Think back: If you loved reading as a kid, did you relish the books your teacher assigned, the ones you had to write about in book reports or on tests? The ones discussed in painfully awkward class discussions? Probably not. I bet your favorite books – like mine – were the ones you discovered on your own. Maybe you, like me, thought you were the only one to identify with each and every heroine in E.L. Konigsberg’s novels. Maybe you, like me, preferred it that way.
This summer, kids will have 10 weeks or so to read the books they like. No tests. No book reports. We’ve got, by rough count, 55 ideas in these pages to get them started. We drew heavily on Minnesota writers, illustrators, and publishers because this state has a remarkable literary legacy – and we love celebrating it.
But, why stop at 55? I can’t resist throwing in a plug for the books I loved as a kid:
All of a Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsberg
The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha, by Lloyd Alexander
Just as we were putting the final touches on this issue, a remarkable book came across my desk. Book Crush, by Nancy Pearl, is the most readable book list for kids I’ve seen. Pearl, whose Book Lust listed books for adults, squeezes more than 1,000 thoughtful book recommendations into a couple of hundred pages, and still manages to inject a fair bit of personality. Rather than page after page of titles and authors, she writes in paragraph form, organizing her thoughts by age group and subject matter (from “Ah, those adorable anthropomorphic animals” to “Utopia – not!”).
So, pick up Book Crush, and you’ll have 1,060 great ideas.
While we’re at it, the Twin Cities metro libraries all have great web sites with extensive book lists for kids, teens, and adults (Minneapolis: MPLib.org, Hennepin County: HCLib.org, St. Paul: StPaul.lib.mn.us).
There. That ought to keep the kids busy.
