If the intended recipient of your present loves to judge books by their covers, Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars, with its Barbie-look alike cover may appeal. Lolo likes that books in this series talk about the social issues girls face.
Do you want a mystery and story about family and fortune hunting? For these themes, Lolo recommends Rick Riordon’s The 39 Clues (and other volumes in this series). Riordon’s The Lightning Thief is Lolo’s pick if you must have great comic book illustrations paired with mythological monsters, and demi-gods. Along with a number of young reader books, it is available in a Spanish translation (El ladron del rayo). Another of the Olympus series, The Mark of Athena, also by Rick Riordan, ends Lolo’s list. She loves stories about Greece and Rome.
Elena, a high school junior, opens her list with classics: George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s 1932 futuristic Brave New World, and Harper Lee’s Pulitizer Prize winning To Kill a Mockingbird.
From dystopia, technology, and racial justice, Elena switched recommendations to historical fiction: Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl and Antonia Fraser’s The Wives of Henry VIII. I would say these are preludes to a summer read of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Adventure, love, and culture clash are packaged in James Clavell’s Shogun which also won favor and ends Elena’s list.
And what about Elena, Lolo, and Isabel's parents?
These moms and dads also have very decided thoughts about much-loved books they would like to see in the hands of new generations of readers. Roald Dahl came up repeatedly, with Danny and the Champion of the World a first choice for elementary school readers. Sydney Taylor's classic stories of a lower East Side Jewish immigrant family, found in the All of A Kind Family books, is a must-read for the same age group. The moms thought that middle schoolers who love sci-fi must be introduced to Anne McCaffrey.
Readers who delight in sorcerers and wizards will like the short stories and novels of Ursula LeGuin. And, of course, The Hobbit. One dad had strong, positive memories of reading John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at an older age, and liking it for the characters of George and Lennie. This dad had also been given Homer's Odyssey twice, in middle school and high school, and recommends it for its adventures. The moms had their own brooding novels for high schoolers including Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea.
As I wrote in a previous review, a sure reference in selecting books is the American Library Association’s Amelia Bloomer Book Project. In a yearly competition Amelia Bloomer committee members review hundreds of submissions looking for books that, according to its web site, “contain significant feminist content — not just cardboard ‘feisty’ or ‘spunky’ girls and women, but tales of those who have broken barriers and have fought to change their situations and their environment …. real and fictional [characters who] follow their dreams and pursue their goals, challenging cultural and familial stereotypes.” Titles, described with annotations of plot, fall into three broad categories: picture books (fiction and non-fiction); middle readers (fiction and non-fiction); and young adult (fiction and non-fiction). The lists are a great cache — inspiring, provocative, and plain old entertaining. They may be found at http://libr.org/ftf/bloomer.html
This holiday season you may be thinking, iTUNES, or video games, or clothes. My grandgirls suggest that whatever your choices, let there be a book among them. I particularly appreciate that most of the titles they have suggested are available in inexpensive paper editions.
And more than a few are books that I would enjoy stealing off with for an hour or two.
©2012 Jill Norgren for SeniorWomen.com
Painting, Titus van Rijn, reading by Rembrant, 1656/1657
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