If I had a nickel for every time I have been asked to recommend a book that is “like The Hunger Games,” I could double my paycheck. It’s great that kids are excited about reading, but I hate that even though we have multiple copies of the most popular read-alikes, they are often checked out. Our dystopian/post-apocalyptic reading list hadn’t been updated in over a year, so at first I started to add to that, but I realized that it wasn’t capturing everything that attracted readers to The Hunger Games.

It was also difficult to organize. I’ve seen a few infographics on dystopian fiction, like this one from Goodreads that has lots of fun facts about the history of dystopian fiction and this one from E M Bowman that outlines the elements of dystopian fiction, they were highlighting ones that were already popular. There was a list compiled by 2 Busy Brunettes that is a great resource, but I wanted to expand the list beyond the 7 traits they identify and include books with male protagonists. I didn’t worry about only including dystopias and post-apocalyptic novels because I wanted to cast a wider net so the chances of having a book from the list available to check out were higher. So, despite my lack of graphic design skills I set out to organize a reader’s advisory sheet that went beyond just a list. Here’s what I came up with.

I haven’t read all of these, so I’m not 100% sure I got all my labels correct and it is entirely possible I’ve overlooked some great titles. What you would change or add? You can also find a copy of a pdf file here if you would like, but I’d love your feedback on errors or omissions, too.