The Last Egret has been named to the “Best Student Reading List in the Nation”
The children’s book The Last Egret, written by Florida author and attorney Harvey Oyer, has joined classics like Black Beauty, Heidi, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Winnie-the-Pooh in the “Best Student Reading List in the Nation,” a list compiled by Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran.
The Last Egret is one of five books in Oyer’s Adventures of Charlie Pierce series. It follows Charlie and his friends as they explore the 19th-Century Everglades seeking to make a fortune from killing birds for their colorful feathers. Instead, they learn about conservation and protecting the environment.
Oyer is a fifth-generation Floridian and a partner in the West Palm Beach office of Shutts & Bowen. He was named Florida’s Distinguished Author in 2013. His children’s books have won numerous book awards, including the Florida Book Award, Mom’s Choice Award, and several Florida Publisher’s Association Gold Medals.
“My favorite part about this reading list is that it includes several great works that deal with questions of morality, character building and philosophy that will help young children and adult learners grapple with some of life’s challenges in all chapters of life,” Commissioner Corcoran. said in unveiling the list.
Other classics on the list include The Velveteen Rabbit, Anne of Green Gables, Treasure Island, Pippi Longstocking, Mary Poppins, The Little Prince, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Hobbit, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Oyer said it is an honor for his book to be included among so many classics of literature.
Author of The Last Egret, Harvey E Oyer III
“I am honored to be a part of this list which includes so many of my favorite writers, and I am excited for the readers who will come across my book for the first time,” he said.
In addition to his literary awards, Oyer was named one of the “100 Most Influential Floridians” by Florida International Magazine and received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He was also chosen as one of the “25 Most Powerful People in Palm Beach County” by Boca Life Magazine and was included in Florida Trend’s “Florida 500,” which highlighted influential executives across the state. He is a former Marine Corps Captain and a part-time adventurer, who cross-country-skied to the North Pole in April 2018.
Commissioner Corcoran‘s Back to School Reading List
Kindergarten - Second Grade
A Child's Garden of Verses .................. Robert Louis Stevenson
A First Book of the Sea .......................... Nicola Davies
Little House in the Big Woods ............ Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Lion and the Mouse ....................... Aesop
The Emperor's New Clothes ................ Hans Christian Andersen
The Very Hungry Caterpillar ............. Eric Carle
Love You Forever ....................................... Robert Munsch
The Tale of Peter Rabbit ....................... Beatrix Potter
Stella/una ....................................................... Janel/ Cannon
The Ugly Duckling .................................... Hans Christian Andersen
Goodnight Moon ....................................... Margaret Wise Brown
The Kissing Hand ..................................... Audrey Penn
Llama Llama Red Pajama .................... Anna Dewdney
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie .......... Laura Numeroff
Where the Wild Things Are ............. Maurice Sendak
Curious George .......................................... H.A. Rey
Jack and the Beanstalk .......................... Steven Kellogg
The Giving Tree ......................................... She/ Silverstein
The Story of Babar..................................... Jean De Brunhoff
Green Eggs and Ham .......................... Dr. Seuss
Hop on Pop .......................................... Dr. Seuss
Don't Touch My Hair! ........................ Sharee Miller
We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States ..... David Catrow
Third Grade - Fifth Grade
Black Beauty ........................................................ Anna Sewell
Heidi ........................................................................ Johanna Spyri
The Secret Garden ........................................... Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Velveteen Rabbit ...................................... Margery Williams Bianco
The Black Stallion ............................................. Walter Farley
The Wind in the Willows ............................ Kenneth Grahame
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ..................... Washington Irving
Anne of Green Gables ................................... Lucy Maud Montgomery
Treasure Island .................................................. Robert Louis Stevenson
Pippi Longstocking ........................................... Astrid Lindgren
Ralph S. Mouse ................................................. Beverly Cleary
Mary Poppins ..................................................... P.L. Travers
The Little Prince ................................................ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ........ Roald Dahl
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .................. L. Frank Baum
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ......... Lewis Carroll
The Phantom Tollbooth ................................ Norton Juster
The Hobbit ........................................................... JR.R. Tolkien
The Yearling ........................................................ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The High King .................................................... Lloyd Alexander
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH ....... Robert C. O"Brien
Winnie-the-Pooh ............................................... A. A. Milne
Shh! We"re Writing the Constitution ...... Jean Fritz
The Last Egret ..................................................... Harvey E. Oyer III
The Haunted Mask .................................... R.L. Stine
Sixth Grade - Eighth Grade
Little Women .............................................................. Louisa May Alcott
The Story of Doctor Dolittle .............................. Hugh Lofting
The Neverending Story ........................................ Michael En de
The Hound of the Baskervilles ........................ Arthur Conan Doyle
The Call of the Wild ............................................. Jack London
A Wrinkle in Time ................................................. Madeleine f Engle
I Am Mala/a ............................................................... Mala/a Yousafzai
Matilda ......................................................................... Roald Dahl
The Age of Fable ...................................................... Thomas Bulfinch
The Hiding Place ..................................................... Corrie ten Boom
Island of the Blue Dolphins................................. Scott ODell
Where the Red Fern Grows .............................. Wilson Rawls
The Count of Monte Cristo ............................... Alexandre Dumas
The Lion. the Witch and the Wardrobe ..... C.S. Lewis
Through the Looking-Glass ............................... Lewis Carroll
Sounder ........................................................................ William H. Armstrong
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer ........................... fohn Grisham
Hoot ................................................................................ Carl Hiaasen
Julius Caesar .............................................................. William Shakespeare
The Constitution of the United States ......... Karen Judson
The Diary of Anne Frank .................................. Anne Frank
Leaves of Grass ......................................................... Walt Whitman
Poems ............................................................................. William Blake
The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe ... Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue .................... Edgar Allan Poe
Finding Langston ............................................ Lesa Cline-Ransome
9-12
Jane Eyre .......................................................................... Charlotte Bronte
The War of the Worlds ........................................... H. G. Wells
Watership Down .......................................................... Richard Adams
Frankenstein .................................................................. Mary Shelley
The Vicar of Wakefield ........................................... Oliver Goldsmith
Howards End ................................................................ E. M. Forster
The Last of the Mohicans ...................................... James Fennimore Cooper
Pride and Prejudice ................................................... Jane Austen
Much Ado About Nothing ..................................... William Shakespeare
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ... Benjamin Franklin
Lord of the Flies ........................................................... William Golding
Animal Farm ................................................................. George Orwell
A Land Remembered ............................................... Patrick D. Smith
Murder on the Orient Express ............................ Agatha Christie
The Old Man and the Sea ..................................... Ernest Hemingway
Finding Manana ......................................................... Mirta Ojito
Up From Slavery .......................................................... Booker T. Washington
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation ............................ Joseph f Ellis
The Crucible .................................................................. Arthur Miller
A Tale of Two Cities ............................................ Charles Dickens
A Raisin in the Sun ............................................. Lorraine Hansberry
The Road Not Taken and Other Poems ........ Robert Frost
Hope is the Thing with Feathers ........................ Emily Dickinson
The Nickel Boys .................................................. Colson Whitehead
Into the Wild ........................................................ Jon Krakauer
Manchild in the Promised Land ......................... Claude Brown
Devil in the Grove ............................................... Gilbert King
The Weary Blues ........................................................... Langston Hughes
Woodlawn: One Hope. One Dream. One Way. ......................................................................... Todd Gerelds
Florida Made: The 25 Most Important Figures Who Shaped the State ............................. Senator George LeMieux and Laura Mize
