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Going under cover!
By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 16, 2001
[Times illustration: Don Morris / Times photo: Patty Yablonski
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Hey, you, relaxing on the beach with that book in your hand. You've got the right idea.
There are not many better ways to spend your summer than buried in the pages of a good book. (Position yourself right, and the book can double as a sunshade, too.)
Whether you choose to do it in the bright outdoors or in a cool, air-conditioned retreat, reading takes you places. Reading keeps your parents from yelling at you for watching too much TV. Reading opens your mind and feels good. If you're reading this, it is likely you don't need convincing.
What you might need are some suggestions about where to find your next story.
You know about libraries, of course. And bookstores, both the brick and click varieties, which often offer minireviews. Some of you even may belong to book clubs that keep you supplied with good titles. (Mother-daughter book clubs are becoming popular across the country.)
Many of you probably have lists of suggested or required summer reading from your school tacked on the fridge door. Don't consider such lists homework; consider them roadmaps for your vacation!
If you've already raced through these resources, you can always consult books about books.
Author Katheleen Odean has compiled three helpful compendiums: Great Books for Girls: More than 600 Books to Inspire Today's Girls and Tomorrow's Women; Great Books for Boys: More Than 600 Books for Boys 2 to 14; and Great Books About Things Kids Love.
Author Shireen Dodson's 100 Books for Girls to Grow On and the companion book, The Mother-Daughter Book Club: How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together to Talk, Laugh and Learn Through Their Love of Reading, also provide excellent reading suggestions.
Smart AleX (the reader in the photo above) hopes today's Xpress inspires you to turn a page or two this summer, with reading suggestions including the coming school year's Sunshine State Young Reader's Award lists, a review of a recent book about important Florida women and a special all-reading HotStuff.
Read on!
Sunshine State Young Reader's Award 2001-2002 Reading List
The Sunshine State Young Reader's Award program is a statewide reading motivation plan in use at more than 1,000 public and 60 private Florida schools.
During the school year, students at participating schools who read at least three titles from the recommended list earn the chance to vote for the year's favorite title. New lists are compiled by library media specialists from Florida schools every school year, from books published within the past four years. The coming school year's list, chosen from more than 400 titles nominated by media specialists, includes a book written by St. Petersburg author Peggy Nolan, The Spy Who Came in From the Sea.
The program, which started in 1983, is co-sponsored by the School Library Media Services Office of the Department of Education and the Florida Association for Media in Education.
Grades 3-5
- Bandit's Moon by Sid Fleischman, Greenwillow Books, 1998
- Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, Candlewick Press, 2000
- Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, Delacorte Press, 1999
- Deadly Waters by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson, National Geographic, 2000
- The Dragon of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp, Candlewick Press, 1998
- Eye of the Great Bear by Bill Wallace, Minstrel, 1999
- The Ghost of Lizard Light by Elvira Woodruff, Knopf, 1999
- Jonah the Whale by Susan Shreve, Scholastic, 1998
- Junebug and the Reverend by Alice Mead, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998
- The Landry News by Andrew Clements, Simon & Schuster, 1999
- Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan, Scholastic, 1998
- Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen, Knopf, 1998
- Sasquatch by Roland Smith, Hyperion, 1998
- Smart Dog by Vivian Vande Velde, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1998
- The Spy Who Came in From the Sea by Peggy Nolan, Pineapple Press Inc., 1999
Grades 6-8
- Backwater by Joan Bauer, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999
- Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, Delacorte Press, 1999
- Eye of the Great Bear by Bill Wallace, Minstrel, 1999
- Getting Near to Baby by Audrey Couloumbis, Putnam, 1999
- Ghost Canoe by Will Hobbs, Morrow, 1997
- The Landry News by Andrew Clements, Simon & Schuster, 1999
- A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck, Dial, 1998
- The Ocean Within by V.M. Caldwell, Milkweed Editions, 1999
- Perloo the Bold by Avi, Scholastic, 1998
- Sasquatch by Roland Smith, Hyperion, 1998
- The Moonlight Man by Betty Ren Wright, Scholastic, 2000
- The Spy Who Came in From the Sea by Peggy Nolan, Pineapple Press Inc., 1999
- The Starplace by Vicki Grove, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999
- Treasure of Panther Peak by Aileen Kilgore Henderson, Milkweed Editions, 1999
Here's the rest of today's Xpress
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