It’s spring book fair week, and as always, we “unveiled” our summer reading selections for each level. This is the book the students read to initiate discussion when they return to school in September – a common read for their new communities.
The summer books are:
Children’s House
Very Good Hats by Emma Straub
As soon as I read this new picture book, with its fabulous illustrations by Blanca Gomez, I thought – here’s the Children’s House summer book. I could picture kids making inventive hats or doing hat-related artwork. I’m not creative enough to come up with the actual projects, but the Children’s House teachers are!
Lower Elementary
Mama Shamsi at the Bazaar by By Mojdeh Hassani and Samira Iravani
Next year is a “World Cultures” year at Inly so this book jumped out as a possible summer book right away. It centers on Samira, a young girl, and her grandmother who are on their way to a busy market in Tehran. Based on Hassani’s memories of growing up in Iran, the child in the novel hides under her grandmother’s chador when the bazaar feels overwhelming. “You’ll use your eyes and your ears, even your nose too, to explore this world and learn what’s around you,” Mama Shamsi tells Samira.
Upper Elementary
Fibbed by Elizabeth Agyemang
A new graphic novel about a young girl who goes to the Ghanian village where her mother grew up and learns Ghanian folktales. Kirkus describes Fibbed as “thoughtful metafiction with an unshakeable cultural richness.”
Middle School
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
Santat’s graphic memoir perfectly captures that time in our lives when there are so many”firsts.” During his class trip to Europe, Dan experiences new foods, new friends – a first kiss. I remember my gateway food: Brie. The first time I tasted it, a whole new world opened up to me. I decided to try artichokes, travel, move to a big city! Santat’s memoir conveys the awkwardness and excitement of adolescence when everything seems to be changing at the same time.
I’m currently reading two books:
I’m reading Turtles of the Midnight Moon by Maria Jose Fitzgerald with two fifth grade students. And at home, I’m reading a book about Paris in the 1920s that’s been sitting on my shelf for an embarrassing number of years: Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vail. Our March trip to Paris inspired me to pick it up, and I love it!
Happy Reading!
Sommer Reading 