Rundell's Why You Should Read Children's Books

WHY YOU SHOULD READ CHILDREN'S BOOKS, EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE SO OLD AND WISE by Katherine Rundell was not what I expected. Honestly, I thought there would be many more references to favorite children’s books, perhaps like Believe in the World or The Enchanted Hour or the classic Read-Aloud Handbook. Still, at only 80 pages Rundell (fellow at Oxford and writer) provides a series of essays about the value of reading in general and stresses the history and key role played by children’s books. It’s a bit on the academic side and would have been improved with more childhood anecdotes (think back to your favorite books as a child). I especially like the conclusion drawn by the Wall Street Journal reviewer: “head straight for the nearest library to see for yourself what all the fuss is about.”  

Age-specific state awards list numerous quality titles each year; an older wonderful resource – covering multiple states and ages and compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith – is provided here. Reading Rockets also provided some fun links recently at the start of the new school year: Interviews with Children's authors and illustrators and Read Across America calendar and booklists.

The Happiness Files by Arthur C. Brooks

THE HAPPINESS FILES by Arthur C. Brooks offers “Insights on Work and Life” and is based on the popular essays he has written for a weekly column in The Atlantic. Amongst other full-length titles, Brooks wrote From Strength to Strength and he teaches classes on happiness from a scientific perspective (encompassing neuroscience, social psychology, and behavioral economics) at Harvard Business School. Brooks has divided his newest title into sections On Managing Yourself; On Jobs, Money, And Building Your Career; On Communicating and Connecting with Others; On Balancing Work Life and Relationships; and, finally, On How You Define Success. The thirty-three essays are generally five or six pages in length and deal with topics like exhibiting leadership, setting boundaries, promoting value, developing relationships, and establishing purpose and direction. THE HAPPINESS FILES is very well-written, action-oriented, and quite accessible. In completing book reviews, I have been exploring the ideas dealing with well-being and happiness from Brooks and others and writing about them for years. THE HAPPINESS FILES would be a great book to read and discuss as a group, perhaps choosing an essay a week as the focus.

Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

ORDINARY TIME by Annie B. Jones is subtitled “Lessons Learned While Staying Put.” Reading this collection of story essays made me feel as though Annie Sue Butterworth Jones was a dear friend sharing her wise observations on life. Readers will learn that she is a talented writer and the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. One of my book group members also says she “meets with her weekly” since Jones hosts From the Front Porch, a regular podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. In ORDINARY TIME, she writes about family, her dreams, marriage, best friends and so much else (the only section which seems to be oversharing is about religion and her crisis of faith). She offers numerous self-reflective insights: “playing was silencing the perfectionist inside me” or “I am a finisher. But life requires a lot of opening. And I am not so good with the opening, the starting of something new.” Jones herself describes ORDINARY TIME as “a collection of stories about a life rooted in place, the blooming of possibility that can happen there, but also the hardship, the loneliness, the longing for more.” I especially liked her comments on childhood, “our childhood obsessions like basketball or The Baby-Sitters Club can save us. They can remind us of who we were before anything mattered, … before everything felt heavy and hard. When life is overwhelming and challenging and our joy is stolen or hard to find, I think the things we once loved can bring us back, center us, make us whole.”

Her sections on books and reading are well worth re-reading and I wanted to note a couple of other quotes: “I wonder if this is why I love books. I can dip my toe into other lives without entirely changing my own.” and “I read books because, at their best, they make me better, more empathetic, more socially aware, more in tune to the stranger beside me. They help me imagine a better future, provide answers to my insatiable questions, take me to places I'll never get to go. I read books because they are an easy point of entry to relationship.” and “A love of books is the through line of my life, a hobby I can trace back to my earliest childhood memories and immediately weave through my middle school and high school selves ...” 

Write Yourself In by Eric Tipler

WRITE YOURSELF IN by Eric Tipler is an excellent resource, self-described as “The Definitive Guide to Writing Successful College Admissions Essays.” It is written in a calm, accepting tone and contains a number of self-reflection and brainstorming exercises. All of that could contribute to reducing anxiety for certain students. Sample essays are included along with a discussion of when it is helpful to use ChatGPT (idea generation) and when not to use it. Also, there are sections written to parents and some directly to students. Tipler, a teacher, writing coach, and admissions consultant, focuses primarily on selective schools and comments in detail on essay prompts for many of them. I particularly liked his review of the top ten qualities that admissions committees value and the personal essay revision checklist. If you know a high school student who will be graduating in 2025 (or even 2026), this could (right now, for planning purposes) be a wonderful early graduation gift. WRITE YOURSELF IN will also be available as an audiobook which might be the preferred mode for certain students. Accompanying worksheets and exercises are available online. Highly recommended. 

I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me by Jason Gay

I WOULDN'T DO THAT IF I WERE ME is another delightful collection (after Little Victories) from The Wall Street Journal columnist, Jason Gay. Here, he chronicles “Modern Blunders and Modest Triumphs (but Mostly Blunders),” beginning with his attempts to introduce his son to NASCAR racing in Florida. That trip required a stop at Orlando airport and Gay humorously points out the difficulty of convincing your seven-year-old that the Daytona 500 is likely to be more fun than a visit with the famous Mouse. It is those everyday events (e.g., parenting as “Surrender Dad,” allowing unsupervised screen time and plenty of pizza) and small details (e.g., crazy shopping lists when texting with your spouse) that fill Gay’s self-deprecating text and will make readers smile and laugh. His writing is very amusing and has universal appeal. Enjoy! And if you would like a preview, The Wall Street Journal recently published an adapted essay.

