Build Your Summer Reading List (Part 4)
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 featuring this series all month long, with recommendations from over 20 of your favorite authors. You can access the first three installments in the series through the links at the bottom of the page.
Kevin Hodgson, author of Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom and his own blog "Kevin's Meandering Mind," recommends two fiction books:
"For young adults: I was blown away by The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I had heard a radio interview with him before I read it aloud with my two older sons (9 and 11) and so we all knew it was based conceptually on Kipling's The Jungle Book . The story begins with such cruelty and violence, and yet, progresses with such passion and compassion that you can't help but root for this odd boy being raised by ghosts in a graveyard and protected by a guardian of the night. It's as much what Gaiman does not write in the text as what he does write, and he finds that balance so wonderfully well that my boys and I kept predicting what might happen and why before we'd dig in, and then we'd have those 'ah-ha' moments. Add to that intrigue all the rich language of Gaiman the writer and I think he has created a small masterpiece here. I handed the book off to one of my sixth grade girls and she read it all in one single night and gave it her approval, too (although one other student said they tried to read it but could not get past the first section, due to the violence).
For adults: If you are looking to take a short break from the traditional text, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton is an interesting find. Using only items from a personal auction, Shapton shows without telling how a relationship can bloom with passion and fall apart from disconnection. This novel is untraditional, to say the least, with the story told in photographs, items from the home, short letters to friends and other media (such as mix tapes). This is a fascinating book not so much for the story, which is fairly predictable, but all the little nuances that you must pick from the details of the items on public display."
Karen Terlecky, Choice Literacy Contributor, says:
"For leisure reading, I recommend Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl by Susan McCorkindale- a true story about an editor from Family Circle agreeing to move to the 'wilds' of Virginia for a better quality lifestyle. I started reading it on spring break, and would laugh out loud in spots. The author has a fabulous sarcastic humor. Plus, it's currently out in tradebook format -- my favorite kind of book to hold while reading."
Mary Lee Hahn, author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud , is also part of the Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts Committee:
"One of the best books I read last year for the Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts Committee was Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve (Reeve, Philip. (2008). Here Lies Arthur. New York: Scholastic.)
I love to read different versions of the Arthurian legend and this one did not disappoint. Reeve's Arthur is a real cad. He's a thug, a bully, "just a little tyrant in an age of tyrants." Not a nice guy at all. The Merlin character, Myrddin, is the one who creates the Arthur we know today by using the power of the stories he tells to bend and mold the truth into a more palatable package. A sixth century spin-doctor!"
Louise Borden, children's author, said that the task was IMPOSSIBLE! She could not send us one book, so instead she sent us three books, and later added another! She writes, "I'm sending her a triumvirate list of books that center on art. Two are adult books and one is for children.
1. A great paperback book to take to the beach, or read in your summer hammock:
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr (author of A Civil Action which won a Pulitzer and was a movie) If you want to feel as if you're a graduate student in Rome, or traveling in Italy as a detective trying to find a painting that has been lost for two centuries, this is a terrific read. A page-turner that reads like fiction even though it's a true story.
2. If you need a really thick book that you can breeze through the first 70 pages in 10 minutes, then read the children's award winning book by Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret . The innovation of this book (that is set in Paris) is extraordinary. Selzick writes and illustrates this book in such an innovative and fabulous way as to inspire all of us to look at books differently - and at our own paths and ways of working - in the classroom or in whatever we do - with fresh eyes.
3. A gem of a book with beautiful colors - fun to just page through! - Jazz by Henri Matisse. The handwritten text is in French. But don't worry. The pages of his cut-outs are bursting with joy and energy, and there is English text to explain it all. It will inspire you to dream of collage, or get out your own pair of scissors."
Later Louise had to add one more book: The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo. She says, "It's a beautiful hardcover (orange cover mimics the label of the famous Veuve Clicquot champagne). The true story of the woman who changed the champagne industry in the 18th and early 19th centuries. She's a legend in France today."
Katie DiCesare, Choice Literacy Contributor, recommends a professional book:
"I would suggest That Workshop Book by Samantha Bennett for a workshop boost. This book has been a strong text for coming back to the workshop model for our staff. Samantha invites you into real classrooms where workshop lives. She reminds us that 'learning is not about one great lesson or activity teachers design for students to do. It is about the little things teachers ask students to do every day, like read, like write and talk, that add up to the big things like making meaning from text and adding meaning and purpose to life.' I love this quote and this book!"
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