Skip to main content

Tea in Suburbia

As my son begins middle school next week, his first year out of elementary school, I am eager and excited for all that he will likely experience.  Part of this happy anticipation is the result of a school directive to all incoming sixth graders:  their required summer reading.

Every single student in sixth grade was expected to read the "young readers edition" of  "THREE CUPS OF TEA" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  THREE CUPS OF TEA is an account of a climber's efforts to build more than sixty schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  According to the summary, Mortenson has dedicated "his life to building literacy and peace, one child at a time."

If that is the message, then how lucky are these kids?  Literacy and Peace.  If each student takes just an iota of those sentiments away with them as they embark on a new experience of learning and friendship, then we'll all be lucky.

My son loved the book.

Thank you Greg Mortenson and the Roslyn Middle School English Department.

julie

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is a nice post. I also like that you keep them short.

David O.
Unknown said…
Thanks for the synopsis - Did you read the 'adult reader' version? Makes me want to pick it up.....and also pass the 'young' version to my kids.
Julie Ann Klein said…
elisa - i am reading it now.
Joanne said…
I didn't know that there were two versions.

Popular posts from this blog

Lost and Found

On vacation last week, my daughter was fully engrossed in her paperback.  She would take breaks from the dog-eared pages to cool off in the pool or swim in the waves, only to return to her lounge chair (and her book) with soggy, sandy fingers.  The book looked like it was on vacation too, with its crinkled pages sprinkled with sand. One night she brought the book with us to dinner, eager to finish the last 10 or so pages.  You see, there was a sequel waiting in the wings and she needed to get to ending.  After dinner and meandering through the hotel gift shop, my daughter realized she lost the book!  We retraced our steps but to no avail.  Finally, that evening, we stopped by the "lost and found" desk and reported her missing paperback (title and all) as well as my light cotton sweater she also left behind somewhere.  The kind lady said she would contact us if the items were found. My daughter asked if I would buy the book on my Kindle so that she ...

The Honeysuckle

One of my sisters said I should “blog” more often.  I take that as a compliment, even if she is related to me.  So I decided to write about the Honeysuckle. Yes.  The Honeysuckle.  They are in bloom right now and if you pay close enough attention, soon enough, your nose will lead you to one.  When I was a kid, the summers were full of quiet time.  We didn’t go away to camp and barely went to day camp.   We played outside with whoever was home too.  We visited the town pool, with its icy, unheated water and biked home afterward. Right around this time, when the line between spring and summer starts to blur, I remember feeling like such a lucky girl.  My best friend, and across-the-street neighbor, had tons of Honeysuckle bushes lined up along her tall, wooden fence.  We spent hours picking the flowers and tasting the nectar found within the yellow and white stems.  It was dreamy. Just the other day I was playing golf with my mo...

Author Access

For almost three years, I've been conducting an ONLINE book discussion for the organization, Gotham City Networking, Inc.  (www.gothamnetworking.com).  It all started with the book "Water For Elephants" and author Sara Gruen.  We didn't start out thinking that the author would be involved.  It was your basic book club meeting with a twist: our group would read the book and meet online to discuss the novel virtually .  It was all set. I decided to try to contact Sara Gruen's publicist or agent (by email), to see if Ms. Gruen would care to provide a comment or quote for my summary of the book, the few paragraphs I had planned to use to kick off the discussion.  Within 30 minutes, Sara Gruen herself emailed me back indicating that instead of providing merely a quote, she would happily participate in our online book discussion.  Wow!  Really?!  And she did. I was pleasantly surprised.  More than that, I was in awe.  Having Sara G...