Book Review Summer

Some days it seems like “busy” should be my middle name.  With recent and upcoming interviews, substitute teaching summer school, and family issues, this summer is starting out as a busy one.  Also, many of the non-book review posts I have written, but not posted, are research-based.  With summer, those won’t be hot topics, but they will come fall when school is back in session and the posts could be useful to students.

However, I have nearly two-dozen book review posts that have been written, but not posted over the last eighteen months.  I had not previously wanted to post more than two or three reviews in a row in case it turned readers off, plus I wanted to be sure to address issues and provide research assistance.  And I have more still to reviews write after reading through my stack!  Some to read are advanced reader copies and others books I’ve bought or received as gifts.  I thought now would be a great time to begin posting some of those reviews.  With many libraries offering summer reading programs, these posts would be great for providing recommendations and reader’s advisory.  Thus, starting next week and running roughly through mid-August, Amy’s Scrap Bag will feature book reviews.

Keep in mind, summer reading programs are not just for kids and teens.  Most libraries also offer adult programs.  If you have children, this is a great time to model the importance of reading.  Reading does a lot to promote academic achievement.  Kids who read do better on testing and are often more willing to learn.  They are also more likely to comprehend what they read.  See the chart below from the Kids Activities Blog to see some of the differences reading makes:

Screenshot of the mentioned chart.  All credit belongs to the Kids Activities Blog.

Following the types of reviews I usually post, most of the book reviews will be adult-level historical fiction and history books.  That said, most will still be content-appropriate for interested teens and older children (I can’t help it is one scene is not for one reason or another).  There may be a few teen and older children books in the mix-I’ve been reading a lot of those lately (I found a stack of book order books from junior high that were sitting on my shelf unread, so I’ve been reading them; at least one will make an appearance at some point.  And most of the school year, I was checking out interesting books from the high school library.  If it sounds interesting to me, I will read it, regardless of reading level.).  Most of the titles reviewed will be post-2013 publication, but a few are older books worth mentioning.

All that said, I will also be keeping on top of library, archive, and history issues.  If something of importance comes up, I will break from posting book reviews and post an appropriately themed post.

I will also use this time to see about an update to Amy’s Scrap Bag‘s website template; I’ve been toying with the idea for a while but lacked time.  I can work on that this summer along with reading and writing more reviews (for posting this summer or later); typing up other non-review posts I’ve outlined; working on my research paper based on my conference presentation last fall (that fell to the wayside all school year); handling my library association website duties; and working on my other writing project (which will remain secret for now).

And I’ve never mentioned this directly in a post before, but for library, archive, and history issues, I do post links I find worth sharing to Twitter as I find them.  You can always follow me there (@amycnickless)or check the Scrap Bag‘s site for the Twitter widget to see those.

And this summer, if you see a review of a book you’ve read, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.  If my readers are like me, I like to see what others think, even if it differs from my thoughts.  It helps when recommending books.  And please do the same if your interest is piqued by a title and you do read it.

In the meantime, what are your summer reading plans?