CHILDREN GATHER SUMMER READING MAGIC, HISTORY TOP READING LISTS.Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer SIMI VALLEY Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. - With summer vacation Summer vacation (also called summer holidays or summer break) is a vacation in the summertime between school years in which students are off for 3 months, depending on the country and district. just around the corner, some schoolchildren schoolchildren school npl → écoliers mpl; (at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school are stockpiling books to keep them busy until it's back to assigned reading in the fall. At a recent book fair at Atherwood Elementary School elementary school: see school. in Simi Valley, young readers devoured series books one after another, most popularly volumes of hocus-pocus and magic adventures. ``Right now, anything along the line of wizards and magic is very popular,'' said Cathy Henricksen, manager of Super Crown books in Simi Valley. Harry Potter books, the series by J.K. Rowling that finds the title character - a young, bespectacled wizard - in a series of fantastic adventures Fantastic Adventures was a fantasy and science fiction magazine published in the United States from 1939 to 1953. The pulp magazine began as a companion publication to Amazing Stories, but following its demise, was absorbed by Fantastic magazine in 1954. , are still popular, as are similarly themed books like Mary Pope Osborne's ``The Magic Treehouse,'' educators said. ``I've read all three (Harry Potter books),'' said Christopher Cox, 7, as he shopped for more books at the Atherwood book fair last week. ``They're good writing and they're funny and cool.'' But an increasingly sought-after genre now includes diaries of historical fiction, penned by fictitious girls and boys during the Civil War, American Revolution American Revolution, 1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence. and other significant periods. Published by the New York-based Scholastics Inc., the ``Dear America'' series first hit book shelves in 1996 and now have more than 9 million copies in print, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. company officials. ``A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl'' takes place on the Belmont Plantation in Virginia in 1859. ``A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple,'' documents the girl's crossing on the Mayflower Mayflower, ship Mayflower, ship that in 1620 brought the Pilgrims from England to New England. She set out from Southampton in company with the Speedwell, in 1620. ``I think children like these books because they're written to be about real people,'' said Amy Heathcote, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Atherwood Elementary. ``My (students) aren't as interested in the wizard books as they were in the beginning of the year.'' At the book fair, Greg Chapman, father of two children, purchased two of the ``Dear America'' books, one called ``The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier'' - for himself. ``I think my kids will like to read these, they just don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. it yet,'' Chapman said. His sixth-grade son, Kyle, said he favors books like the Harry Potter series. ``I like reading because I just like to picture how cool it would be to be one of the characters in the book.'' He added that ``Captain Underpants,'' the stories of two boys who hypnotize hypnotize /hyp·no·tize/ (-tiz) to induce a state of hypnosis. hyp·no·tize v. To put a person into a state of hypnosis. their principal as the title character, who then encounters attacking aliens, is a current favorite. ``It's just really funny,'' Kyle said. ``Most of my friends have read that book.'' Kyle's mother, Janet, said her son was eager to read even before he could talk. ``(My kids) really like books and I really encourage it. Toys, they have to save up for and buy, but books I will pay for any time.'' Heathcote said an interest in books is often what distinguishes the readers from nonreaders. ``In my class, some of the kids like to read. It depends on the kids and the home. If the parents encourage their kids to read, it makes all the difference. ``The kids in my class who like to read, they stocked up,'' Heatcote said. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (ran in Conejo edition only) Perhaps eager to find out how it ends, fifth-grader Austin Pasko, 7, flips to the back of an offering at a recent summer book fair at Atherwood Elementary School in Simi Valley. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer |
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