There’s still time to grab the last few books from the pile of summer reads you made in June. I’ve read some wonderful books this summer: here’s three of them:
Children’s:
Seaglass Summer by Anjali Banerjee
Eleven year old Poppy Ray wants to be a veterinarian, so she jumps at the chance to spend the summer with her uncle at his Furry Friends Animal Clinic on an island off the Washington coast. The summer she spends there is full of funny, sweet, and touching moments as this young girl falls in love with caring for animals and learns a few things about family and friendship along the way. Banerjee’s lovely, literary writing shows such respect for young people and their dreams. This was one of my seven year old daughter’s favorite books of the summer.
Young Adult:
Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan
After hearing a college advisor tell them they need to stand out from the crowd, two high-achieving girls in a small East Coast town decide that their hard work and good grades simply won’t be enough to get them into a “good” school. So they stage a “kidnapping” that they hope they’ll eventually be able to parlay into gripping college essays. Needless to say, it doesn’t go as they planned. In addition to being a terrific YA author, Corrigan is also a high school teacher, and in Accomplice she has written not only a gripping story of friendship and betrayal but also a truly relevant look at how pressured our young achievers feel regarding the college admissions process (and their futures in general). This novel (just out in paperback) is not only a must read for high school students but their parents and teachers as well.
Fiction:
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
This is a lovely, intricate look at women in an Irish-American family and the beach house that has been in their lives for sixty years. It’s a touching and often funny look at guilt and expectations and how both of these unfold in and impact a family over the years. Sullivan creates multi-faceted characters and gives each woman a clear point of view without slipping into cliché. And the beach house is its own interesting, looming character that holds its own secrets and triumphs.
What are your favorite reads of the summer so far….?
