Kristen Graham | Principal's summer was an open book

He is a youthful, hands-on principal who exchanges handshakes, high-fives and hugs with students. If a piece of trash litters the hallway, he picks it up.

Still - reading every book on Cherry Hill High School West's required summer reading list was a pretty bold move, even for Joseph Meloche.

There were upwards of 15 books on his list for ninth through 12th graders: slender, puzzling volumes of contemporary fiction and dense, classic tomes of British literature. Some were delightful, and, he said, some were real stinkers.

But Meloche, 36, is the kind of guy who doesn't tell students why they should do something. He shows them.

"Reading is important. We need kids to understand that there is such value in this," he said. "When they see us adults getting involved, discussing things, changing our viewpoints, that's great."

Meloche, a Cherry Hill native who graduated from West in 1989, is in his second year as principal of the 1,650-student school. The former middle school English teacher tackled the summer reading project to show students the importance of reading and to help evaluate which books made the lists, he said.

As English classes discuss the books through the fall, Meloche pops in, participating in discussions and asking students what they think about the books. In one class, he even took a quiz on Bernard Malamud's The Natural.

"I got a perfect score," Meloche said, just a touch proudly.

On a recent day, he speed-walked through West's long halls to Suzann Vitalis' ninth-grade English class, where Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth was the topic of conversation and students were working in groups, analyzing quotations from the book.

Meloche, who has been an administrator for several years, plopped himself down in the middle of a group, asking questions, pushing the discussion forward, nodding at points.

"What did you think of the book?" he asked three boys.

"It was long," Julian Bond said, unfazed by the fact that his school's principal was his new discussion partner. "It was hard."

Meloche smiled.

"I thought it was a hard book to read," the principal said. "It was a lot - a lot about the land. But you guys did great."

Then he was on to Megan Carlson's junior English class, where Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King (not at the top of Meloche's list; he thought the ending was a dud) was being dissected.

Meloche wondered why Henderson was taking violin lessons; Diana Wu ventured a guess that the character was just searching for happiness, for a way to recapture his father.

Luiza Leite said she found Henderson frustrating: "It's confusing. He says, 'I love my wife, but she's so annoying, I can't stand her.' " But, like Meloche, she warmed to the book as the discussion heated up.

"One of the themes is fear - fear of himself," Leite said.

"There's fear on different levels - fear of death, fear of himself. Fear of others' expectations," Meloche said.

Most students were incredulous that their principal - who still lives in Cherry Hill with his wife and four daughters - spent his summer the way they did. He'd show up at the pool with books that matched theirs, and they would quiz him.

"They'd say, 'I didn't like this book. I'd say, 'I didn't like it, either,' " Meloche said.

Truth be told, he wasn't crazy about Ayn Rand's Anthem, a book whose yellowing pages he flipped through, nose wrinkled.

"Interesting story. I think we can do better with contemporary literature," he said.

Dove, by Robin Graham? Same deal: The story is fine, but there's so much more out there, and he would replace it.

On the top of his list?

Jane Eyre: "It's a hard one for the kids, but we ask them to read it as seniors, and at the level, it's appropriate," he said.

"I loved The Scarlet Pimpernel," he said of the book by Baroness Emma Orczy. "She was so ahead of her time."

Meloche, who can "talk about books all day," said he looked forward to the spring, when English teachers - who generally welcomed his participation in their classes - will formulate next summer's required reading list. He'll put his two cents in, too.

"I think things will look different. Some mandated books will change. But I can't wait for the discussion," he said.

As far as Robby Homer is concerned, Meloche can come discuss books with him any day.

Homer spent 10 minutes debating characters and plot in Carlson's class in a group that included Meloche.

That his principal had read every book he had read during the summer - and then some - was pretty cool, Homer said.

"Interesting," Homer said, shaking his head in wonder. "I was surprised. But it definitely shows he's dedicated."

Here are some of the books read by Cherry Hill High School West principal Joseph Meloche, with selected comments.

9th grade

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck: "It's hard for a lot of our kids. There's so much about the land."

Anthem, Ayn Rand: "Interesting story. I think we can do better with contemporary literature."

That Was Then, This Is Now, S.E. Hinton

10th grade

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emma Orczy: "I loved [it]. She was so ahead of her time."

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Dove, Robin Graham. "I think we can do better than Dove. Interesting story, but there's more out there."

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

11th grade

Henderson the Rain King, Saul Bellow

The Natural, Bernard Malamud

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

12th grade

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte: "It's a hard one for the kids, but we ask them to read it as seniors, and at the level, it's appropriate."

1984, George Orwell

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey: "I had never read this, only seen the movie. I really enjoyed it."

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