Summer break: a time for change and improvement, renewal and relaxation — but also a time for the dreaded summer reading. Studies show that students experience a learning gap during the summer due to low academic activity and brain stimulation. Summer reading helps bridge the gap between school years by preventing students from falling into the vicious cycle of not revisiting their education during the summer. Students also experience an expansion in their imaginations due to increased reading. Thus, students will find that summer reading expresses excessive benefits than simply providing exceeding chances to enjoy reading. In a poll of 35 NC students, the respondents believed the following summer reading books exceeded their expectations.
“The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt
The first novel, “The Goldfinch,” concerns a young boy named Theo Decker who experiences highly traumatic events and needs to learn how to heal. This story explores how the young boy must find himself and grow, even if he does not experience the fairy-tale ending that a majority of fiction books seem to provide. Students may not wish to live through what they experienced but they can learn that healing may not always achieve completion and does not always come all at once.
“I like ‘The Goldfinch’ because it shows a character experiencing a traumatic event and not overcoming it. I think it is realistic that not everyone responds the same to a traumatic event — and for some people, it drastically changes their entire lives. Not everyone can get over a life-altering experience and resume life as normal. The main character is very flawed and he does not get, in my opinion, that happy ending. I love the realism in ‘The Goldfinch’,” senior Ashley Williams said.
“Love is a Revolution” by Renee Watson
The second novel, “Love is a Revolution,” follows a plus-sized girl learning how to express her love for a boy she falls in love with. This book, written by Renee Watson, explores the concepts of self-love while developing relationships with others, either romantic or platonic. Throughout high school, students experience changes in self-love and outer relationships that can carry through to their adult lives. Students can benefit from reading this realistic fiction as it provides a differing perspective, allowing students to experience the outside world from the safety of their homes.
“The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford
The third novel, Jamie Ford’s “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, follows the heartbreaking story of two lovers separated by Japanese internment camps. The storyline follows a man named Henry who fell in love with a Japanese girl before she was forced away to an internment camp. After finding her belongings in an abandoned hotel, the man must travel on a journey that explores the sacrifices of his family and his country.
“I like this book because I could relate to a lot of the plot where the main character was experiencing racism in his school when he was younger. I related to this book mainly because of my past experiences. I would like to recommend this book because it tells a story from a person who’s been bullied because he couldn’t fit in with his family and with his school community,” sophomore Shanxi Li said.
While students may cringe at the thought of summer reading, these books show that students do not always experience the mind-numbing boredom of cracking open a novel. When choosing the perfect stories, students may base their reading on life events they have experienced and find the books to exceed expectations set forth by themselves. Thus, students can find ways to learn from characters’ mistakes in books and grow as adults while improving creativity and increasing brain stimulation.
