• ParkBulletinCover - The Park School

S U M M E R
3
R E A D I N G
Christian Porter’s Bookshelf
(Librarian, 2002– )
50 picture books
5 young adult chapter books
1 adult novel
I’M A HUGE FAN of Stephen McCauley (Alternatives
to Sex), and Elinor Lipman was mentioned in several of
his reviews. So this summer I’ve read The Family Man
and The Inn at Lake Devine.
Steve Kellogg’ Bookshelf
(Math, 1983– )
I’VE ALWAYS LOVED to read and I look at summer as
my chance. When I’m not traveling, tutoring, or watching
the Red Sox, I’m out on my screened porch with a book.
Emily* and I have been in a book group for 22 years.
I get told what to read. The last choice for the group
was a book of short stories, Oblivion, by David Foster
Wallace (who committed suicide this year). That led me to
read another book of his: Everything and More:
A Compact History of Infinity. This is a really complex,
really hard math book. I have to intersperse it with
others. It’s part of a series of nonfiction books written by
non-scientists called Great Discoveries. Another book
in the series is Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and
The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by William T.
Vollmann, in which the author explains Copernicus’ great
work with some tangents about Ptolemy and others.
Other books on Steve’s bookshelf
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
The Master Butchers Singing Club by
Louise Erdrich
The Color of Lightning by
Paulette Giles
Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
* Emily Kellogg, Steve’s wife, is also a
librarian at Park.
W
ho’s ever judged a book by
its cover Really, the question
is, who hasn’t Dan Eberle, a
29-year-old English teacher holds
up a dog-eared copy of The Dark
is Rising. He stands on the stage
of the Park School theater and
addresses 250 students in Grades
V-IX at a Morning Meeting in May.
“I noticed this book on my mom’s
bookshelf,” he says, pointing out
a drawing with dark, creepy eyes.
“Do you dare read it”
Susan’s Cooper’s classic The
Dark is Rising is one of five books
chosen for the 2009 Community
Read. The titles are compiled, not
by the English Department, but by
an ad hoc committee that includes
English teachers, librarians, and
math teachers, among others. “It’s
a heated debate each spring,”
admits Alice Perera Lucey ’77.
“We argue about what is classic
and what is dated. The books
have to be appropriate for sixth
through ninth graders in terms of
language and content.” The committee
tries to choose books that
students wouldn’t read on their
own. This year’s final list includes
fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction,
and poetry.
In the spring, different teachers
present each book at Morning
Meeting. “I love the idea of giving
five choices to the kids and making
them pick one,” says Steve
Kellogg, who presented The
Wednesday Wars, a novel by Gary
D. Schmidt about a seventh grade
boy reading Shakespeare in the
Vietnam era. “It says a lot that the
School buys these books for everyone—it
shows we really value
reading as a community.”
On the first Friday afternoon in
September, every student in the
Upper Division gathers to discuss
the book he or she has chosen.
The groups that span ages 11–15
30 The Park Bulletin | Fall 2009