Summer Reading: Part 2 of 2

Summer Reading: Part 2 of 2

The recent lively discussion over at Saints and Spinners about Summer Reading Program prizes and their desireability—or lack thereof—reminded me yet again of my past life as a school librarian. The big reward for the students at my old school who kept up a reading list over the summer? They got to have…[drumroll here…] LUNCH IN THE LIBRARY. Every year I would wonder if that was really an exciting enough reward, and every year the kids, especially the little ones, would be goggle-eyed at this incredible treat. Well, it helped that I provided ice cream for dessert.

So often it doesn't take much to motivate kids to read: just some attention is sometimes the best reward. That said, I'm really liking the way Scholastic's summer reading club, Summer Reading Buzz, is set up so that Scholastic will donate a book to a needy kid for every four books that members read and log on the site; it's a great way to promote reading and altruism at the same time.

Here's Part 2 of my "Best of the Spiral-Bound Notebook" Summer Reading Recommendation List, 2007-08:

Miss Spitfire, by Sarah Miller

In an age of multiple communication venues—Cell phones! Faxes! Texting! Blogs!--Helen Keller's struggle to connect to the world through words, and her teacher, Annie Sullivan's struggle to connect with Helen, still resonate with kids. This novel brings these two stubborn and brilliant women to life for a new generation.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, By Laura Amy Schlitz

This book is like one of those optical-illusion pictures that could be a vase or two profiles: Looked at from one angle, it's a collection of verbal snapshots of kids: funny, mean, rich, poor, thoughtful, kind-hearted, worried, determined kids as distinct as those in any classroom. Squint another way, and it's a composite portrait—with graceful explanatory notes--of a faraway time and place. Blink, and you've got a volume of poems about the hardest and deepest truths. Blink once more, and it's a masterful play in monologues that made me wish I had a 5^th grade class again just so I could hear these words spoken by kids as they ought to be.

When I first wrote about this title after it won the Newbery Award back in January, I hadn't actually read it yet. Now I have, and if anything I'm even more excited about it. Next stop: a dramatic reading as soon as I can gather enough friends to do it.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

I'm a total sucker for coming-of-age stories, and for wry, understated first-person narrators. Sherman Alexie's YA debut provides both, in spades, with the added bonus of being a funny and honest look at present-day (or close to present-day) Native American life with an insider's perspective that's completely opposite to the whole Noble Savage shtick that so often characterizes books on this topic. Added bonus: illustrations by cartoonist Ellen Forney, drawn in the persona of our narrator (a cartoonist himself) with just the right amount of naïve panache.

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

When I show this one to language arts and humanities teachers, they gasp. It might be my very favorite book of the 07-08 crop, which is pretty incredible considering I'm a word girl and it has ABSOLUTELY NO WORDS. But it is a novel, no doubt about it: an immigration story not so different from every immigration story ever told, but rendered fresh by its setting in an utterly alien, otherworldly city.

Touching Snow, by M. Sindy Felin

Another immigration story, but totally different. Pitched older than the titles I usually mention in this space—with its themes of chronic family brutality and betrayal, not to mention the heroine's emerging sexuality, 12 or 13 is the absolute youngest age I'd recommend it for. And yet despite the grim subject matter, I can't think of it as a depressing book: Karina, the middle sister in a family of Haitian immigrants, has this great sardonic voice, and the bond between her and her sisters and her own inner certainty and resilience keep you rooting and hoping for her. And the writing is just glorious; I'm keeping my eye out for more from this author.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban

Did I already say The Arrival was my favorite from this list? Okay, well, then, A Crooked Kind of Perfect  will have to be my favorite book with words. It won the Cybils Middle-Grade Fiction award this year, and with reason. One of those bittersweet little unassuming stories about a regular kid that sneaks up on you and steals your heart. I still find myself thinking of it at odd moments, and fondly humming "Forever in Blue Jeans."

Clementine's Letter, by Sara Pennypacker

All Hail Clementine, the Ramona of the new millennium! Though, frankly, I like Clementine a bit better than Ramona—she always means so well, and truly just wants everyone to be happy, even when that person is, say, a substitute teacher who just doesn't understand her. I eat these books up like popcorn, and only wish Sara Pennypacker could write them faster.

Year of the Rat, by Grace Lin

Cheating a bit here by putting this one last, when I read it before the new Clementine, but it seems fitting to end a year's reading list with a book about a new year. It's a sequel to Lin's Year of the Dog, and picks up a couple of years later, with Pacy facing her best friend Melody's move across the country. This series is a semi-autobiographical account of Grace Lin's own childhood, and young readers may or may not appreciate this biographical tidbit, but I just love knowing that the model for Melody, Pacy/Grace's real-life best friend, Alvina Ling, grew up to be her editor, and edited these very books. It's like a children's-book-publishing fairy tale.

Happy reading to all!

June 8, 2008

 

Comments

[Jess]

I couldn't agree more about Alexie's book. I was either laughing or tearing up though the entire book. Reminded me of "The House on Mango Street" -- which I haven't read in years but still look back on fondly. And those Clementine books are wonderful, I'm often trying to pawn them off on adult friends, just because they're so endearing -- and ("okay, fine") funny.