Summer Reading

Every year our students are assigned summer reading with the choice between several books per grade level.  This year the Freshmen were lucky enough to be given The Fault in Our Stars as one of their choices, and I was lucky enough to get to order (and checkout) 102 copies to overwhelmingly eager readers.  In fact there are still staff and students who are on the wait list.

Most of the books on the summer reading list lean toward the classic literature you would expect - Catcher in the Rye, 1984 (see list here) - but choosing a contemporary, popular, and compulsively readable YA title is arguably more effective, because it sparks interest in reading - which leads to more reading - which keeps students reading through the summer.  Unfortunately, books as popular as TFioS don't come around very often.

The big question of the day is: What do I read after I have read all of the Green books (or they are all checked out!)?

Green Lit

I fear John Green is moving toward the inevitable tipping point of too mainstream to remain popular.  For the moment though, a whole genre of YA is being tagged with his name.  This the current best of YA lit with intelligent teens, laugh out loud funny bits mixed with tear-wrenching heartbreak.

(As a side-note, John Green inspired me to physically throw one of his books across the room in anger and remain unwilling to pick it back up for 6 weeks.  Only then did I google him, thinking to find a disturbed, vengeful man behind the novel, and discover the Vlogbrothers, CrashCourse, and Mental Floss lists.  And Darn it, he is a very likable character-killer.)

At the top of the Green lit list:

Winger by Andrew Smith
This is easily the funniest book I have read this year.  The story centers around a 14 year old boy named Ryan. He is a junior at his boarding school and is in love with a fellow junior 2 years older than him.  To make life even harder, he has been placed in the troublemaker dorm with the biggest campus bully as a roommate.  Ryan recounts all of his most embarrassing 14 year old moments not only in word, but cartoons and charts sprinkled throughout the book.  Perfect Green lit, witty teen angst with a helping of real world heartbreak.   NY times review here.

Additional suggestions:
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
Reality Boy by A.S. King
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher