Summer vacation provides me with some uninterrupted reading time to work through that pile of books and magazines on the night-stand that I have been hoarding all winter and spring. I also have many titles saved up on my Kindle, which seems to sprout books as quickly as weeds pop up in my garden. The joy of having a book download almost instantly prompts me to add more and more to my ebook library, which means I have lots more available to read at any one time. And the popularity of ebook reading is growing so much that I have spent some time doing research this summer into the pros and cons of using ebooks in school libraries like Bialik High School. More about this later.
Meanwhile, I hope all of you are happily ploughing your way through the summer reading on your shelves and ebook readers. Our English department added a few new titles to the list for incoming and Sec.2 student reading this year, including a wonderful new favorite of mine, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jaqueline Kelly. From the book cover: In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from the older three of her six brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather, the latter of which leads to an important discovery. This is the story of a strong-willed, smart, and original character whose expeditions into the natural world with her grandfather lead her away from the traditional women's roles of her time, toward research and scientific discovery. It is a chance to experience another world, to hear the sights and sounds, and feel the heat, of a Texas summer when fans were a new invention and they were powered by big gas motors. In order to continue to encourage an interest in literature and to help develop reading and comprehension skills further, the following titles are also recommended for those students entering Sec.2 this fall: Speak by Laure Halse Anderson; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; What I Saw And How I Lied by Judy Blundell and Big Mouth, Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates. All of these are available @Bialik Library for your reading pleasure. Summer is a time to give yourself an opportunity to play, to relax, to dream and to read, read, read away into the long days and nights. What is on your Kindle?
