Virginia Earthquake Update

Yes, there was an earthquake in Virginia today. Yes, I'm fine. No, there wasn't any damage. I was walking back from lunch and did a duck-and-cover because I thought there had been a gas explosion in the building next to me. Police came out of the station across the street and asked me if I had felt anything outside. Otherwise, life returned to normal in less than an hour.

My apartment only sustained minor damage. There were a few cracked walls (this is the worst of them) and my books got a good jostling (my Harry Potter shelf most of all), but nothing too major. Thank heaven no one was hurt and there was no major damage anywhere in the city. With such a dense population, the potential for disaster...well, I'm glad I don't have to think about that.

Want a good book for kids about earthquakes? Try DK Eyewitness Books' Volcano & Earthquake.

Saying Goodbye to Summer: Boarding School Books

We all want people to see us as more than we are. We hope the cute guy who sits next to us in geometry finds us more beautiful than we find ourselves. We hope that a teacher or friend or stranger will discover our darkest secrets and see potential in us anyway. We hope that a magical envelope will appear to whisk us away to a life better than the one we have. Maybe that's why so many books involve boarding school--a specialized school allows us to be rich/smart/talented in a way we never saw ourselves before.

So without further ado, here are a list of some of my recently read boarding school books:

The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale: In the small village of Mt. Eskel, ordinary girls leaning how to be a princesses in hope to marry the prince of Danland.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: Hogwarts teaches special children about the importance of friendship, the continuous battle between good and evil, and the exciting possibilities of the wizarding world.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce: Born a lady of the realm, Alanna disguises herself as a boy to learn the royal palace of Corus disguises herself as a boy to train as a knight.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter: The Gallagher Academy has a long history of teaching talented girls the art of being a spy.

Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L.A. Meyer: Only the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls can turn a pirate into a lady.

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs: From ordinary to extraordinary, the Academy caters to the modern decedents of the Greek god.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: Attending boarding school in Paris means exploring the City of Lights, discovering foreign cinema and finding a boy to share a real French kiss with.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray: Gemma Doyle soon discovers there's more than meets the eye at the Spence Academy for Young Ladies.

Looking for Alaska by John Green: Miles Halter goes to Culver Creek Preparatory School hoping to find the Great Perhaps.

Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn by Sarah Miller: Something unexpected is going on at Midvale Academy when a girl is able to see into the mind of one Gideon Rayburn.

Saying Goodbye to Summer: The First Day of School

School starts in the next few weeks, which signals the ultimate end of summer. I've survived a lot of first days of school: two elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools and three colleges. I got good at making new friends and settling in really fast. But each first day at a new school brought it's own unique challenges, and I'd like to think I brought each school unique experiences all my own.

The first day of school changes everything. It doesn't matter what grade you're going into--from the very first day of kindergarten to leaving for college, boy or girl, smart or not, new or retuning--we all try to reinvent ourselves for that very first day. So here are some books for different age groups crossing a lot of genres that take place on (or close to) the first day of school:

Picture Books

Kissing Hands by Audrey Penn
Sea Monster's First Day by Kate Messner
David Goes To School by David Shannon
Arthur's Teacher Trouble by Marc Brown

Early Reader/Chapter Books

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park
Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary
Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls #2: The New Girl by Meg Cabot
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Middle Grade

The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Bobby Vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

YA

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Upper YA

Jake, Reinvented by Gordon Korman
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sheman Alexie
Deadline by Chris Crutcher
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Saying Goodbye to Summer: Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah

I loved going to camp when I was a kid. An entire week without my parents or siblings, building camp fires and singing songs. I loved swimming and kayaking, and I didn't even mind the tents and bugs. Between throwing up in the camp fire after a game of Chubby Bunny went a little too far and surviving a tornado will camping in the woods, my summers were filled with archery contests and first aid clinics and compass scavenger hunts and botany lessons and adventures of all kinds. And when summer faded into winter, there were plenty of books to read about camp, so the next summer camp never seemed far away.

Even before I was old enough for roughing it, there were picture books like The Berenstain Bears Go to Camp by Stan and Jan Berenstain and Little Critter Goes at Scout Camp by Mercer Mayer about day-camp. And when I got a little older, a few of the Baby-Sitters Club books by Ann M. Martin took place at summer camp, plus I probably read Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary and Holes by Louis Sachar half a dozen times each.

While I missed out on The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White when I was a kid, I finally read it for the first time this past week. This summer I also read Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan, which wasn't around when I was a kid. Both Summer Camp Secrets by Katy Grant and Camp Confidential by Melissa J. Morgan are newer series that I haven't read, but I'm sure I would have loved them as a pre-teen.

Of course I've gotten wiser with age and realized that I have running water and air conditioning for a reason, but those memories of summer camp haven't faded through the years.

Saying Goodbye to Summer: A Road Trip in Books

One of my most memorable summer vacations was the first time I went to Washington, D.C. I was going into middle school, and I had just read Mary Higgins Clark's Stillwatch, so I was obsessed with political journalism and Washington, D.C. Not only was that trip the first time I would visit my future home, it was also on that trip that my mother read us The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, all seven books in one road trip.

For me, that road trip was a bit of a rite of passage, a journey of self-discovery on four wheels. Stillwatch played no small part in my decision to study journalism and later become a PR professional in D.C. And the Narnia books continue to shape my view of of children's literature and even my personal faith.

As this summer draws to a close, I'm dedicating this new reading list to that great summer tradition: The Road Trip.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech: All journeys begin with a single step. For one girl, learning to deal with her mother's abandonment means retracing the steps of her spiritual quest.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex: Some road trips are out of this world. Well, maybe it stays on this world, but an 11-year-old girl from Pennsylvania managers to bring an extraterrestrial along for the ride.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: A trip around the world may be the only way to go. Thirteen messages from her deceased aunt will lead one teenager back to where it all began.

Paper Towns by John Green: Discovering yourself means looking beyond what's right in front of you. One boy and his loyal friends soon discover that you can't save someone unwilling to save herself.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray: "Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within" (Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra). A sudden illness takes a boy and his hospital companion on a wild ride to find a cure.

Guyaholic by Carolyn Mackler: Putting your mistakes behind you takes more than distance. On a road trip to visit her absentee mother, the queen of meaningless hookups tries to avoid the future by outrunning her past.

I've logged many thousands of miles in road trips since that one 17 years ago, and each one still holds a certain magic. Even if you're studying a map or following that electronic voice on the GPS, you never really know where the road is going to take you. For me, it always seems to take me home.