Rumbo a las Grandes Ligas (Road to the Big Leagues) DVD.  What better time to watch this movie than during the baseball season?  This award winning documentary focuses on boys and young men trying to break into the Major Leagues from the Dominican Republic, where baseball is king. We meet them, their families and learn about their culture, as well as baseball.  This is an inspiring story of young men following their dreams against huge odds.  Susan

Alex and Me:  How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence- and Formed  a Deep Bond in the Process, by Irene Pepperberg. Alex, an African Grey parrot whose brain was the size of a shelled walnut, changed the way the scientific community and the world at large thinks about animal cognition.  When his trainer Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Yet, over the years, Alex proved many things. He could add, sound out words, and he could understood concepts like bigger, smaller, more, fewer, and none. He was capable of thought and intention, an absolutely stunning discovery.  The book chronicles Alex and Irene's 30 year relationship, trials, and triumphs and combines the scientific with the emotions of human and animal.  Lori

Trophy Kid, or,  How I Was Adopted by the Rich and Famous, by Steve Atinsky.  This book is for middle school (6-8 grades).  Josef is a Croatian war orphan who was adopted by two famous actors living in Hollywood, California.  His 3.2 million adoption is the most expensive on record.  As a summer project, Josef is asked by his dad to write a book about his life so far.  This process brings up unanswered questions about his relatives in Croatia and what it is like to grow up in American but not be born here.  This could be reminiscent of Maddox Jolie Pitt's life.  If your child liked Diary of a Wimpy kid, he/she might like this book. I read this book with my niece at her request.  She loved it. Laurie

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet:  a novel, by Jamie Ford. Set in Seattle in the 1980's, Henry Lee is a Chinese-American who is recalling his childhood experiences during the years of World War II.  The ethnic tensions of wartime Seattle shaped young Henry's interactions at home and at school, especially with Keiko, a Japanese-American friend.  Keiko and her family are eventually sent to an Idaho internment camp.  I like how the author presents Henry's past and present as parallel stories, woven together at the end.  The book also illustrates effectively a difficult period in American history. Nancy

Closing Time, by Joe Queenan. If you’re looking for a bright and breezy Summer read, this is not it. This autobiography set in the Philadelphia of the 1950’s and 60’s is stark and grim, and peopled by some real characters: Joe’s alcoholic and violently abusive Irish-American father, his emotionally distant mother (who is also a terrible cook), and the men who take Joe under their wings. The writer is straightforward in his accounting of the facts of his proletariat and Catholic background, but he has a wonderful turn of phrase and even the most dire situations are shown to have their comic side. Robert

Vanessa & Virginia, by Susan Sellers, is a story of the relationship between two sisters, Vanessa and Virginia Stephen, living in the early part of the 20th century. Vanessa, the narrator, paints a picture of the sisters’ collaborations and their complicated attachments with family and friends throughout their creative lives.  We know these characters better as the artist Vanessa Bell and the writer Virginia Woolf.  The book has been called a “lyrical, impressionistic account” and ends with this observation:  “what matters is that we do not stop creating.” Sarah