Summer Reading '09 done - Time to get ready for '10

Briscoe held its annual Summer Reading "Book Clubs" on Friday 9/11. After some mad dashes through the halls, practically everyone in the building dropped everything for an hour to go to a room with other staff or students who had read the same book over the summer. Some of the most popular books this past year were Define "Normal" and Things Not Seen for the sixth graders, and Deep and Dark and Dangerous for the seventh/eighth grade groups.

Now that we're done with 2009's list, it's time to start looking ahead and finding new books for 2010. One I've recently finished that's already on my short list is The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman. The book is set sometime in the future. It hints at a post-global warming world where the world is run by a giant "Corporation" and overseen by "Earth Mother." Honor and her family have been brought to an island where they must follow the rules - or they will disappear. Honor wants to fit in but her parents consistently spurn the rules laid out for them, which leads to trouble for them all. Utopia or dystopia? I hope Goodman gets cracking soon so we find out more about Honor and her family!