Summer Reading Journals 2015

What is it that Meg Ryan says in You’ve Got Mail about what happens to you when you’ve been marked by a book? Something about being changed forever. I can’t remember exactly.

What about a little scrapbook for you to capture that change?

You have a page to make a collage and logo about yourself (mine is a coffee cup; Becky’s is the paintbrush).

There’s a reading log to jot down books you’ve read and maybe scribble a star or five to document how much you liked the story.And how about a scavenger hunt at your local library or bookstore? Becky and I have you looking for a Newberry or two, poetry, and nonfiction. We suspect you won’t come away empty handed.

What’s that? You’re totes into Instagram? We’ve got an activity for that.

There are pages to collect and design vocabulary words.

There’s a space to try your hand at newspaper reporting. The catch is you have to pretend you’re a reporter for the world your book takes place in. You can handle that, right? Who wouldn’t want to hang out at Hogwarts, or sit down for an interview with Eleanor from Eleanor and Park?

You can pretend to be a graphic designer for a travel agency, and you’ve been hired to design an ad to attract people to come visit the setting of the book you are reading. (I call dibs on Terabithia, but you can take the setting for The Giver. What does that place look like, anyway?)

Did you just finish The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and you’re thinking about friendship? Or maybe you’re haunted by the trouble in, but necessity of speaking up in Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. Perhaps you just finished Erica Perl’s When Life Gives You OJ and you’re wondering about chutzpah. You’re thinking about theme and we have a little art project for you.

This might be my favorite page.

Here’s what you do: you sketch out an object that unifies your thoughts about the book you read. Then you fill that outline in with words that describe the book and explore its meaning. What would you draw for Make Lemonade or Out of the Dust? What about Gary Schmidt’s Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy? (A whale. Definitely a whale.)

We have a space for you to jot down some thoughts about a book you read. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of prompts that let you capture the story you just read and what you thought about it when you were 11, or 12, 13 or 14.

I love to collect quotes. Maybe you do, too.

Maybe you want to turn some of these quotes into bookmarks and send them to friends. (Trust me, people LOVE real mail: the sort you put in a colorful envelope and address by hand, the sort you seal with washi tape, the sort you use your finger to wiggle away the flap of the envelope so you can see what’s inside. That mail is the best.)

So we have a page to design and give away bookmarks.

Ever felt like you were on a metaphorical roller coaster while you read a book? (Helloooo, Hunger Games.) Becky designed the perfect plotline for you.

There’s no wrong way to fill your Summer Reading Journal out. You can do one activity per book you read. You can fill the entire thing out using the best book you read this summer. Take it with you to the beach, on vacation (it fits perfectly inside your book), or to church. (I’m pretty sure the story of Esther would fit that plot line perfectly. OK, any story in the Old Testament would work.)

The point is, mark time with a few good stories. Picture yourself walking around in those worlds. Try a few personalities on and see how they fit. Figure a few things out. Or don’t. But this summer, let a story happen to you. Capture what happened on paper.

You can purchase the Summer Reading Journals here. (Elementary Summer Reading Journals are up there, too, and will be highlighted on the blog Thursday.)

Questions? Contact me at calliefeyen@gmail.com.