"Summer Reading (feeling) Continues "
Robin's Chapter
By Robin Kall
Motif
(09/01/2004)

By the time you’re reading this, the kids will most likely be back to school. I am baking the back-to-school cookies as I type! (Lest I misrepresent myself – this is something that I do but once a year!) Apparently, nobody has clued in the calendar while the weather takes a turn for the better. Bags of brightly colored Halloween candy and winter coats mock us as we walk into the stores.

As a mother, I have mixed feelings about the end of summer. I’m usually excited at the prospect of getting some order back into the house, thriving on a routine. Perhaps this was so when my children were younger (in terms of craving some sanity), but as they are now older, the back-to-school excitement just isn’t there.

Upon reflection, one of the highlights of the summer was the many hours the children and I would spend just reading. Each of us with our own book – either reading on the hammock or spread out in the family room. I like to call this “parallel reading” (a derivative of the very popular “parallel play”). The kids would be reading books from their summer lists and others as well. I was reading books for the radio show and some for shear interest. The reader is not to infer that I was reading books for the show that I didn’t want to be reading: you get the point.

The good news is that summer reading doesn’t have to end with the end of summer. Summer reading is a state of mind. What is it about summer reading that evokes such pure pleasure? Is it that summer appears endless and a good time to pick up those thick novels that seem daunting at any other time? Does the lack of structure to our days make us feel as though we are justified in taking time out to relax and enjoy a great read? I think that’s part of it, but it’s also the way that books are marketed. There is nothing like seeing that “summer reading” table when you walk into a bookstore or library. Piles of favorite books scattered about the table one after another are a sight for sore eyes!

As the bookstores and libraries make way for the holiday books by taking down the beloved “summer reading” displays, I wonder why we can’t rename “summer reading” something else, such as “summer-like reading?” It would be magnificent to happen upon a table labeled in this manner. The days are shorter, the smell of heat is in the air and there it is – a table of books that calls forth that fabulous feeling of summer reading. Why should we have to wait until the following June to get that sense of wanting to read everything in sight?

Last week I hosted a party at Barnes and Noble in Warwick to celebrate the end of my “Splash Into Summer Reading” contest. Over 80 children accompanied by adults were invited to watch a performance of “There’s Nothing To Read” by Looking Glass Theatre, and to pick up the prizes that they had won for finishing their summer reading early. What a thrill to meet so many of the children who had been writing to me all summer. They kept me posted on what they were reading, what they were about to read and I could sense their excitement from their letters. This is the summer reading sentiment that we need to hold onto as we face the long winter that is sure to come. Of course, there is nothing quite like curling up on a chilly day – with a great book!

(Tune into “Reading With Robin” Saturday mornings from 7-8AM on WHJJ 920AM!) www.readingwithrobin.com

Saturday, September 11th join me for a very special program with Rita Golden Gelman, author of TALES OF A FEMALE NOMAD. The Bookbinders book club of Barrington will join me in-studio as we chat with Rita and talk about her incredible story!