Summer break is a time to sit back, relax and read a book! For those of you who teach in South Carolina, I recommend you check out the SC Book Award Nominees. (And even if you aren’t in SC, I still recommend them!) You can find a list for your level (picture book, children, junior, or young adult) at www.scasl.net. Since I was on the young adult committee, my drama students recorded podcasts for the SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees. You can find them on our school’s podcast page. You can find podcasts for the other levels at the SCASL website, too!
My summer reading list includes:
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson, M.D. (Dr. Carson will be speaking at our first District Inservice in August!)
What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future by Daniel L. Pink
The Power of the Media Specialist to Improve Academic Achievement and Strengthen At-Risk Students by Jami Biles Jones and Alana M. Zambone
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
City of Bones and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
Night Road by A.M. Jenkins
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
Whirlwind, The Caretaker Trilogy: Book 2 by David Klass
Ahh…summer reading! My list is nowhere near complete, and I’m sure I will see other books that lure me to read them, but here is a partial working list:
The Host by Stephenie Meyer (taking me longer than I expected to read)
Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? by Peter Walsh
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
Brain Rules by (have on hold at library and can’t remember author’s name!)
Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts by Will Richardson
Reading the Web Strategies for Internet Inquiry by Maya B. Eagleton and Elizabeth Dobler
Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell
Behind Closed Doors by Susan Sloan
….and several from the SCYABA list that I haven’t yet read (11 titles – hope to read at least half of those)
I read many of the S.C. Young Adult Nominee books. I especially liked Twighlight… This year I was hired by an Elementary School in Greenville County and have now read 18 of the 20 Children’s book nominees. I even created a blog of the nominees posted on the media center webpage at Bethel Ele. and got a response from the author of Free Baseball, Sue Corbett. I thought that was pretty exciting!
@fran – Sounds like a good list. I see we have a few books in common. I hope you’ve been more successful in finding time to read them! I’ve only finished one book from my list, From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris, and the summer is more than half over!
@Julianne – Glad you’ve been reading the YA books as well as the elementary nominees. It’s such a tough job choosing the YA titles that I’m glad to have rotated off the committee this year. I needed the break. Hmm, maybe that’s another reason I’ve not read the rest of the books on my summer reading list! Looking forward to reading your blog for Bethel Elem, and kudos for being contacted by Sue Corbett. I bet you were ecstatic!