Summer Reading

It's March; that means it's time to pick out middle school summer reading.  So I'm doing two things, searching for the one required summer reading book for rising seventh graders, and reading two selections from the Virginia Readers' Choice 2009-2010 list.  We (the language arts teachers) are hoping to simplify our lives this year by being able to say, "Read this one required book and then choose one other book from this great list."

I started off looking for a required book that had something to do with myths, since that's our first, short unit in the fall.  It had to be as good as Percy Jackson, but not Percy Jackson, since our elementary teachers have now stolen that book from us and are reading it at the 4th and 5th grade level.  (For those uninitiated who haven't read previous posts, start with The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.)  So, I Googled "if you liked Percy Jackson," and I came up with some interesting choices, one of which was Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney.

I had read and enjoyed Ransom of Mercy Carter and know many students who have read and enjoyed The Face on the Milk Carton by the same author, so I had high hopes.  Of course, the book was originally published in 2002, which is practically ancient to a middle schooler (almost two thirds of their life ago!), but on the plus side that means it's out in paperback.

The book is about the adventures of Anaxandra, a girl who is taken hostage from her tiny Mediterranean island home early in the book and continues through a variety of adventures that end up involving Menelaus, Helen, Paris, and the city of Troy.  It's well-written and has enough excitement, intrigue and battles to soothe the injured sensibilities of boys required to read a book with a female protagonist.  Meanwhile, the strong, self-sufficient heroine is bound to appeal to the girls.  (No rescue bait, here, thank you very much!)  In all, I thought it was excellent.  I wish there were a sequel instead of the author's note at the end.  It's a strong contender for the "required" book, but I haven't 100% made up my mind.  It's such a lot of pressure to be asked to choose the book people are required to read.  And, sadly, the cover flap gives away over half of the book.  

(PG-13 for some of those battle scenes, and some hinted at adult situations that don't happen at all or don't happen "on screen.")

London Calling by Edward Bloor is off the Virginia Readers' Choice list, and I'm so glad that I got to read it!  I chose it as one of the two books I'm previewing because, from the blurb I read about it, it seemed to have some fantasy elements (I'm "the one who likes fantasy" on our team).  Also, I really enjoyed Bloor's Tangerine, which has been on the sixth grade summer

 reading list for several summers, usually garnering enthusiastic responses.  

Anyway, other than being well-written, engaging, and authentic, London Calling is completely different.  It's about a seventh grade boy who is aimlessly sleeping his life away, living a solitary existence in his basement, and really at loose ends.  Despite how it sounds, he's not whiny or self-pitying, and it's easy to like him and identify with his fears and foibles.  Martin inherits a mysterious radio from his grandmother that seems to allow him to travel back in time (in very vivid, realistic scenes) to WWII.  Or is he dreaming?  And if he's dreaming, why is he dreaming about things he himself has never heard of ?   This book has a strong (but not at all preachy) religious element to it that I thought worked beautifully within the story.  I also particularly appreciated the supporting cast, since so many YA books have the main character acting alone against the world.  It was interesting to see who Martin chose to tell his secrets to, and how that worked out for him.  I'm not really doing it justice here because I don't want to give away any of the mystery or angst or the well-drawn, annoying, heart-breaking, and uplifting relationships between the characters, but I highly recommend this book.  There are so many different levels to appreciate.

(PG-13 . . . or PG-12 since it's on the middle school list.  Some adult situations and battle scenes.)

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

So here's the danger of allowing me to browse the "New Fiction" section in my local library.  I end up ignoring my work, the beautiful weather, a perfectly decent literary novel loaned to me by a coworker, the laundry, the insidious layer of god-knows-what creeping through my house and taking over every horizontal surface (papers? Legos? junk mail?), and I spend the weekend reading Dick Francis.

I love Dick Francis books.  I've loved them since I was in high school and my dad got me started on them.  (My dad, by the way, has read everything.)  They're very similar to each other, so it's difficult to remember the plots, though they all have something that stands out. My dad and I will discuss them as, "The one that started with the guy standing in the fountain," or "The one that ended with the main character chained to the steering wheel."  It's always interesting to me to see what exactly my brain chooses to remember from books I've read.  But that's another blog entirely.

A very smart and savvy author, Dianne Mott Davidson, who was here last year for the James River Writers conference, told me that Dick Francis did not actually write his books, that his wife did.  From what little I've read, it's true (or they, at the very least, collaborated), so it would make sense then that, since his wife's death, he is now writing with his son Felix.  I was interested to see if I could tell a difference. The last Dick Francis I read was Under Orders, a Sid Halley book I was disappointed in.  I loved the first three Sid Halley books, but the fourth just wasn't as good.  Maybe it needed help it didn't get from Mary Francis.

Anyway, on to Silks.  It was pretty good.  Good enough to devour in a 36 hour period, anyway. The main character is a barrister (British lawyer), and it was somewhat interesting to see the workings of the British legal system, though they were, I thought, over-explained. (Perhaps that was Felix?)  I was much more interested in the part about why race horses get nose bleeds and how their lungs work, but maybe that's what's left of my horse-crazy younger years showing.  

The characters were reasonably compelling and engaging.  The pace moved along well (except the over-explained law bits).  No one really did anything out of character or especially stupid.  Good, quick Dick Francis read.  And Felix.  Maybe it will be "the one with the guy with the baseball bat."

(Rated R: violence, language, sex)