This has been my favorite book since middle school and I read it again every couple of years. Most recently, I switched off reading it aloud in the car with my best friend on a trip to the beach. We were laughing the whole way there at the dark humor that Salinger somehow seems to capture while telling an incredibly sad story.

This is one of those books where the passages are so beautiful that they demand to be read aloud. The Glass family is one of the most unlikable literary families I have read about, and yet I love every single member. This book tells about Franny and her brother Zooey, who are, my opinion the two most flawed in the family, yet somehow are still deeply relatable.

As a fifth grade teacher, I devoured this book. It gave me moments of vindication in which I could say, “See, this is what I‘ve been saying all along!” However, there were also parts that were humbling and made me reflect on my own practices as a teacher. I absolutely loved the book and would recommend it to any teacher or parent.