Summer Reads

The Summer Reads series includes books recommended by students, staff and faculty from Avonworth Middle and High Schools. This week we feature Looking for Alaska, recommended by Madison Deen, recent 8th grade graduate, and The Accidental Empress.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Miles Halter decides that he needs to go on a journey to find his Great Perhaps. He leaves his home in Florida and enrolls in Culver Creek, a boarding school in Alabama. There he meets the Colonel, Takumi, Lana (who develops a crush on him) and Alaska Young. Alaska is mysterious, daring and exciting, and Miles is enthralled. The group become fast friends, and when tragedy strikes Colonel and Miles find themselves trying to answer unanswerable questions. 

John Green writes some fascinating adolescent characters, and Looking for Alaska's are some of his best. The story is both heartbreaking and uplifting, in part because the characters seem so real.

Thanks to Madison Deen for the recommendation!!

The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki

I'm a sucker for historical fiction. It's so broad, so sweeping, and so epic. This is especially true when the setting is the Austrian Empire during the Habsburg reign. Allison Pataki tells her story from the perspective of Empress Elisabeth, a Bavarian duchess known to her family as Sisi. Empress Sisi's story (as told by Pataki) is ever-hopeful but ultimately tragic. The young Sisi was brought to the Habsburg court by her mother at her aunt's request. Sisi's aunt Sophie had married into the Habsburg family and was the mother of Franz Joseph, the current emperor. Sophie is cold and distant, especially compared to the relative closeness and warmth Sisi experience growing up in her remote Bavarian royal home where rules and protocol were much more relaxed. Sisi spends much of her life fighting against Sophie and her ironclad rule of the palace and its court. Though Sisi is rarely triumphant (which makes this novel different from many of the other historical fiction books with a strong female protagonist) she eventually finds her way, her voice and her place in the Habsburg empire.

Summer Reads

The Summer Reads series includes books recommended by students, staff and faculty from Avonworth Middle and High Schools. This week we feature Born to Rock, recommended by Mr. Katkich, 7th grade Learning Support teacher, and The Traitor's Wife.

Born to Rock by Gordon Korman

Leo's life is pretty well planned-out. He is the president of the Young Republicans Club and is Harvard-bound. He knows who he is and where he is heading. Until, that is, he loses his Harvard scholarship and finds out that his dad is the illustrious Marion X. McMurphy, better known as King Maggot and the lead singer of hardcore Punk Rock band Purge. Leo turns his life upside down to become a roadie for Purge during their reunion tour. This funny read follows Leo (and his new-found father) as he learns about himself and how his family influences (or doesn't influence) his identity.

Thanks to Mr. Katkich for the recommendation!

The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki

Revolutionary America is a fascinating time. It was a time not only of political upheaval but also a time that people living in the colonies could choose a national identity. The Traitor's Wife focuses on the life of Peggy Shippen, a beautiful (but spoiled) young girl who loved new dresses and fancy parties - all things that the British army are much more able to provide than the American revolutionaries. Peggy dreams of marrying British Major John Andre, but when he leaves her for his next post, she instead marries then-General Benedict Arnold thinking that he can provide her with the lifestyle she dreams of. When her dreams of big houses and the latest fashions fail to come true. Peggy convinces her husband that her former flame can help them get the finances they need and revenge against Arnold's hero-turned-nemesis George Washington. 

Pataki tells the story from the perspective of Peggy's (fictional) maid Clara Bell, so readers see Peggy from the perspective of someone who is close enough to her to see the fine details of her life, but has enough distance to paint her as a somewhat shallow and machinating young woman