The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin. So sweet. A story about grief and complications in friendships, and middle school, and identity. And magical thinking! An easy read and quite engaging.
Here to Stay by Sara Farizan. Also enjoyed this one. (Also on the WA 9th list.) A very current text, in the sense of set in the Boston of 2010s, dealing with complex issues of racism, expectations, socio-economic class, self-identity, and friendship.
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk Also loved this one! Also on the WA 9th list. Set in the early-1940s Depressio-before-WW2, it has a feel of some of my old childhood favorites. It reminds me of The Great Brain books by JD Fitzgerald I so loved, mixed with the fiesty Anne of Green Gables, and a little bit of Richard Peck's Long Way from Chicago, which I didn't discover until adulthood when it was our family's favorite read-aloud. A bit of a mystery, a girl figures out how to outsmart bullying new girl from her one-room schoolhouse class. So lovely! So clever!
What if It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. Also on the WA list, but for 11th grade. Ummmm...yeah. I got the audio-book version, and listenen to ALL. TEN. HOURS. Why it needed to be 10 hours of teen angst, I'll never know. Cute and authentic teen voices. I enjoyed the literary and cultural allusions (Star Wars, Hamilton, etc.) But I don't know if I read much teen-romance (uh, was that a thing back then?). I wasn't prepared for it.
Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitgerald Not on a reading list per se, but walked past a pile at the Library where it was featured and couldn't resist. A great choice! A clever art mystery, history mystery, and story of friendship and obligation. Also: connection to the Monuments Men of WW2. Reminded me of From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler and The Westing Game of my childhood readings.
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. Had wanted to read this one for several years. Now that it's on the WA 9th grade list, here was the reason to do so. A non-fiction text set in 1970s-80s inner city, urban Baltimore. Tells the story of two men who have the same name and many of the same circumstances (absent/dead fathers, strong-willed mothers, schools that struggle, lack of motivation, the drug epidemic of the 80s) but whose paths diverge. One ends a university graduate/veteran/Rhodes Scholar while the other is in prison for life. Gritty.
Defending Jacob by William Landay. Another brief departure from the WA summer reading lists. This was on my son's 9th grade reading list, and wow does it pack some twists! This is a local Boston author, setting a teen murder in Newtom, MA. The narrator is the Assistant District Attorney and also a dad who can't see his own son clearly. This was a romp! I will be interesting to hear what my son's school does with this text.
American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott. *sigh. Back to the WA reading list. This one for 11th grade. Yay! This author was a public school teacher. Good for him. I enjoyed this sweet coming of age story as well. Lots of issues tackled: first loves, PTSD, motivation for school, planning for the future.
At Home A short history of private life by Bill Bryson. Non-fiction. My choice! This was written in 2010, before he wrote America 1927: One Summer. In my mind, I had them written in reverse order. I think I enjoyed 1927 better: his understatement was so clever and made the reading so enjoyable. This book covered everything (and I mean everything: the market for bird/bat guano, the building of the Erie Canal --connected to hydraulic cement, the development of sheet glass, skyscrapers, you name it) in a kind of meandering way, only vaguely connected to the room he was ostensibly exploring in a chapter. I always enjoy Bryson and his crazy, wandering curiosity. For the record, this did take me longer than a day --actually, about a week & a half!
Educated by Tara Westover. A two-fer: on WA's list as well as on my son's list. Non-fiction. An amazing story of tenacity and grittiness in the face of long-shot odds. Interesting ideas about what it is to be a learner / a scholar. And about code-switching between different worlds, different demands.
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. Such an interesting read about a boy's conflicting loyalties: to truth or to family? A dash of To Kill a Mockingbird (upstanding father, a bit of a legal mystery to untangle) with soupcon of Defending Jacob (yes, I know Defending Jacob was written after, but I'm going on the order I read/experienced them!).
Pride by Ibi Zoboi. Okay, first a caveat/confession. I am not a huge fan of Jane Austen: 2 pages of "shall I wear the blue day dress or the green sprigged dress?" Gack. However, I did enjoy this modernized version of the social romance comedy/commentary. I found the characters mostly believable and pretty likable. (I should probably go back and re-read Pride and Prejudice to have a more nuanced appreciation, but......nah.)
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. A book in verse. This was really quick, really good, and had a great ending. Such a powerful demonstration of the impossible chain of violence, that only creates more violence but no healing or solving of the problem. This book is haunting. (See what I did there?)
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. Not on any summer reading list, but I have wanted to read a John Green novel, so figured I try this one. It was engaging. A bit of a mystery, a lot of misunderstanding, a little romance. A breezy read. I really like John Green and his Nerdfighters and Project Awesome iniatives. And of course, his Crash Course History stuff: so clever, so hip, so insightful.