The Summer Reading List

I visited a school in early June where the Summer Reading List had just been announced.

There were posters about reading in the main hall – yes, yes, Harry Potter, of course - and an all-school assembly one afternoon. The assembly was blessedly brief with a group of 6-8th grade students reading excerpts from their favorite books. Two class teachers and the librarian did a power-point presentation with a dozen recommended titles per grade level for this summer. Students now have to read five books before school recommences in September. Everyone went away feeling excited about their summer reading challenge.

This ritual made me feel good. Here we are in the tech-heavy 21st century and teachers are still coming up with a reading list for summer vacation.

When I was a boy, I remember my mother walking me to our local library where Mrs. Emily Bertchey (truly all librarians were named Emily at one time) issued me with my lending card - #54 if I remember correctly. The library card was the first official document I possessed. I placed it on my bedside table for safe keeping.

I grew up in a small town outside of Boston and the library then was just a room above the nascent police department (one car, two patrolmen) and next to the town office which was open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9 – noon. It was sleepy place to be sure.

Still there was reading to be done on those hot summer New England days and I remember loving John Knowles’ A Separate Peace but struggling with C S Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey was a disappointment after The Catcher in the Rye. Morris L. West’s The Shoes of the Fisherman would have been my 12 year old's attempt to read an adult novel. Although we had read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in school, our teacher said it had ‘many levels’ and I read it again in the summer.

Mrs. Bertchey’s library smelled musty and was crowded with big, oak tables, some stuffy chairs and an ancient filing cabinet but it was a place of sheer adventure and delight for me. There was a single, large fan above the circulation desk and it felt nice just to stand there watching her officiously stamp the due date on my card.

Ah, the Summer Reading List.