Summer Reading Choices by Education Update
Compiled By Michelle DeSarbo
The 60-Second Encyclopedia
By Michael Rosen
Workman Publishing; $11.95
Welcome to the wonderful world of the 60-Second Encyclopedia: delightfully
obsessed with everything that goes on in just one minute. The book is packed
with amazing-but-true facts and incredible achievements—think Ripley’s
Believe It or Not meets the Guiness Book of World Records for Kids.
Appealing to both boys and girls, it puts a whole new spin on math,
science, nature, the human body, popular culture, and much more.
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Go Figure! A Totally Cool Book About Numbers
By Johnny Ball
DK Publishing; $15.99
Go Figure! A Totally Cool Book About Numbers strives to dismiss the
myth in the minds of students ages 8 and above that math and numbers are boring.
Filled with fascinating facts, history, patterns, and examples from real life
situations, this book engages students to start looking at how numbers are
such a big part of the world around them.
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Lucky Stars
By Lucy Frank
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publications; $16.95
A comedy in three voices, Lucky Stars follows the adventures (and
misadventures) of three very different kids who join the chorus at their
New York City public high school where music bridges the distance and difference
between them. Kira loves to sing, but hates the stage her father has forced
her on—the platform
of the New York City subway, performing for money. Jake, who longs to sing,
listens from afar, but stutters so badly he can’t make a move. With
the help of a pet duck, a wisecracking friend, and a fiery choral conductor,
the two find their own voices, themselves, and each other.
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Elaine’s Circle
By Bob Katz
Marlowe & Company; $14.95
In Eagle River, Alaska, Elaine Moore is a veteran teacher
who believes that the classroom, first and foremost,
must be a community and that learning is best when shared
in a circle of peers. When a spirited fourth grade boy
is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Elaine’s innovative methods
are suddenly put to an extraordinary test. To keep their circle in tact,
Elaine and her students realize that their stricken classmate must maintain
his schoolwork—for
it is learning, they so believe, that is the essence of life. Elaine’s
Circle is a heart-wrenching look at the remarkable achievements of
a dedicated teacher and a group of children who take her at her word when
she tells them, “Learning
is not just something we do in school. It is something we do until the
day we die.”
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At the End of the Ridge Road
By Joseph Bruchac
Milkweed Editions; $14.00
A bestselling author and a storyteller, Bruchac creates worlds where
the rules of reality don’t apply—where magic is real, animals can talk, and
trees know your name—but he is no escapist. Through forty years
of writing, recording, teaching, and performing the stories of his Abnakik
ancestors and other indigenous cultures, Bruchac has reminded readers
of the vital relationships between people, animals and the land. In At the End of the Ridge Road,
Bruchac tells the story behind these stories. Part Native American and
part European, once equally as skilled at varsity wrestling as he was
at reciting Milton and Longfellow from memory, Bruchac grew up as a literal
bridge between disparate cultures. The first book to focus specifically
on his life as a writer— Ridge
Road — shows how this cross-cultural existence changed his
views of cultural ownership, responsibility to place, social justice,
and ultimately led to a belief that well told stories can change the
way we see and interact with our world.
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Rose and Riley Come and Go
By Jane Cutler, pictures by Thomas F. Yezerski
Faurrara, Straus and Giroux; $15.00
The first Rose and Riley book was welcomed for its “charm,
energy and cuteness (Kirkus Reviews) and “its memorable characters” (School
Library Journal). The sweet groundhog and mole are reminiscent
of such literary duos as the beloved in Arnold Lobel’s classic
books. In the latest adventures of Rose and Riley, the friends find
themselves at the beach, on a hunt for wildflowers, and finding a solution
to living with a loquacious mockingbird. Their adventures provide children
with advice on friendship and dealing with unexpected challenges.
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What
Can You Do with a Major in…?
Biology by Bart Astor;
English by Shelley O’ Hara;
Education by Jennifer A. Horowitz and Bruce Walker;
Business by Kate Shoup Welsh;
Psychology By Shelley O’ Hara
Wiley/$12.99 each
Some students go into college knowing just what they want their major to be,
but the majority struggle with what that should be. Fortunately, there are
worlds of exciting and lucrative job opportunities for college grads who choose
nearly any major with care and an understanding of their options. What Can
You Do with a Major in…? eases the anxiety of making a big major decision
and then applying it to making a living. Devoting individual attention
to five popular majors—biology, English, education, business, and psychology—each
book is packed with practical career guidance aimed directly at students,
starting in high school. Best of all, each book features real-life
information on an array of career possibilities from young men and
women who are putting their majors to work in sometimes surprising
and always successful ways.
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Frida Kahlo and Diego
Rivera: Their Lives and Ideas, 24 Activities
By Carol Sabbeth
Chicago Review Press/$17.95
Art lovers from around the world have long been captivated by Frida
Kahlo’s
vibrant dreamscapes, self-portraits and still lifes and Diego Rivera’s
extraordinary murals and paintings. With Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera,
children will find artisitic inspiration as they explore the world
of these iconic artists. Sabbeth brings Kahlo and Rivera’s
art, as well as Mexico in the early 20th century, to
life with the 24 fun and educational activities. Young artists
will learn about Kahlo and Rivera’s inspiration
and influences, especially pre-Columbian and Mexican folk art. Children can
also try some of Kahlo and Rivera’s techniques themselves,
with activities such as making a mini-fresco, creating a mural
with a social message and painting a Kahlo-style self portrait.
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Atchafalaya Autumn
By Greg Guirard
Greg Guirard; $25.00
Guirard’s personal collection of journal entries about and photographs
of Louisiana’s hauntingly beautiful Atchafalaya Basin traces
back to 1992 when the author/photographer adopted a less complicated
way of life in the spirit of Thoreau, spending his time on houseboats
and in camps to capture the swamps of his youth. The photographs
are exceptional as the author traces changes in the environment
in Louisiana, changes due to logging and sedimentation as well
as changes in himself. A moving and magnificent book for those
interested in the environment as well as photography.
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Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students By Their Brains
By LouAnne Johnson
Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint; 24.95
From suggestions for the first week of school to seating charts, author LouAnne
Johnson offers practical and friendly advice that will help both new teachers
and veterans create a vibrant classroom environment where students enjoy learning
and teachers enjoy teaching. The book is filled with no-nonsense advice, checklists
and handouts, as well as a question and answer chapter based on real letters
sent to LouAnne Johnson from students asking for advice about parents, siblings,
school and friends.
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Cheating Our Kids: How Politics and Greed Ruin Education
By Joe Williams
St. Martin’s Press; $24.95
Our once admired system of education in America has lost
its way and become so consumed with meeting the demands of
grown-ups that it has forgotten that it should exist to serve
the needs of children, first and foremost. Not only an education
writer but a parent, Williams firmly believes that the education
system should exist to serve the needs of children. But he
knows—and
shows—how it has been captured by groups—teachers
and other employees, politicians, philanthropists, higher
education institutions, vendors, etc. It is their interests
and egos that are protected and advanced through competent
and powerful organizations. This book provides the public
and parents a provocative analysis and necessary solutions
on how to return the focus of schools to preparing our children
to succeed.#
