Summer Reading for the Busy School Librarian

During the school year I don't get much time to choose what I want to read. If I have an author visit planned either face to face or virtual, I read that author's work in preparation of the visit. I have somewhere between 5 to 8 author visits every year. Once a month BRiMS, the middle school book group, reads a specific book, and I have to read that book to lead the discussion. I have been reviewing books for both School Library Journal and Library Media Connection for a year and a half. I am sent books to review, and sometimes I am reading two or three books a month to review. That doesn't happen often and when it does, it drives me crazy. I am also on the Louisiana Teen Reader's Choice committee and am helping to select the ten books for the next reader's choice award. There is a very long list of books with a 2012 copyright that I am suppose to read before the July 20th committee meeting. Not sure how I am gong to do that. I read approximately one book a week during the school year and try for more over the summer. 

This summer I am attending the ALA Annual Conference again. Getting to meet authors and listen to them talk about their books is a highlight of the conference for me. In anticipation of meeting award winning authors, I just finished two books that had been awarded 2013 Printz Honor Books. I was blown away by both of them and highly recommend these books to high schoolers. Benjamin Saenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was so beautifully written and so lyrical. It is set in the contemporary period, but the boys' friendship and result of the friendship I think is timeless. As it starts during summer vacation for Ari and Dante, it is the perfect read just about now. I love that their friendship begins with swimming lessons. You would expect a 15 year old boy to know how to swim, but that is the beauty of the book, lots of surprises. The other book is an historical fiction. These are usual hard sells to the students in my school. I think that this one is going to  be eaten up because it is so wonderful. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is a spy story set during World War II. The fictional story focuses on two young women, one a spy and the other a pilot. Wein has done extensive research, and so all the jobs that are held by women in the story were actually held by women during the war. Some of the reviews of Wein's book contained spoilers. I think that the book needs to be read without much knowledge of what is to come. It makes it much more fun. However, I will tell you that I was sobbing at the end. It was a captivating story. I plan to recommend this one to adult friends who would enjoy an historical novel. I might even suggest it to my adult book group for everyone to read. 

In a few minutes after I post this, I am going to begin a new book. I have a huge stack ready to go, but I think that I am going to finish one of the series that I follow either Requiem by Lauren Oliver or Reached by Ally Condy. These third books in a trilogy have been out for awhile, and both have been on my to read list. Besides, they will be quick reads that I know I will enjoy.

Happy Reading, and may all your reads be good ones.