourage other teachers to read aloud every Friday with their older students, I have organized nine books for the first nine weeks of 2025.
What is First Chapter Friday: reading, no handouts?
First Chapter Friday is when you have your students put everything away and pay attention as you read the first chapter of a book. You can read only a few pages if it is a long chapter, a little of the second chapter if it is a short chapter. Aim for 5-7 minutes of reading. Hopefully, one of your students is intrigued and wants to borrow the book.
I do NOT give an assignment during this time—coloring, tracking, rating of the read-aloud. My goal is to expose my students to different ideas, genres, authors, and styles. When students are completing something else, they cannot focus on the story.
I want to build stamina, and young readers cannot multitask—no one can.
Is this part of independent reading?
I get lots of questions about First Chapter Friday, and I best describe it as a read-aloud combined with Book Trailer Tuesday with a dash of book recs that eventually leads to independent reading. I want to spread enjoyment with reading by exposing students to new genres, main characters, and authors they maybe would not have tried.
Plus, if I have a new book that is not getting attention in my classroom library, First Chapter Friday provides some exposure. I designed the list below for freshmen, but many will work for middle school too.
After reading the first chapter, hopefully a student wishes to borrow the book. This list of books is only a suggestion—any should work! Overall, reading aloud or using an audiobook at the start of class on Friday is a great way to build a community of literacy.
Are these books only for Fall 2025 First Chapter Friday?
No!
I am organizing my First Chapter Friday titles in advance of the school year. These books will work anytime during the school year. If a certain book will not work for your community, simply add a different one.
Some of these books have worked well previously, and some of them will be new reads.
Young adult book selection, August-October.
The majority of these books are young adult, and they will work in for FCF and in your classroom library. My goal was to provide both male and female authors with different genres and different represented topics.
Unwind
To start off with a success, I pulled a previous FCF book: Unwind by Neal Shusterman. This dystopian story covers a world where parents can “unwind” their children, almost as if the child never existed. (I have previously used Scythe by the same author with success.)
Tokyo Ever After
Emoko Jean’s story covers an ordinary girl who learns of her father’s identity, and she is suddenly a princess. Not all of her life becomes smooth sailing, however.
Gym Candy
I have not finished this book completely, mostly because I am disinterested in the topic, which makes it a perfect FCF pick. If I only read books that I loved, well, my students would be pretty tired of memoirs and creative nonfiction.
The first chapter is interested and appropriate. I’m hoping some of my kiddos who enjoy the gym like this book.
The Fifth Wave
Rick Yancey released his book over ten years ago! I read this book when it first came out and loved it. Since today’s freshmen were just learning to read when it was published, I’m bringing this action-dystopian-thriller back to my classroom.
Once We Were Home
Jennifer Rosner’s Once We Were Home is not young adult literature, but part of my goal with FCF is to reach all sorts of students. Some readers might be ready to move to different interests, and I find that historical fiction is a great approach to readers looking for more mature writing.
The Compound
Eli’s dad has built a compound to keep his family safe. Who was saved in the compound, and who was not?
Anatomy–A Love Story
I adored this fantasy-historical fiction combo as well as its sequel.
Not So Pure and Simple
This book is part of the #weneeddiversebooks movement and focuses on toxic masculinity. Del attends church, has a crush on Kiera, and has accidentally joined a purity pledge class. This book cracked me up.
When
As we near October, When is the perfect book for a spooky season. Maddie can see numbers above people’s heads. Eventually, she learns that those are death dates and that some people do want to know their dates.
Bookshop.
That book list should provide a starting point for you. Previously, I scrambled on Thursday nights (maybe even Friday mornings) to prep my book. By writing this blog post, hopefully I am helping make selection less of a chore.
I added all of these books on a Bookshop list. Bookshop brings independent bookstores to one spot so we can shop from small businesses. I’ve made my Fall 2025 First Chapter Friday list so that you can see all the books in one spot. I am an affiliate for Bookshop which means I get a small percentage of what anyone purchases from my list, at no cost to the customer.
I appreciate your shopping my list; it allows me to buy more books for my classroom library.
If you are interested in other books for First Chapter Friday, you can check out my previous lists too:
High School Classroom Library Books
These Fall 2025 First Chapter Friday books hopefully bring you and your students a fun Friday reading experience.