Children should pull up a chair or sit under a tree and start reading

June 26, 2015 12:00 am • Last Updated: June 26, 2015 4:32 pm

By By JESSICA HOPPER

Students from the Regional Multicultural Magnet School sit and read in the children’s section of the New London Public Library. (Sean D. Elliot)

Salem resident Dakota Redfearn, a freshman at East Lyme High School, has high expectations for how she will spend her summer vacation. Last summer, Redfearn read over 100 books. She hopes to do the same this summer.

Earlier this month, with just a few weeks left in the school year, Redfearn visited the Salem Free Public Library to start looking at lists of reading recommendations and searching for books. But she admitted she isn’t picky when it comes to what she reads.

“I pretty much just read anything and everything,” said Redfearn, although she is partial to historical fiction and likes to pick books with interesting titles. When she is looking for recommendations, Redfearn also turns to her fourth-grade teacher who is now a school librarian in Tolland.

As the school year comes to a close, many students like Redfearn are turning to their librarians in search of summer reading recommendations. Librarians and teachers across the state are participating in the Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge, recommending books that share this summer’s challenge theme, “Every Hero Has A Story.”

The statewide challenge takes on the theme of the national Collaborative Summer Reading Program, a consortium of states that aims to promote summer reading and provide reading resources and program materials to libraries at a low cost to engage readers.

And while this summer’s theme is full of characters with capes and secret identities — like Awesome Man in “The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man” by Michael Chabon, one of the recommended stories for kindergarten through third grade — New London Children’s Librarian Julie Bartley said the program also helps readers identify the heroes they encounter every day.

“Not all heroes wear costumes,” she said.

The program recommends books where family members are the heroes — like “Counting by 7s,” by Holly Goldberg Sloan, where the main character Willow is taken in by a friend’s family after her parents are killed. And there are books about community heroes — like the Lunch Lady Series by Jarrett Krosoczka, where a school cafeteria worker battles cyborg substitute teachers and evil librarians.

The theme fits with a growing trend in children’s and young adult books: a resurgence in graphic novels and comic books.

“Graphic novels have really improved in the past few years, expanding out of traditional super hero and fantasy stories to include graphic adaptations of classic literature, realistic and historical fiction, and even nonfiction,” said Jessica Franco, young adult librarian at Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library. “(The) easily accessible format ... appeal(s) to reluctant readers and fans of “geek chic” culture.”

One such book, “Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures,” by Kate DiCamillo about a girl named Flora Belle Buckman who saves a superpower squirrel named Ulysses. It incorporates comic-like illustrations, which Franco said helps to break up the text. The book was awarded the prestigious Newbery Medal for 2014.

Another trend both Bartley and Franco have noted is the manner in which both children and adults are reading. Tablets, smartphone and e-readers are increasingly popular for summer reading.

And while reading themes and recommendations lists are important, Bartley says, “I don’t care so much about what they’re reading, just so long as they are reading.”

Local librarians recommend the following young adult books:

"Firestorm" by David Klass

"An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

"Legend" series by Marie Lu's

"Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews

"We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

"Anya's Ghost" by Vera Brosgol

"The Shadow Children" series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

"Paper Towns" by John Green

"Cinder" by Marissa Meyer

Local librarians recommend the following children's books: