[Editor's note: this was intended to be published at the beginning of June, as summer actually dawned. It was not. We have fired those responsible and sent them to various horrible punishments, and trust that such mistakes will occur less frequently at this publication going forward.]
Summer, in educational circles, is the time to kick back and actually read something for fun. For most of us, that means a good novel. Bonus points if it is a novel novel that we haven't read before! There's nothing like dropping into a new world as a first-time visitor. Of course, this is risky, because that world might blow up in your face, so it's helpful to have a guide in the world of words--a Virgil to guide us out of the stacks of pages (that were formerly woods).
So permit me to shove a few novels towards you with a hopeful expression on my face. I've organized them in fives: my top five novels of all time, five fun romps, and five relative unknowns. If you haven't read one of these, there's no moment like the present!
My Top Five
Ranking great things is a fool's game, but if I got stuck on a desert island, I'd definitely want these five along to read and reread. They are probably my favorite novels of my lifetime thus far:
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you haven't read the 20th century's greatest work by now, what's wrong with you? And do your best to banish the movies from your mind as you read it. Peter Jackson didn't understand medieval anything!
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I have a real soft spot for That Hideous Strength (which I think is better written in certain passages) but this one holds up much better as a cohesive unit and overall comment on the human condition. Lewis, as always, is so good at describing something exactly the right way that you forget there could be any other way to say it. He masks his genius wear the guise of seeming obvious.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The only non-English work on my list, this one makes me wish I could read Russian simply so I could appreciate even more of the layers and touches. It also makes me wish Dostoyevsky had lived longer, because this brilliant work was only supposed to be a prequel to the story he really wanted to tell! One can hope we'll still have time to write in glory so he can finally finish it.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Not necessarily a cheery read, but a great one. Much of the American spirit--heading West, being convinced of our manifest destiny, making mistakes, still trying again--at its finest.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. This one fools you at the outset into thinking it's an innocent tale of a few fluffy bunnies, instead of a profound meditation on fate, the purpose of life, myth, bravery, how we organize society, and a host of other topics.
Five Rousing Romps
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Technically, A Tale of Two Cities is much more rousing Dickens, but I like Great Expectations better because reading Dickens is all about the side characters, and Expectations contains one of his best: the clerk with the "post-office smile," Wemmick. Anyone who's ever worked a customer-service oriented job should identify at least a little bit with Wemmick--though perhaps you shouldn't take it to the same extremes he did!
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. Probably the classic knight-errantry novel--an argument can be made that this novel (or at least Scott generally) significantly contributed to the American Civil War by the impact it made on Southern culture. Add in a few guest appearances from our favorite Sherwood foresters, and what could be better?
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The boy's novel to beat all other boy's novels. Stevenson practically created pirate dialect, the ubiquity of parrots, buried treasure--all the tropes. It's also a classic coming-of-age novel, as Jim Hawkins leaves his mother and learns to forge his own path.
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The best of the Little House books, and it's not even close. It's also a great reminder of just how hard even the twelve-year-olds had to work back in the day--we are all lazy slobs in comparison.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. The best science fiction sets out to tell you about the world you actually live in by showing you one that you could live in. Heinlein does that in spades here. As someone who grew up around the military (and originally intended to make it his career) this is one of the best depictions that I know of how training and leadership can change boys into men. Start it for the story, but you'll come back to it for the lessons. [I am told there is a lousy movie adaptation. You will benefit from assuming that it does not exist.]
Five Lesser-Known Novels
The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester. Forester is known nowadays for the Hornblower novels, but I actually think he surpasses those with his one WWII story about a destroyer escort captain--this one. This was adapted for the screen as Greyhound with Tom Hanks (I guess the biblical reference was too subtle for Hollywood), and they actually adapted it pretty well, but the novel is far more structured and impressive. Your boys, in particular, should give this one a shot.
Lad: A Dog by Albert Terhune. This is the real-life basis for Lassie; a set of stories about a heroic and highly intelligent collie doing nothing a dog couldn't do, but still surprising you. Well-told and showing an obvious love for dogs, this is one to shove towards the animal lover in your family.
The Red Keep by Allan French. Most of our fiction about the medieval period is simply modern attitudes dressed up in armor and silk headdresses. This story of 1100s Burgundy is not--in fact, French occasionally goes out of his way to tell you why a character is not behaving as we would expect! One of my all-time favorites--I just read it again with much pleasure and nostalgia for my teenage days.
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. "Lesser-known" might be stretching it with this one, but it is newer, so some homeschool-catalogue-trawlers may have missed it. Not all great fiction for your kids to read was composed before 1925. A great look at growing up, fatherhood, and the very best sort of deus ex machina.
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. If swashbuckling 1930s movies speak to your soul, then this is the novel version of that particular appetite. This book is The Mark of Zorro crossed with The Prince and the Pauper crossed with The Count of Monte Cristo. Is it probably too much? Yes. Will your twelve-year-old mind? Absolutely not. I first found it as a serialized graphic novel in the pages of Boy's Life magazine (back when that publication expected its readers to digest actual literature!) and have loved it since. Perhaps this year I will finally read the sequel...
Finally, an honorable mention to the Ashtown Burials series by Nate Wilson, which I only haven't included because it isn't finished yet, though
resolution is on the horizon. Put it on your Christmas novel list instead of your summer list, and all shall be well.
