NPR’s had a piece this weekend on the great books of summer leading teen girls to believe in the great JOBS of summer. Good old Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Student Nurse and most daring of all Vicki Barr, Flight Stewardess (boy, I must’ve missed that one) had the best darned jobs of any young women of the era between 1947-1964… They had glamour, great uniforms, sassy flips in their hair, and no flack from their bosses. These days, the best teen readers can do for a summer job is something like M.T. Anderson’s Burger Wuss, an affectionate and sardonic tribute to the reality of the scorching summer days of doing mindless dead end work so you could buy a few things from the Gap. (Someday, there’s going to be a novel on the people who did filing for Traveler’s Insurance as a summer job… I’m sure I’ll be somewhere on Chapter 2, sneaking out to make phone calls and loitering around the snack machine…)
Meanwhile, we await with baited breath the news from the L.A. Conference, and our intrepid attendees who will give us all the lowdown hopefully soon. Enjoy the last few days of low-traffic summer days… happy August.
