Summer Reading List (with A Focus On Emotions)

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Recently, I began tutoring a boy who hopes to take the Hunter College High School entrance exam

. He is, naturally, very bright, but he doesn't have a spectacularly high reading level. It's not his vocabulary or his logical reasoning that's holding him back, but rather his interest in and understanding of subtle human emotions. (Let me be clear - it's not that he has an unusual challenge with understanding emotions, it's just that he'd much rather be shooting hoops than thinking about touchy-feely stuff.)

I've put together a reading list for this student that focuses on books that are moderately challenging, have plots (or other content) that are likely to interest an 11 year old boy, and simultaneously have significant emotional content. Furthermore, I have personally read and loved all of the books on this list.

Alex and Me by Irene Pepperburg (non-fiction)

This is a memoir of Dr. Pepperburg's relationship with Alex, the African Grey parrot she taught and studied for 30 years. It delves into the professional hurdles that Dr. Pepperburg overcame, the astonishing and delightful discoveries she and her team made about the ability of African Grey parrots to speak and think, the distinctive personalities of the several birds she and her team worked with, and the relationships that formed between the various human and avian players in the story.
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The Last Algonquin by Theodore L. Kazimiroff (non-fiction)

In 1924, a man who believed he was the last surviving member of the Algonquin tribe told the story of his life to a 12 year old boy. That boy's son wrote the story down in this book. This story is moving and sometimes astonishing. It also has special resonance for anyone who lives in the Bronx because that is the seemingly unlikely location where the "last" Algonquin lived as a hunter, gatherer, and farmer for most of his life.

A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (fiction)

This book is about a girl who runs away from everything she's ever known to escape the prospect of a terrible marriage. Although it would be technically accurate to call this book an "adventure story" or a "coming of age story", neither label comes close to doing the book justice. Instead of attempting to describe the book, I will simply say that I have made a conscious decision to hold off on reading other books by Nancy Farmer for a little while so that I wouldn't "run out". And that is high praise, indeed.

Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (fiction)

When he is eight years old, the protagonist is sent from China to live with his father in California. The story takes place in the early 20th century, when powered, heavier than air flight was very new. Among many other adventures, the father and son attempt to build a working airplane together. Again, this book is more than an adventure story- it has finely developed characters and is written with great sensitivity.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (historical fiction)

This book is seriously funny; there is one incident at the beginning that caused me to laugh so hard that I nearly pulled a muscle. It is also a very serious book that deals with one of the darker moments of the American Civil Rights era.

by: Jessie Mathisen

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