Summer starts this weekend which means some people decide it’s time to read books. The main impetus is kids out of school, but there are also teachers who have summer “free” to read books as well. Many media outlets make their summer reading lists and other bloggers collect them. Here are a few links that I find worthwhile about summer reading, but when I make my list, I’m just going to look at the towering stack of both unfinished and not-yet-started books that always graces the table by my kitchen table.
- Rebecca Blood’s list of Summer Reading Lists
- Possibly the best looking summer reading library website I’ve seen: Summer Reading 2009 (NYPL, Broolyn Public and Queens Borough Public)
- Flickr’s Summer Reading Programs photo pool
I was going to include links to state libraries’ summer reading programs but it looks like a lot of state libraries either don’t have statewide summer reading programs or don’t advertise them well. If you have a library summer reading program you’re fond of, please put it in the comments.
And a special “Hey nice job” to a colleague of longtime reader/contributor Eoin Kelly whose coworker Rosemary Hetherington was awarded the Children’s Books Ireland award which recognizes “outstanding contribution to the world of children’s books.” There’s a nice writeup on the CBI page. Congrats Rosemary!
Hello Jess,
Our summer isn’t for a few more months. But our State Library does have a nice program, state bound so that writers can speak at local libraries of course. I got to sit on the selection panel for the last one.
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/reading_victoria/summerread/index.html
The first program in 2006 consisted of 20 novels – now the balance between fiction and non-fiction is about 50/50.
Many thanks indeed for mentioning Rosemary, I know of no individual who has done more to promote excellence in juvenile literature, her award is richly deserved, those of us who work in public libraries in Ireland are immensely in her debt. I have the honour of knowing Rosemary personally and I can attesst that what she doesn’t know about childrens’ literature isn’t worth knowing. On top of that she is a genuine lady and it is an enormorous pleasure to work with her.
eeeek – please excuse typos !
This isn’t a library program, but it’s a fun online one: InfiniteSummer.org, a site for those who want to read David Foster Wallace’s massive, wonderful “Infinite Jest.
Question for Monica McCormick or anyone else who has read Infinite Jest: I read about 20 pages of Infinite Jest and am not tempted to read more. Is it the sort of book that if you don’t like it from the start, you won’t like it at all, or does it take a few more (hundred) pages to get good? Thanks!
One of my several jobs the past couple of years has been coordinating the British Columbia Provincial summer reading program, run jointly by the Public Library Services Branch of the BC Ministry of Education (sort of like the state library), and the British Columbia Library Association. The Province kicks in a big grant to run it, too. Here’s the 2009 librarians’ website: http://kidssrc.bclibrary.ca/
And the kids’ website: http://www.kidssrc.ca/
There’s a pretty awesome nationwide and online-based Teen Reading Club, too (it was a summer reading program; starting last year, it went to year-round, but the new annual theme is still launched in June): http://www.teenrc.ca/
Here’s Oklahoma’s Summer Reading Program, sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, http://www.odl.state.ok.us/summer/index.htm
Lots of reading programs going on in 100 degree heat. Adrienne Butler, our Children/YA Library Consultant does a great job. Here’s her blog. http://cya.oklibshare.org/blog/