Janet’s Five Choices for School Required Summer Reading (OR Does the Philadelphia School System EVER Change the Reading Lists?)

Actually, yes they do. Having three copies of The Color of Water in our house because no one bothered to check the bookcases, I wondered once again whether the school system had ever heard of Alice Walker or James Baldwin or Maya Angelou or... yes, they have. And yes, everyone should read The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird at least once in their lives, but what about the incredible array of new young adult literature available to us today?

Current young adult authors address issues relevant to our teenagers of the computer age in ways that are engaging, heart-rending, TRUE and resolvable. So here are a few of the classics, a few "are they really still on the lists?" and one relatively current choice. We carry them all and more. Please check out Jen's YA book group for an exceptional selection of new arrivals.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Little, Brown and Company, $6.99, ©1945)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Grand Central Publishing, $7.99, ©1960)

The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks (Ballantine Books, $6.99, ©1963)

The Color of Water by James McBride (Riverhead Books, $15.00, ©1996)

Tangerine by Edward Bloor (Harcourt, $6.95, ©1997)

July 2011, Janet Elfant