Summer recharge ...

The joy of escaping into a book!

I'm sorry for the silence these past few weeks. I've been recharging, spending time with my family and catching up on many things I've been wanting to do for a while. And yes, I've been doing lots of reading!

I love being able to connect specific books with the memory of where I read them and how it felt at the moment. Last summer, I loved reading When Life Gives You O.J. by our favorite pond in the Sierra mountains.

This summer, I savored reading P.S. Be Eleven in the glorious sunshine on our back deck when the children were away at camp. Ah, peace -- for a moment. I'll be sure to write about it soon - it's a book I can't wait to share with students this fall.

My other favorite moment has been watching my own kids find their ways into getting lost in a book or two this summer. Most often it's been those long, stretched out moments when they've been bored and I've refused to organize something. I've tried to limit the electronics - for both myself and them - during the day and late at night.

Some of their recent favorites have been:

• The Adventures of Superhero Girl, by Faith Erin Hicks
• Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, by Chris Riddell
• Awkward, by Marni Bates
• Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, audiobook read by Dylan Baker

Quite an eclectic mix! Graphic novels, illustrated fiction, an ebook checked out through the public library, a full length audiobook (listened to while surfing Pinterest and Instagram). Really, the most important thing is giving them choice but also insisting that they carve out some time during the summer for reading.

The other funny, odd, but telling observation is that while my kids love reading, they have chaffed at summer reading requirements. They want to discover their own taste in reading. They hate it when school invades on this and tells them what to read. This is especially true if it's a long book, challenging in some way, or really different from the genres they typically like. I just wish more teachers would read Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer. If you've seen your own kids have negative experiences with required summer reading, please give that feedback to your children's teachers. Let them know that there are other ways to encourage/require reading over the summer!

So now that I'm feeling more recharged, I'm hoping that I can get back into sharing some of the books I've loved this summer! As always, if you make a purchase using the Amazon links on this site, a small portion goes to Great Kid Books (at no cost to you!). Thank you for your support.

©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books

Image "Caught Reading" shared via Creative Commons, from John Morgan.