We asked some of our favorite literacy experts which books they are recommending to friends, to give us a running start on our summer reading lists. Who better to ask about great books? There is something on the list for everyone. We are running this series all month, with recommendations from over 20 of your favorite authors. You can access the first installment in the series through the link at the bottom of the page.

The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser), authors of The Daily Five and The CAFE Book recommend:

"The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Adventure and suspense for older students and a page-turner for adults as well. The unexpected main girl character had us on our feet cheering one minute and gasping the next. Great fun! Sequel due out in September - we can hardly wait!

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay is a gripping historical novel about the Holocaust written in an interesting style with one foot in the time of the Holocaust, one foot sixty years later. Not an overly graphic Holocaust story, but beautifully written and poignant. Wonderful read."

Kathy Yancey, Past President of NCTE says, "My nonfiction (professional) choice: Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. My review is below: the thing is that this book is so easy to read, and at the same time provides an aha moment almost every page. Also, he's a genius at the pithy phrase: eg, before Web 2.0, it was filter and then publish; now it's publish and then filter.

Blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 accoutrements are revolutionizing the social order, a development that's cause for more excitement than alarm, argues interactive telecommunications professor Shirky. He contextualizes the digital networking age with philosophical, sociological, economic and statistical theories and points to its major successes and failures. Grassroots activism stands among the winners-Belarus's flash mobs, for example, blog their way to unprecedented antiauthoritarian demonstrations. Likewise, user/contributor-managed Wikipedia raises the bar for production efficiency by throwing traditional corporate hierarchy out the window. Print journalism falters as publishing methods are transformed through the Web. Shirky is at his best deconstructing Web failures like Wikitorial, the Los Angeles Times's attempt to facilitate group op-ed writing. Readers will appreciate the Gladwellesque lucidity of his assessments on what makes or breaks group efforts online: Every story in this book relies on the successful fusion of a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain with the users. The sum of Shirky's incisive exploration, like the Web itself, is greater than its parts."

From Debbie Miller, Author of Reading with Meaning and Teaching with Intention comes this recommendation:

"I enjoyed Steig Larrson's debut thriller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's about a cold case with lots of twists and turns, and the first book of three. I got lost in it this winter--almost missed a flight because I didn't notice we were boarding--so I'm thinking it should be a great summer read! But not enough to inspire me to get a dragon tattoo . . ."

Shari Frost, Coauthor of Effective Literacy Coaching and Choice Literacy Contributor says:

"My book recommendation is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It was written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, published by Dial last year. The novel takes places in Guernsey, an island in the English Channel during World War II. The society was created as a ruse when the original members were found outside after curfew by German soldiers. The novel chronicles how books help a group of people survive German occupation. One man reads every book that he can find by one author. Another man discovers that he loves poetry. A woman reads children's books about cats and dogs. Another woman devours cookbooks, much to the discomfort of the other society members.

This is a great book for a teachers' book club. It invites you to wonder what you would read if you were a member of the society - kind of a takeoff on the 'which book would you take if you were stranded on a desert island.' It also reminds us of the power of books and reading to comfort and sustain us."

Of the books Ralph Fletcher has read recently, he recommends Leif Enger's Peace Like a River. "It's set in Minnesota. The story is about the bonds between a family. The book has everything: a murder, a chase, a little romance, and a streak of magic. Plus there's gorgeous writing. On every page you'll find a truly stunning sentence."

To read the recommendations in Part 1 of the series, click on the link below:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/885.cfm