| Recently, I began tutoring a boy who hopes to | | | | son wrote the story down in this book. This story |
| take the Hunter College High School entrance | | | | is moving and sometimes astonishing. It also has |
| exam. He is, naturally, very bright, but he doesn't | | | | special resonance for anyone who lives in the |
| have a spectacularly high reading level. It's not his | | | | Bronx because that is the seemingly unlikely |
| vocabulary or his logical reasoning that's holding | | | | location where the "last" Algonquin lived as a |
| him back, but rather his interest in and | | | | hunter, gatherer, and farmer for most of his life. |
| understanding of subtle human emotions. (Let me | | | | A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (fiction) |
| be clear - it's not that he has an unusual challenge | | | | This book is about a girl who runs away from |
| with understanding emotions, it's just that he'd | | | | everything she's ever known to escape the |
| much rather be shooting hoops than thinking | | | | prospect of a terrible marriage. Although it would |
| about touchy-feely stuff.) | | | | be technically accurate to call this book an |
| I've put together a reading list for this student | | | | "adventure story" or a "coming of age story", |
| that focuses on books that are moderately | | | | neither label comes close to doing the book |
| challenging, have plots (or other content) that are | | | | justice. Instead of attempting to describe the |
| likely to interest an 11 year old boy, and | | | | book, I will simply say that I have made a |
| simultaneously have significant emotional content. | | | | conscious decision to hold off on reading other |
| Furthermore, I have personally read and loved all | | | | books by Nancy Farmer for a little while so that I |
| of the books on this list. | | | | wouldn't "run out". And that is high praise, indeed. |
| Alex and Me by Irene Pepperburg (non-fiction) | | | | Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (fiction) |
| This is a memoir of Dr. Pepperburg's relationship | | | | When he is eight years old, the protagonist is sent |
| with Alex, the African Grey parrot she taught and | | | | from China to live with his father in California. The |
| studied for 30 years. It delves into the | | | | story takes place in the early 20th century, when |
| professional hurdles that Dr. Pepperburg | | | | powered, heavier than air flight was very new. |
| overcame, the astonishing and delightful | | | | Among many other adventures, the father and |
| discoveries she and her team made about the | | | | son attempt to build a working airplane together. |
| ability of African Grey parrots to speak and think, | | | | Again, this book is more than an adventure story- |
| the distinctive personalities of the several birds | | | | it has finely developed characters and is written |
| she and her team worked with, and the | | | | with great sensitivity. |
| relationships that formed between the various | | | | The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 by |
| human and avian players in the story. | | | | Christopher Paul Curtis (historical fiction) |
| The Last Algonquin by Theodore L. Kazimiroff | | | | This book is seriously funny; there is one incident |
| (non-fiction) | | | | at the beginning that caused me to laugh so hard |
| In 1924, a man who believed he was the last | | | | that I nearly pulled a muscle. It is also a very |
| surviving member of the Algonquin tribe told the | | | | serious book that deals with one of the darker |
| story of his life to a 12 year old boy. That boy's | | | | moments of the American Civil Rights era. |