Running out of summer....

I was reading Rebel Angels by Linda Bray last night (the second book in the trilogy) and really like it so far.  After the way the first book ended, I am impatient to find out how the story continues.  However, I know that I will probably have to wait until winter break to find out now!   I wish I could read on the treadmill, but that doesn't work well with bi-focals, and I am uncoordinated enough at the best of times to risk exercising with reading glasses on!

I did finish Angela's Ashes and like it as much as I did the first time.  Many people who have seen me carrying the book have recommended 'Tis, so that, too, will go on the winter break list.  I was disappointed in Teacher Man, but mainly because I was looking forward to being inspired and instead found myself reliving some of my more discouraged days in the classroom.  Maybe the book turns around after a while, but as long as I'm teaching, I need to read books about how wonderful teaching can be.

A book that I have started and really want to read as soon as possible is Building Resilience in Children and Teens by Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg.  Dr. Ginsburg spoke at one of the sessions at the Military Child Education Coalition Conference and inspired me to order this book.  He very effectively communicated how to talk to teenagers, and how to unintentionally shut them down.   The first edition of this book was written with parents in mind.  This edition has additional information geared toward organizations, including schools.   I hope to bring you updates about this book even while school is in session, and I already wish that I'd had access to this book when my daughters were in school. 

Dinner with the Smileys

I just finished Dinner with the Smileys (the only good thing about insomnia is the quiet-time for reading as I try to move back toward sleep), and the second half of the book is just as good as the first.  When I read about Ford, the eldest Smiley son, I think about my students and the changes they go through over a school year.  They are older than Ford, but the difference between one August and the next is still incredible as they find out who they are as young adults.  Reading about Ford, and sometimes Owen, I remember the days of teenage moodiness and discontent that I endured with my own girls.  Those days seemed to be so very long when I was in the midst of them, but looking back, they were a blip on the radar screen.  The hurtful things that were said as they tried to distance themselves from childhood and parents are outweighed by all the good, but it isn't always easy to see this mid-journey. 

While this book does a wonderful job of showing everyone what a military deployment looks like from one family's point of view, it does so much more than that.  It's a reminder to me that people are more important than whether or not all the laundry is folded, and that difficult times in our lives do pass, leaving us with experience and skills to handle more than we would have thought possible.  Sarah Smiley has written other books, but they will have to wait until I have MY summer reading for school done!

Dinner with the Smileys

I purchased Dinner with the Smileys by Sarah Smiley at the Military Child Education Coalition Conference this week, started reading it when I arrived home on Thursday, and am already half-way through it.  It's a heart-warming story of a family adjusting to the father's 13-month deployment at a time that the oldest son is in the cusp of that roller-coaster ride of the teenage years.  The family comes up with the idea of inviting one person a week to sit in dad's chair at the dinner table -- not to take his place, but to fill his empty seat.  Sarah's life is already hectic before her husband leaves, so the dinners end up being family dinners, like many of us have every night of the week.  The dishes and glasses don't match, she hands out paper towels as napkins, the boys don't always behave, but the whole family learns and grows.  Some of the dinner guests become part of their support network, others introduce the boys to facts of life such as death, childhood cancer, and Alzheimer's disease.  The children react just the way my girls reacted, and Sarah doesn't sugarcoat the fact that this is not always pretty.  But the process helps the children mature and become more compassionate citizens.  Sarah did not set out to accomplish this -- she just wanted a way to get through the time her husband was away.  Looking ahead to the next dinner instead of looking ahead to an ambiguous and changeable return date in the distant future helped them get through the year one bite at a time.

This book isn't just for military families, it's for parents raising teenagers, teenagers dealing with all those conflicting emotions that come with growing up, those of us who need a good laugh, and those of us who can benefit from an inside look at how long-term deployment impacts the whole family.  Then this book extends to us thinking not only of the family missing a parent, but the family across the road or at school missing a family member due to one of the many other reasons life throws at us.  For the second summer in a row, I've planned to invite a couple we know to my house for a German meal, and now summer is once again almost over.  For 10 years, we planned to invite our elderly neighbors to dinner, and now they are gone.  This book is a reminder that following through on plans like that is more important than worrying about whether the house is immaculate or we have real napkins -- just invite friends over and share an evening of camaraderie.