Summer Reading

My school year has ended and my summer has officially begun.  The last few days were dotted with bittersweet moments of students saying their goodbyes, packing up my classroom, and wishing my colleagues a fantastic summer (not to mention a few celebratory parties for my upcoming career change). 

So now what?

Sure, there will be plenty of outdoor activities planned such as swimming and soaking up the sun (now that the entire east coast has retired from its three week rain marathon), hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and lots and lots of grilling.  But what I look forward to the most in the summer, naturally, is reading (surfside anyone?). 

jgoge (23 Apr. 2012)  Woman reading at the beach [Wikimedia Commons].  Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWoman_‌reading_on_the_beach.jpg CC BY 2.0

If you work with high school students and are looking for some excellent YA literature to read this summer, I recommend making a selection from the following Virginia Reader’s Choice list for the 2016-2017 school year. 

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath

I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka & Martin Ganda with Liz Welch

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Half Bad by Sally Green

Diamond Boy by Michael Williams

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

Sway by Kat Spears

The following link will navigate you to the Virginia State Reading Association’s site where you will find winners and lists from previous years.  This year’s Virginia Reader’s Choice winner was Chesapeake native Lamar Giles’ Fake ID.

https://www.vsra.org/vrc/past-winners/ 

Happy summer reading!