Maddie’s summer reading assignments for high school this year were, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I get excited when she gets assigned the classics, because I love them. Because they resonate with me. Because they are what instilled in me the love of language and storytelling. I read both of these books as English assignments somewhere along the way, but now I’m excited to read them all over again, especially To Kill a Mockingbird. Did you know Harper Lee was a close friend with Truman Capote? Did you know that despite this being one of the best selling books of all time, a Pulitzer Prize winner, translated in over forty languages, this is her only novel? The story of Scout, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch has always stuck with me. It is, a story of respecting others, no matter who they are, or where they come from, or what you think they may or may not have done. Sounds like something we could all apply a little more to our lives. No wonder this one is a classic.

Maddie is reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for her assigned summer read for freshman English. Speak is disturbing Maddie quite a bit. It is a book about depression. It is a book about date rape. Date rape is something no one wants to talk about. But it is critical that we address this trauma. One out of three women is sexually assaulted by the time she graduates from college. One out of three! It is such an important topic to me that I wrote a novel about date rape last year, It's Complicated. While I was writing It's Complicated, Maddie and I had several chats about date rape. She wondered why I would write about such a horrific topic. I explained how important it is for survivors to find faith and hope to get through this terrible ordeal, to realize they're not alone and that IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT. I told Maddie non-victims need to be informed, so they can help victims, so they can be aware, so they can make a difference. Because it frightened Maddie so much, and because this is a topic near and dear to my heart, I read Speak, too. Laurie Halse Anderson does a beautiful job with this novel. Her voice for the victim, high school freshman, Melinda, is so spot on, I felt like I was actually in her head. Anderson nails high school and brings to our attention the silent suffering so many teens experience. I highly recommend this novel. But to who? Maddie said she "hates" it. That's strong, especially from her. She's a great reader and a diligent student. But the content is like a nightmare nagging at her brain. When It's Complicated released I recommended it to 16 year olds on up, due to the content. However several younger teens have shared with me how it helped them with their personal struggles. So, how much do we protect our teens? When is it time to share? When are we ready to read about date rape? Probably never. But when should we? I'd love your input.

Who knew there were so many different Bibles to choose from? My Bible App on my phone has 616 versions in 376 languages! So, how do you know which Bible is right for your kids, nieces and nephews, students in the Sunday School you teach or at the camp where you're a counselor? Which version will resonate best with what age group? Over the years my kids have amassed a large collection of Bibles (gifts from baptisms, take homes from Sunday School and VBS, stuffed in Easter baskets and more). I'm not an expert. And I certainly haven't looked through all the Bibles, but I know which ones they keep in their beds, which ones they turn to again and again. My husband picked up Bible Stories (DP 1999) at Cosco in 1999 when it first came out for our then, one year-old, Maddie. The eye-catching illustrations with all of the major stories from the Bible accented by photos of actual Biblical sites and artifacts along with historical facts, have made this book a family favorite -- so much so, that the binding and many of the pages are now taped. Mallory's Sunday School class uses the Adventure Bible (Zondervan). She loves this version with "Did You Know" and "Live It" boxes inserted into the text to make the scriptures relevant to her so much that she asked for it for Easter this year. Max keeps the ESV version in his bed. This is the version his boys' middle school Bible study uses and he's old enough now for a "real" Bible. Maddie has the You Version App of the Bible on her smart phone and on her iPad. She loves having the Bible with her where ever she goes. Not a morning goes by that she doesn't check out "the verse of the day". In fact, she often "shares" it with me or my husband. I'm sure there are many more great kids' Bibles, but these are the additions that resonate with my kids.

We are in the car All. The. Time. I have four kids who are super busy and none of them can drive. Today alone we spent two hours and fifteen minutes in the car transporting them to and fro. Since I haven't figured out yet how to read and drive at the same time, we listen to books on CD to pass the time (mainly to make toting around their older siblings more tolerable for Mallory and Maguire). Right now, we're listening to Double Fudge by Judy Blume. It is hilarious. Although Maddie and Max rolled their eyes at a middle grade read, they can't help but laugh out loud when it's playing on our rides. Double Fudge is classic Judy Blume--characters so real, you feel like you know them--a little too well. It's narrated by her, the author herself, in her full on thick New York accent. There's humor about strange relatives, jokes about little brothers, real life questions about what money can and can't buy, how you feel when a pet is sick and how crummy it is when friends move away all peppered into the plot. But mostly it's just plain fun. And a great way to make the drive time not only tolerable, but pleasant.

A few years back, when it was first released, Maddie, Max and I all read the first Percy Jackson book. I really enjoyed the wacky characters and adventures, but because my reading pile is sky high, I never got around to read any of the other books in the series. My kids, on the other hand, kept reading. They moved through the other Percy Jacksons and the Krane Chronicles by Rick Riordan, as well. Now, Maddie is reading the The Mark of Athena, where the Greek and Roman demigods need to collaborate to save the day. As she savors the month and a half before high school starts, and all of the assigned reading that will go with it, I think this fantasy world is a great story for her to escape to.