Surfing around Amazon's lists, blogs, and portals yields a wealth of discussion and resources. From a reader's blog, lots of ranting about canned reading lists for kids full of outdated suckiness:
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2008/07...the-wee-1.html
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Summer is the time for students to expand their reading horizons. They should be reading all those books they didn’t get to read during school because of their homework, sports, and activities schedules. When we force them to read what we deem to be worthy literature, we all to often force them to hate the books, and by association, hate reading.
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we've gone to annotated lists of "suggested" titles, authors, and series . . . When did reading become such a chore?
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when adults think of summer reading, they think of light, fluffy, escapist stuff while kids think of YIKES! Summer Reading Lists! Don't go into the library alone!!
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I kind of remembered reading lists with fondness (and still do). Nerd alert! In high school, we had a long list of "suggested" reading, but also a specific summer assignment with about 5-10 books we had to purchase and read. But I do remember being exasperated with some of the offerings from our school list. Just because they're old does not mean good!
And I liked the point about parents' divergent views--to us, summer reading may mean trashy novels by the beach, but kids being forced to read Johnny Tremaine or Great Expectations, it's a different story.
Kids should be able to read what they want. Maybe keep track of books they completed for points or prizes.