Administration

Communications

C-SC students compile summer “Must Read” lists
Wednesday, June 01, 2011

CANTON, Mo. – Culver-Stockton College education students, working in conjunction with local librarians and educators, have compiled their summer “Must Read” lists. Each year, C-SC education students review books and select “must read” recommendations as part of preparing to be middle-school and high-school teachers.

The recommended reading lists target varying age groups and cover a number of genres, including non-fiction, crime novels, books about the outdoors and recommended books for fans of the Harry Potter series. The goal is to encourage students to continue reading during summer months when school is not in session; a time when reading among young students can drop off.

According to C-SC Associate Professor of Education Terry Sherer students who do not read during the summer can lose months of reading achievement. Sherer adds that through their work, Culver-Stockton students are helping mitigate some of the summer reading lose young students often experience. “It is absolutely essential that we provide children and young adults with a variety of reading opportunities in the summer through pro-active community partnerships and access for students who have not experienced ‘authentic’ reading opportunities,” explains Sherer. “It has been shown that students can lose reading proficiency in the summer that accumulates in 2-3 years of ‘reading loss’ by the time those students enter middle school. C-SC teacher prep students have created a variety of interest-based Book Clubs, are offering book discussion groups in area public libraries, individuals are working with recruiting students for ‘One World: Many Stories’ in Iowa and Missouri and ‘A Midsummer Knight's Read’ in Illinois, and teachers throughout the region are putting together ‘online’ book clubs as well as ‘live’ book engagement activities at public libraries, under trees, in parks, at Little League ball games, wherever kids gather to have fun with books,” Sherer continues.

Summer “Must Read” lists compiled by C-SC students include:

Crime Novels:

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
The Hustler by Walter Tevis
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Rockin’ Reads about Boys in Bands:

King Dork by Frank Portman
Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
Girls, Drums and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

After Harry Potter:

Fablehaven Series by Brandon Mull
The Beyonders by Brandon Mull
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Heroes of the Valley by Jonathon Stroud
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd
The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula LeGuin
Non-Fiction can be Fun:

Stiff: The Curious Lies of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein
Devil in the White City by Eric Larson

Five Books about Athletes Who Find Life Isn’t Always About Sports:

Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
Life at These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson
Crackback by John Coy
Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen
Midnight Raiders by Robert Lipsyte