Dear Reader,

It is that time of year again. The time of year when summer is drawing near and we anticipate the end of another school year. For some the sense of ending is greater than for others. Some of you are graduating from middle school, some from high school. Those are important endings and I congratulate you. For Julia Shields, our intrepid poetry editor, and I, with this coming month comes graduation from college. Believe me, it is a very big, very imporant ending.

When I graduated from high school, I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the ending. I kept thinking, "this is the last time I will be a student at this school," "this is the last time I will sleep in this room until Christmas," and so on. It was a little depressing. There was a moment, though—I was standing on a platform, waiting for a train—when I stopped looking at the endings, and started looking at the beginnings. The whole experience got a lot less depressing at that very moment.

So now, as I come to another major milestone in my life, I am consciously focusing on the beginnings, rather than the endings. Never in my life have I so clearly been staring the rest of my life in the face, and it is very exciting. So for all of you who are at a juncture (of any kind) in your life: look ahead, not back. And look forward to what is to come.

With that all said, let me end with a few comments about this quarter's issue. You'll notice that we jumped right from Winter to Summer, don't worry, you didn't miss anything. Since we've settled on a late-in-the-season publication schedule, we decided to label each issue for the coming season instead of the current. It is a common practice among magazines and we felt it would work nicely. Since it is the summer issue, we've got some staff picks for summer reading (and if you missed last year's list, it's linked to from the Editorial Comment archive). On top of the books suggested in those lists, make sure you take a look at Amanda Leas's review of Eragon, a stunning novel by a teenaged author. A sequel, Elpest, is due out soon.

Enjoy the new issue, enjoy your summer, and, as always, thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Timothy Rezendes
Managing Editor
Frodo's Notebook
webmaster@frodosnotebook.com