Beyond the Narnia Series...

Assigning (and thus, of course, reading myself) C.S. Lewis’s Magician’s Nephew must have put C.S. Lewis on my brain because I started my summer reading with an array of Lewis’s work all of which I can heartily recommend for many middle school students.  One of the wonderful things about C.S. Lewis is that exploring his works means exploring multiple genres. 

I began with Lewis’s classic The Screwtape Letters, which purports to document the correspondence between a senior devil and his protégé/nephew Wormwood.  Screwtape gives his nephew advice about how to steal the soul of a particular English young man living during World War II’s bombing of London.  Mature readers interested in the nature of good and evil or those interested in reading the classics should consider this book. 

If you are a fan of mythology, as Lewis was, you might enjoy Lewis’s novel Till We Have Faces.  First, read a traditional version of the Psyche and Eros story, which you can easily find on the Internet.  You will find a story in which Psyche’s sister ruins Psyche’s relationship with her husband Eros, the god of love.  Then, read Lewis’s version of the story told from the point of view of Psyche’s sister.  It is a story of love, jealousy, and our struggle to understand fate.  Till We Have Faces was written more for adults than children, but it could easily fit into an eighth grader’s summer reading.

Finally, for science fiction fans, Lewis wrote the Space Trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet.  In this story, the protagonist Ransom is a philology professor (just like Lewis’s close friend J.R.R. Tolkien) kidnapped from Earth and taken to Mars by a scientist who plans for him to be given to the natives as a sacrifice.  Ransom’s adventures with the creatures of the planet make up the bulk of this novel.  Again, the Space Trilogy was written more for adults but is easily within reach of middle school students who enjoy a challenge.  

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith shows up on lists of modern, minor classics.  While it doesn’t have the stature of To Kill a Mockingbird or Animal Farm, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has stood the test of time and is still relevant reading for mature young adults.  I have finally picked it up, and I’m very glad that I did, since it spoke to my need to read light fiction on hot summer nights.  You won’t find this book as “light” as I did, as it is a book you will find both in YA and adult sections of the library, but I think you will be happy you picked it up. 

The novel is the story of so many of our ancestors, Irish and German Americans growing up in Brooklyn at the turn of the twentieth century.  While not plot heavy (you won’t find a lot of “action” scenes), you will find a fascinating snapshot of working class America at the end of its age of innocence before the first World War.  The story follows one family as the children grow up through their poverty to attain the American Dream and features strong characterizations of all members of the family.  

I particularly liked this book because my own German Irish ancestors lived in Brooklyn.  My great grandmother came from Ireland with her cousin when she was just 16 years old.  She ended up owning a small grocery store in Brooklyn and met my great grandfather, a German American who worked on the construction of the Empire State Building.  

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is definitely a “must read” for sophisticated readers at some point in their reading lives. 

Two from the R.I. Teen Book Award List

posted Jul 5, 2011 4:46 PM by D. Carlino   [ updated Jul 5, 2011 4:48 PM ]

After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick is, in many ways, the story of many young adults who enter eighth grade with insecurities about girls, athletic ability, family changes, and being “different.”  However, the protagonist of this novel also must contend with the fact that he is a cancer survivor.  How does his childhood cancer and subsequent treatments affect his middle school years?  After Ever After is a touching and realistic story of a teen playing the cards that life has dealt him and doing it with a “beau geste.”  (To find out what a “beau geste” is…read the book!)             After a little realistic fiction, I decided to read one of the historical fiction titles on the Award shortlist. Sources of Light by Margaret McMullen is set in Mississippi in 1962, a key year in that state’s struggle with the Civil Rights Movement.  Sam, the young girl who is the protagonist of this novel, uses her newfound skills as a photographer to chronicle the cruelty of the era.  What I really liked about this book though was that while the author did not romanticize the cruelty of the South around the issue of racism, she also managed to remind the reader about what was good in Southern values.  It reminded me very much of something I discovered after living for three years in Texas.  While I never fully embraced the Texas “frame of mind,” I came to very much appreciate Texas and Texans for who they were.  The same will be true here.  Rhode Island readers in 2011 will probably never fully understand Mississippi in 1962 and certainly (I hope!) will reject the fear and hatred that spurred the Civil Rights Movement, but they will get a realistic taste of the South, both the good and the bad.

Split by Swati Avasthi (2010)

While this was one of those novels that I just could not put down, I did find the ending a little disappointing...perhaps a little too hopeful in the end to be realistic.  That said, there is a lot to recommend this novel to young adults.  First, I commend the author for giving us a sympathetic male protagonist...such a rarity!  Second, the novel touches on child abuse and how it can create a cycle of abuse in families.  When children see their fathers abuse their mothers, they are much more likely to repeat that kind of abuse in their dating relationships and with their own children.  Since Jace Witherspoon, the protagonist, has the childhood baggage that he does, I really wanted him to seek some professional help to   help him overcome his anger.  Finally, the author gives us a riveting plot; Jace has secrets--a lot of secrets--that just might keep him from being able to re-create his once close relationship with his older brother.

Recommended for teens grades 8 and up since there are some issues with language and sexuality.

Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis

According to the author's blurb, Deborah Ellis spend some time in Afghan's refugee camps interviewing women for a book of oral histories on the war.  Her encounters with children in those camps gave rise to two young adult novels, Breadwinner and Parvana's Journey.  I didn't realized when I borrowed Parvana's Journey from the library that it was a sequel book, or I would have read Breadwinner first.  However, I found that it didn't really make much of a difference; Parvana's Journey can stand alone as a child's view of war.  The story begins at the funeral of Parvana's father; the war had already separated her from the rest of her family.  She must travel alone to survive, but a young girl traveling alone in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is highly dangerous.  This is another novel that will give students insight into children and war.  They may leave this book with many questions about American involvement in Afghanistan as well as the relationship among groups like the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Muslims.

Recommended age group, grades 5-8

The Truth About Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler

When the faculty advisor to the school newspaper nixes all of her story idea, Zebby and her best friend Amr decide to create a website called "The Truth About Truman School."  They see their website as a place where classmates can read and write the "true" stories about what goes on at their middle school.  What they don't anticipate is that the "Truth about Truman School" is that kids there are mean...are we ourselves online? or are we emboldened by our anonymity?  This novel explores this topic through the eyes of multiple middle school students.

Recommended for grades 5-8

The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson

Young Meli blames herself for her brother's disappearance despite the fact that ethnic Albanians disappear all the time at the hands of the Serbians.  It's the 1990's in Kosovo, and the Muslim Albanians find themselves as the targets of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.  In this short, but intense novel, the family finds themselves in a refugee camp and eventually as immigrants to Vermont.  Readers will find themselves looking at themes like the effect of hatred and revenge on our lives as well as topics like the Eastern European political situation post-Cold War and how Muslim-Americans fared after the events of 9/11.  A short, but interesting read that will leave many contemporary tweens and teens asking questions about events that took place before they were born.

Recommended age grades 5-8