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March 3rd was the National Education Association's Read Across America Day. "The nation's largest reading celebration" also honors the birthday of famous children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, who was born on March 2, 1904. Go to http://www.nea.org/readacross/index.html for information about the annual event. See http://www.seussville.com for more information about Dr. Seuss and to play on the "Playground" with games like Elephant Ball and the Seussville Story Maker. Below, two Globe staffers have included their suggestions of books to read in honor of this educational holiday.
Lynn's Book Suggestions:
The Lovely Bones, a 2002 book by Alice Sebold, was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. Immediately after opening the cover of the book, readers learn that the story is told from the vantage of a dead girl-"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered December 6, 1973." The book narrates how Susie's family members and friends deal with her murder and how they move on with their lives. This book is so much more than an interesting study in point of view, though; it's a moving drama that will make you consider life from a new angle. By the way, the movie comes out in 2009.
Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson is one of those few, rare, glimmering books that you find in the young adult section of the library and aren't ashamed to carry around. It's warm, peach-colored cover belies a story with irresistibly warm, real characters. It is impossible not to care about what happens to them. The story chronicles how three very different girls become friends on a peach orchard over a summer.
The House on Mango Street and A Taste of Salt are two books by Sandra Cisneros and Frances Temple that will open your eyes to other cultures and ways of living. Written in a very poetic artistic style-prepare yourself for an onslaught of stream of consciousness-the first is about a little girl named Esperanza Cordero who grows up in and dream of getting out of a poor neighborhood in Chicago. A Taste of Salt is a story about two teenagers' lives in modern Haiti.
Maddie's Book Suggestions:
You've Been Warned is another great book written by James Patterson. The main character, Kristin Burns, is a photographer who is waiting to make it big, but keeps having the same reoccurring dream and doesn't quite know why. Kristin is a nanny to two adorable little kids and has a very close and special relationship with the children's father. This book did not get good reviews at amazon.com, but I think it has a nice twist at the end that makes it worth reading.
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is a great classic book. It tells the tale of an ornery little girl named Mary Lennox, an orphan after her parents died of cholera, who moves in with her uncle on the Yorkshire moors. Mary finds two new and unexpected friends. She learns how to be a nice young lady, and together with her new friends they uncover the long lost secret garden.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter is by Kim Edwards. David Henry is a doctor in Kentucky who has married the love of his live and is ready to start a family. The night of his child's birth, David is forced to deliver his wife's baby and is shocked to see she is carrying twins. The first, a boy, is healthy, but as soon as David sees the second child, a little girl, he realizes she has Down's syndrome. David, without his wife's knowledge, asks his nurse Caroline Gill to take the child to a shelter so his wife Norah doesn't have to deal with the pain and early death of her daughter. The story tells of that night and the choice that Caroline makes that changes the rest of her life.
Whether Seuss or Cinsneros, reading is always a mind enriching activity. As Eunice Jang says, "Reading is like eating. You need it to live."
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