TRAVERSE CITY -- There's only one thing scarier to Nick Johnson than a Stephen King book: reading ANY book during the summer.
"Ughh," said Johnson, a recent graduate of Traverse City Central High School, with a shudder. "I take one book a summer, if that."
For many students, summer means leaving the books behind for summer jobs, camps and family vacations. But research has shown that by the time a child reaches middle school, summer reading loss can account for as much as a two-year lag in reading achievement.
To help combat so-called "summer setback," Traverse City Area Public Schools has updated its online summer reading list for elementary and high school students. The list, available at www.tcaps.net/summerreading, includes everything from required books for next year's advanced placement and honors students, to links to suggested book lists for children and college-bound seniors.
It's one of several summer reading initiatives over the years that have ranged from offering reading programs in secondary school libraries to giving away books, said Dawn Farley, department chair for TCAPS libraries.
"We had one year when we sent home four or five books with first- through fifth-graders identified as being behind one or more grades in reading. They got to keep them," Farley said. "The really neat feature was that (one of the books) came with an audio version and a Playaway -- like an MP3 player with a head set -- and the kids got to keep those, too."
Traverse City West Senior High librarian Chris Esper created on online summer reading club two years ago with her colleague from the Traverse City Central High library. The pair compiled a roster of about 20 books based on young adult best sellers lists and encouraged students to read the books and then post their reviews and comments about them.
Each week a club member name was drawn for prizes like ice cream sundaes.
"We had about 30 kids, from seniors to incoming freshmen," said Esper, who also keeps the school library open several hours each week during the summer. "I kind of wish we were doing it this summer, but what it takes is somebody to read (the blog) every single day because you want to respond when somebody puts something up there."
For a time, TCAPS tried to assign summer reading for all English classes at the high school level, said West English teacher Matthew Dumon, a winner of TCAPS' 2009 Outstanding Educator of the Year award. Now only certain honors and advanced placement students are required to read during the summer.
"I like summer reading because you can capitalize on the kids' enthusiasm at the start of the year and have a good discussion," he said, adding that many teachers tape up lists of their favorite books for their classes heading off for the summer. "And I typically assign an essay at the beginning of the year based on summer reading so I have a sample of the students' writing."
But for Dumon, who developed a love of travel and the American West from reading books like Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley," the exercise goes much deeper.
"When I start off the year and go through my syllabus I always talk with the kids about how reading can be life-changing," he said. "After a while when you teach, you see a lot of maturing over the summer. Reading a good book can be part of the process of maturing and growing."
Travis Clary believes that reading expands the imagination and is "a good way to keep your brain focused for college." But the recent Traverse City Central graduate said he'd rather be doing anything else in the summer. And he's not alone.
"There will be kids who come in and haven't finished the book or grumbled through it the last week of the summer," Dumon said. "High school kids usually tell you that they just hate reading. It doesn't get more complicated than that."
To help overcome their resistance, Dumon looks for books with a strong plot and teen-friendly themes. Contenders for this year are Jodi Picoult's "My Sister's Keeper," which opens as a movie June 26, and "The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint" by Brady Udall.
"Sometimes the school curriculum is pretty rigid," said Dumon, who plans to read a portrait of Andrew Jackson this summer as part of his own informal book club with history teacher Tak Ready. "I try to use the summer reading to choose something that's more contemporary, that's not going to show up in the curriculum."
West teacher David Noller hopes to tempt his AP literature and composition students with Kate Chopin's "The Awakening."
"It's short," said Noller, whose other summer reading assignment is "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by University of Michigan-Flint professor Thomas C. Foster. "I'm not requiring them to read 'Anna Karenina' or some enormous novel. They can get through the novel in one week or a couple days. It's entertaining, a little scandalous, a little soap opera-y."
The book, which examines a 19th-century New Orleans woman's self-realization, is the quintessential summer read, Noller said.
"Most of the action takes place over a summer vacation, so setting-wise it's perfect," he said. "And it's about a search for identity, a search for self. Those questions are always important to teenagers."
Print this story
E-mail this story
