Ms. Herrnstadt\’s Blog

Nothing on the summer reading lists grabs you? Check the books below-they’re good reads and they’re approved as alternative summer reading books. Remember, you can always try a book on a higher grade level. Here’s the annotated list (an·no·tat·ed [an-uh-tey-tid] –an adjective that means “supplied with or containing explanatory notes”):

Baseball Crazy: Ten Stories that Cover All the Bases- If you ever dreamed about hitting that walk-off homerun, these short stories are for you. Don’t like struggling through a big, long novel? Try one short story at a time-before you know it, the whole book’s done! Grade 7

Parade of Shadows: When you’re sixteen and bored, you pretty much long for adventure. True today and true in 1907 as Julia and her father, an English diplomat, set out for a whirlwind tour through Arab lands where revolution threatens to erupt at any moment. With Arab sheikhs, eccentric Europeans and attempted murders, the adventure just might be more than Julia bargained for. Grade 8

Flight-What happens when a bad boy gets the gift of time travel? Our hero is about to commit a violent act, but instead gets zapped through some great moments in history that totally change him forever. Grade 9

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party-When Chairman Mao’s political officer moves in with Ling’s family, the Cultural Revolution becomes highly personal. Growing up in Communist China in the 1970’s is not an adventure with iPods, Facebook and texting. Instead, you never know when parents and friends may be ripped out of your life or what terror lurks around the next corner. What can you count on; who will be there for you? Grade 10

The Name of the Wind-Read the book that critics are hailing as a combination of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. It could be the next big thing in fantasy novels or a total bust. You decide. Grade 11

My Name is Red-A mystery, a love story, the exotic city of Istanbul in the 16th century. When religious laws forbid artistic illustrations, an artist mysteriously disappears and the Sultan is furious. Was it an avenging angel or a more human evil-doer? A Nobel Prize winning novel. Grade 12

VISIT THE LIBRARY FOR MORE GOOD READS

As graduation looms on the horizon, it’s time to consider a little gift for your son or daughter that won’t break the bank but just might remain memorable after the last relative departs and the last helium balloon takes flight. For a mere $10.00 pick up a copy of Anna Quindlen’s slim little paperback, How Reading Changed My Life and tuck it in among the electronics and the bling. When your student opens this little package, quietly suggest these mere 70 pages plus a lemonade are a good way to spend a lazy summer afternoon. You’ll both be glad you did.

And seniors, consider Ms. Quindlen’s words: “In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself. More powerfully and persuasively than from the ’shalt nots’ of the Ten Commandments. I learned the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. One of my favorite childhood books, A Wrinkle in Time, described that evil, that wrong, existing in a different dimension from our own. But I felt that I, too, existed much of the time in a different dimension from everyone else I knew. There was waking and there was sleeping. And then there were books, a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but was never really a stranger.  My real, true world.  My perfect island.” Happy reading!

Stay tuned for further information!