Independence Day by Steve Michael Lopez

INDEPENDENCE DAY by Steve Michael Lopez is a relatively quick read in which he reviews “What I Learned about Retirement from Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will.” Lopez is an award-winning Los Angeles Times columnist and his aptitude for writing in an engaging matter is readily apparent. Each chapter contain small vignettes (almost dying after knee replacement surgery, surfboarding near Waikiki). These are intertwined with tales of meeting an assortment of others who offer perspective on possibly retiring. For example, he speaks with a Jesuit priest who argues, “You have to do what replenishes you.” Lopez also meets a “genius winemaker” who prompts him to look into the impact of climate change on California’s vineyards. Later, he comments on the research from psychologist Nancy Schlossberg; she told him that retirees “want to matter” and need “to embrace ambiguity.” Lopez’s writing feels like a stream of consciousness at times or even a good friend sitting down to share a story. The closest comparison I can think of is Mary Roach (Stiff, Grunt, Fuzz and more) or maybe Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods, The Road to Little Dribbling) on one of his entertaining rambles. Lopez expertly captures and conveys the bittersweet feelings engendered by retirement, commenting for instance, on becoming less apt to take experiences for granted and reflecting on the privilege of his life’s work: “me, wandering around, finding what looks interesting, assembling a story, and moving on to the next.” INDEPENDENCE DAY would make an excellent choice for a Senior book club although its insightful and amusing accounts could be enjoyed by all adults. 

Growing Up Chicago

GROWING UP CHICAGO, edited by David Schaafsma, Lauren DeJulio Bell and Roxanne Pilat, is described by the publisher (Northwestern University Press) as “a collection of coming-of-age stories that reflects the diversity of the city and its metropolitan area.” Given the local connections and list of contributors which includes Samira Ahmed, Stuart Dybek, Nnedi Okorafor, and George Saunders, I was excited to browse this book. The Foreword, from Luis Alberto Urrea, notes that he and the editors are all affiliated with the University of Chicago, “involved in the literary life of this city: as teachers, as facilitators, even helping nonprofit literary outreach programs get a footing here” and originally created this book for high school or college audiences. Our students, particularly those in Senior writing classes will learn much from the varied selections. Rebecca Makkai, for example, contributed a short piece titled “Children of the Fifty-Sixers: Growing Up in Hungarian Chicago” and she readily talks about Chicago’s neighborhoods; about details of the immigrant experience – such as seeing the produce section at Jewel for the first time; and about what it means to be American: “to be both from here and from away, to belong also to a land you’ve never known, to look with perpetual wonder at the lemons in the grocery store.” Chicago's diversity is also reflected in an excerpt from Erika L. Sanchez’s National Book Award Finalist I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and commentary (“I feel as if I grew up with three languages: English, Italian, and Chicago”) from award-winning author Tony Romano and many more. Look for a copy on our shelves soon.

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by Ann Patchett is one more thing for which to be grateful as Thanksgiving approaches. Patchett, award winning author of Bel Canto, has compiled a wonderfully uplifting set of essays full of droll wit and acute observations. An early selection profiles her three fathers: her biological one, the man who raised her, and her mother’s later partner. Describing her reaction to advice from one of them, Patchett writes, “I held the phone away from my ear. You are a duck, I would tell myself. This is rain.” From there, she moves on to a diverse set of topics, including how Snoopy was such an important influence and all about a year of no shopping (“If you want something, wait a while. Chances are the feeling will pass”). Regarding cleaning out possessions during the pandemic, she says, “I could watch myself grappling with the same themes in my writing and in my life, what I needed, whom I loved, what I could let go, and how much energy the letting go would take.” THESE PRECIOUS DAYS received starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly – these beautiful reflections on friendship, family and life are definitely worth a read.

Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19

ALONE TOGETHER edited by Jennifer Haupt was just released last month with the intent of supporting independent booksellers in need through the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.  The submissions of poems, essays and interviews were all donated by dozens of authors (Kwame Alexander, Meg Waite Clayton, Jamie Ford, Nikki Giovanni, Jean Kwok, to name just a few). This collection is subtitled “Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19” and it so seems appropriate to chronicle and share these experiences, especially today as some of our students and our faculty and staff begin the journey of blending in-person and remote learning. Haupt has divided the writings (many of which are only a page or two) into 5 sections: What Now? Grieve, Comfort, Connect and Do Not Stop. Library Journal described ALONE TOGETHER as “A testament to the power of story in times of hardship and crisis.” Last night I read several selections and rather than being saddened, I was actually very buoyed by the uplifting perspective and feeling that we are indeed all in this together. I could definitely see this text being used to prompt students’ own reflections, particularly as we move forward in the school year. Yale University Press will publish A World Out of Reach: Dispatches from Life under Lockdown next month. Please contact us with recommended titles of other collections related to COVID times.