It’s Opening Day, people. Time to start that summer read. Kidding! Just remember: This year—for the second year in a row—GA and Brunswick upper schools are reading different books. To clear up any confusion, we’re reading Florida by Lauren Groff. They’re reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. Florida is a collection of 11 short stories, all very different but extremely hard to forget. Ordinary Grace is a mystery novel following old 13-year-old Frank through a turbulent summer.
The separation of Upper School reads this year begs the question: Why?
According to Ms. Maliakel, the English Department Chair makes the final decision which is Ms. Maliakel at GA and Dr. Freeman at Brunswick. However, the chairs make the decision with the rest of the department. Throughout the year, they each keep an eye on books and ask department members to do the same; sometimes the idea for the read comes from another department member. Ms Maliakel says that finding a book that’s appealing (and appropriate) for incoming freshmen and seniors alike is a challenge. She looks for books that will be compelling to read during the summer without homework or an immediate class discussion.
In earlier years, GA and Brunswick would alternate who chooses the read. For example, in “GA’s year” Ms Maliakel would pick a book and kick it over to Dr. Freeman at Brunswick. Brunswick would either go along with the selection or choose another book. Then the cycle would repeat the next year but it would be Brunswick’s turn. Last year, GA chose The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett but Brunswick opted to find another book, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
Aside from this year and last year, there were other times that GA and Brunswick did not read the same book. Around eight years ago GA picked Americana by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Brunswick decided to read something else. There have also been years when seniors would read a different book. Even though GA and Brunswick have gone their separate ways before, in the 20-plus years of this tradition, there have only been 3 times that GA and Brunswick have opted to do separate reads—and two of those times were the last two years.
Regarding the different Upper School reads, Dr. Freeman and Ms. Maliakel had different criteria. Dr. Freeman says “Brunswick and GA have decided to go separate ways the past couple of years for a couple of reasons,” Dr. Freeman said in an email. “First, we want to be responsive to the needs and interests of our separate student bodies; some books, such as last year’s GA novel, The Vanishing Half, appeal more to women than to men, and the opposite might be said to be the case for Brunswick’s book choice this year.”
Ms. Maliakel says she tends to focus on enjoyability. “I love books that feature strong, interesting, female characters—although that’s not a requirement,” she said. “And I just look for a good story. I just look for a story that I think will be fun for people to read.”
Despite GA and Brunswick reading different books this summer, rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors will not have to read both books. Freshmen will not have to worry about addressing the Brunswick read because, unlike the rest of the US, their English classes are not coed. Ultimately, it is the teachers’ responsibility to address both texts. Some teachers will not cover it at all and some teachers will have students write an essay or analysis for the book they read that summer.
There are upsides to reading separate books. It allows the authors to connect with more students more personally. When Brunswick and GA read the same book, a few hundred students would all file into one of the gymnasiums and listen to the visiting author. This makes for a less interactive assembly and a difficult venue to speak for the author. When there are separate authors, they only speak to one student body and there is more time for workshops after the lecture. Britt Bennet’s visit to GA last year was very successful, especially since many students got to talk to her after the lecture and participate in workshops. Fortunately, there are similar plans next year with Lauren Groff. She is visiting the school in late September and she will do a large assembly for GA’s Upper School and then transition to a smaller group workshop.
Greenwich Academy and Brunswick are still open to collaborating with each other but there is no definite answer to whether this is the new normal. Ms Maliakel says, “Dr. Freeman and I talk pretty regularly, we like to collaborate with each other so I think we’ll take it year by year and just keep talking about books that we like. If it seems like we’re on the same page about something, we see benefits to reading the same book but we also see benefits to doing our own thing. So I think we’ll kind of take it on a case-by-case basis although, beyond next year, we don’t really know.” Dr. Freeman has a similar take: “We both are open to collaborating in the future should an author or book fit all of our diverse criteria, however.”
