Summer Lightning

As a former English teacher, curriculum coordinator, and school administrator, I always searched for quality literature that appealed to adolescents and met all the criteria for good instruction. When I was teaching English to eighth grade students in Fort Pierce, Florida, I found Summer Lightning by Judith Richards. To this day, it is still one of my favorite novels, and I never had a student who didn't love the book. This novel is set in the swamplands and migrant labor camps of the Everglades, and it provides an historic glimpse of the Florida Citrus Industry and a rapidly disappearing way of life. Young adolescents always relate to the rebellious and precocious six-year old Terry Calder. Even though Terry is significantly younger than the students I taught, they appreciate his unwillingness to attend school, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his sense of adventure. I loved the relationship between Terry and Mr. McCree, the eccentric old man who teaches him about snakes and survival in the wetlands. The Everglades backdrop always seemed more like a character to me than just a setting in which this story takes place. The dramatic climax always brought tears to most of the girls in class. Most of all, I loved to communicate to my students the idea that education can happen anywhere and not just within the confines of a classroom. I urge all middle and high school English teachers to take a look at this book, your students will not regret it.

I have just read Summer Lightning and After the Storm even though they have been out 30 yrs. Found them while broesing local library. 2 very good books that should be on some best reading list in the same catagory as To Kill a Mockingbird. Very good reading.

Its been 13 years since I read this book (when I was 10), but I can still remember the empathic experience afforded by Richards' skillful writing. I remember the thrills of sneaking into a tomato warehouse to sample the sweetiest juciest tomatoes ever pilfered, and the exhilaration of running away once I'd been discovered. I remember the bond with an old man who needed the benefit of youth like I needed the benefit of wisdom. We were a great pair, and he taught me how to catch catfish in a most interesting way. I remember terrifying my teacher and being the best little hellion I could be, and I remember the responsibility I shouldered when I had to, when I crossed a point, on a raft, with a friend in peril, and the everglades my only obstacle to saving him...when I took a step closer to becoming a man. I am writing about this book because it was one of the most memorable of my youth, and because it still sometimes paints on the canvas of my dreams.

An amazing look at childhood from the perspective of an adult woman. Wish I'd known McCree and Terry when I was six!

"Summer Lightening" is about the travails of growing up, a youngster's need to be understood by authority figures imposed upon him by Society and the various conflicts undergone by him. It's a book which depicts warmth,where characters have life in them and about a context relevant to society in general. It's a book about loving, being loved, sharing and proving the ancient adage of 'The more you give, the more you get.' Books of a similar genre would be " Catcher in the Rye"," To kill a Mockingbird". The central character is amazing and one wishes ardently for a similar colourful childhood.