Summer Time and the Reading Was Easy

Wow! Where did the summer go? Students here in central Texas still have a few weeks of summer vacation left but it is almost time for teachers to head back and get ready for another learning packed school year.

I love summer. Unstructured time to read and reflect. I hope many students took advantage of the time to read as well. I can't wait to hear about everyone's summer reading adventure.

What did I read?

Texas Bluebonnet Books: I have read all twenty titles so I will know what book to recommend to each student in the third-fifth grade at my campus. I used summer time to finish up the few that I had not read yet.  Currently I am reading my last book: Pickle: The (Formerly) Anonymous Prank Club of Fountain Point Middle School by Kim Baker and Tim Probert   and I can't wait to see how far a prank club will go to surprise their classmates. I just finished The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke. What if your parents genetically altered you to become part fish and live in the ocean? That is what happens to the main character, Nere. Now she has to learn to adapt to dangerous ocean life without her parents in this futuristic thriller.

Newbery Books: I try to go back each summer and read some of the Newbery winning titles I missed. This summer I read Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray and Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.

Adam of the Road won in 1943. Some of the older titles are not appealing to current students but I loved this one. Set in 13th century England Adam and his father are traveling minstrels. Adam begins traveling and learning the trade from his very successful father. Then dad makes a bad deal and loses nearly everything they own including the dog that Adam adores. Adam and his dad become separated searching for the missing dog and many mishaps befall Adam as he now searches for his dog and his dad. Wonderful look at life in this time period including descriptions of food, buildings, and even clothes. Would work well for students who enjoyed The Whipping Boy and want a book that digs deeper into medieval life.

Julie of the Wolves won in 1973. This is a survival story set in Alaska. We meet a young Eskimo girl, Julie - her American name, as she attempts to integrate into a wolf pack in hopes of surviving the harsh Alaskan conditions. We learn she has escaped an arranged marriage and is hoping to journey south to San Francisco to meet her pen pal. The descriptions of the weather and land are intense and you wonder how long Julie can survive on her own. Eventually she learns how to communicate with the nearby wolf pack and considers herself a member. Julie is dismayed to find her Eskimo way of life is disappearing as more and more Americans move to Alaska. You will keep reading to see what becomes of Julie and her wolf family and whether she makes it to San Francisco. This would be a good companion to the 1961 winner Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, one of my favorites. Would also be a good companion book to Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, 1987 Newbery Honor-winner, for a more contemporary survival story.

What to read next?