Reviews & Views: Enthralling reads for new chapters
The French call it “La Rentrée” — it’s not just back-to-school time, but also a fresh start for everyone. Amidst the new clothes, supplies, and lunch treats, please remember to visit a library or store to pick up books for your student.
If you keep your child reading for pleasure, you’re doing them and their teachers a favor, but you’re also offering them the means to calm, to entertain, and, best of all, to bond through family time. If they’re new to school or nervous about returning, eyes glazed from a summer of screens and sun, these titles will help with the transition.
“Fish Don’t Go to School” by Deb Pilutti (Christy Ottaviano Books) is a picture book about a boy who is anxious about kindergarten and wears his favorite outfit on his first day, reminding everyone it’s OK to be different. For older readers, “Whale Eyes: A Memoir about Seeing and Being Seen” by James Robinson, illustrated by Brian Rea (Penguin) is an astonishing read by the documentary filmmaker about his visual disability and how it has affected his life, especially at school. His 12-minute documentary is on YouTube for you to watch together.
“The Tour at School” by Katie Clapham, illustrated by Nadia Shireen (Candlewick) is a fun read about an overly enthusiastic child showing a new kid her beloved school. Remember, just walking through the building and playground ahead of the first day can alleviate stress for a child.
“Bulldozer Goes to School” by Elise Broach, illustrated by Kelly Murphy (Christy Ottaviano Books) is an entry in the Bulldozer and Friends series that is unsentimental and down to earth, as is “Grumpy Monkey School Stinks!” by Suzanne and Max Lang (Random), a graphic novel for older kids who’ve been to school already and just don’t feel like going back. Leonard S. Marcus’ “Earthrise: The Story of the Photograph that Changed the Way We See Our Planet” (FS&G) is a thrilling account of how the image of Earth taken during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 inspired NASA to new ambitions, as well as the nascent environmental movement to create Earth Day. I’d read that book report.
Adults can sneak peeks at their children’s books, but fewer Americans are reading for pleasure, so let’s defy that depressing statistic and choose a topic as our own fall project. Many of us, inspired by the 250th, read up on the Revolutionary War, so why not expand our knowledge by reading some other American history?
“Native America: The Story of the First Peoples (Unearthing the Fast)” by Kenneth L. Feder (Princeton). Reading this book is like attending the best lectures you could imagine on the archaeological history of North America. Feder is a popular university professor, and it shows in this accessible, entertaining survey of the rich and varied history of the many different tribes who have been on this land for millennia. Then read “The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding” by Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf), which looks at the disparities between the United States’ lofty ideals and the reality of experiences and injustices faced by its minorities.
No American author illuminates those contradictions more than Mark Twain, so I’m ready to tackle Ron Chernow’s biography (Penguin Press) of this great, petty, insightful, provocative chronicler of American highs and lows. Did you know the Mississippi River supposedly gave the author his nom de plume? “Mark twain” was a boatman’s cry that the river was safely navigable. This is Chernow’s first work about an author, and he brings the same level of research to Samuel Langhorne Clemens’ life that he has to American political titans.
“The Trial of Levi Weeks: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the First Recorded Murder Trial in US History” by Estelle Fox Kleiger (Chicago Review Press) has been released in an updated edition. This is a fascinating examination of our nascent legal system in action, and the presence of Hamilton and Burr on the same side is especially charged. It’s a great read to share with young adults, as “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution” by Jill Lepore (Liveright/Norton) will be. I find Lepore’s reading voice endearing and thoughtful, so I like to listen to her books on long drives.
When you need a break from serious stuff, “Clown Town” by Mick Herron (Soho Crime), No. 9 in the Slough House series, is coming out in September, as we eagerly await the return of the screen series. Put your holds on now at the Acton Free Public Library. Stephen Colbert loves the books and the show, and his recent interview with some of the cast is available on YouTube.
In the meantime, try “Down Cemetery Road,” the first in Herron’s Zoë Boehm, P.I., series of academic thrillers set in Oxford, England. An adaptation is also coming to AppleTV, starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. I’d love to see the Mrs. Plansky books by Spencer Quinn get adapted. The second in the series, “Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue” (Forge) is just out, and our Floridian septuagenarian hero is as funny and up for a dangerous mystery as ever.
Of course, get outside to enjoy the last of summer sun with your child. The annual Acton Ag Day is on Saturday, September 6, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., on Main Street in Acton Center. Come by the Acton Free Public Library to check out the Friends of CFPL pop-up paperback book sale that day from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. in the Goodwin Forum. All books are $2 — for that price, you can start stockpiling for winter.
