summer doesn’t have to mean abandoning books
School is out, the sun is high, and the beach is just waiting to be conquered. No kid wants to make their free time feel like a classroom, but reading is a perfect fit with summer; long days outside require some equally cool downtime, and a good book is the perfect partner for a tall glass of lemonade. These books, split by age group, are great for kids of all reading aptitudes and attitudes and can jumpstart a lifetime interest in reading.
picture books
Little Baseball
by Brad Herzog
Sleeping Bear Press, ages 1–3, $9.95
Baseball basics are presented in this board book through rhyming riddles. Pictures on both sides reveal hints to the answers and the answer is shown on the next page.
Freddy the Frog
by Axel Scheffler
Campbell Books, ages 1–3, $9.99
Freddy goes about his life as a frog in this bath time read. Squeaking, plastic pages will withstand any splashes your tot can throw as they join Freddy in his swamp.
Guess Who Says Moo?
by Leonie Shearing
Little Hare Books, ages 1–3, $8.99
Toddlers can head to the farm and learn about different barnyard animals with this colorful, easy-to-read book. Pages have flaps to reveal animals that answer the simple, fun clues.
One Foot, Two Feet
by Peter Maloney and Felicia Zekauskas
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, ages 3–5, $12.99
This simple and colorful book shows one object through a die-cut window that, when turned, reveals multiples of the same easily identifiable object. Numbers are printed in order on the backs of pages so readers can see the numbers in sequence.
Snoring Beauty
by Rachael Mortimer
Red Fox Books, ages 3–5, $9.99
This twist on an old tale tells the story of a Princess whose deafening snores are disturbing the entire kingdom. In exchange for stopping her snores, princes are promised her hand in marriage and a pot of gold from the anxious and exhausted King and Queen.
early readers
The Best Birthday Party Ever
by Jennifer LaRue Huget
Schwartz & Wade Books, ages 4–8, $16.99
The Birthday Girl wants the best birthday ever, even if it means six months of planning. So she plans on a 17-layer cake, two magicians, and an elephant on a Ferris wheel; the only optional factors are the sparkly necklaces.
Monkey and Elephant’s Worst Fight Ever
by Michael Townsend
Random House Children’s Books, ages 5–8, $15.99
Monkey is upset because his best friend, Elephant, is throwing a party and did not invite him. The former BFFs’ feud boils over into the rest of the island, which stands littered with the remains of their revenge schemes. Islanders, tired of the shattered coconuts and frozen toys, plot to get the pals to shake and make up.
Mr. Aesop’s Story Shop
adapted by Bob Hartman
Lion Children’s Books, ages 7–9, $14.99
These classic fables are broken down with humor and irony and coupled with a tale of a storyteller. Ten stories of morality are told with children and age-appropriateness in mind, and each story is accompanied by brilliant illustrations.
Clink
by Kelly DiPucchio and Matthew Myers
HarperCollins Publishers, ages 4–7, $16.99
Clink doesn’t have the same skills other robots do. He can’t make chocolate chip cookies or give haircuts or play baseball. Feeling very alone, Clink accepts his permanent home in the dusty robot shop. Then, a customer comes along who loves the two things Clink can do: play music and dance.
Laurie
by Elfi Nijssen and Eline van Lindenhuizen
Clavis Publishing Inc., ages 4+, $16.95
Laurie has difficulties because she is nearly deaf. She can read lips, but can’t tell when a car is approaching or what people are saying to her. Her doctor gives her little computers and calls them “hearing aids.”
A Lot of Beans
by Sebastia Serra
HarperCollins Publishing, ages 3–6, $16.99
Juan has taken over the Spanish tradition of putting beans in a jar according to what kind of day he had: a black bean for a bad day and a white bean for a good day. Following a rough streak, Juan’s parents throw him a surprise party to cheer him up.
Crow
by Leo Timmers
Clavis Publishing Inc, ages 4–8, $16.95
Crow longs to make friends with smaller birds who share his power line, but they are afraid of his long black beak and pitch-black feathers. He tries painting himself to match each of their colors, but nothing works. Finally, Crow learns it isn’t pretending, but being himself, that will make him more friends.
Calvin Can’t Fly: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie
by Jennifer Berne
Sterling Publishing Co., ages 4–8, $14.95
Calvin the starling is the odd bird in his large family. He learns to read at the library instead of going to his flying lessons with the others. When the time comes for his family to migrate, Calvin has to be helped so he doesn’t get left behind. When a storm blows up, Calvin saves the whole family with information from his favorite weather book.
To Market, To Market
by Nikki McClure
Abrams Books, ages 4–8, $17.95
This mother-son trip to the farmers market shows children the work that goes into putting fresh foods into the hands of shoppers and cooks.
Because
by Richard Torrey
HarperCollins Publishers, $16.99
Jack has been told that a simple “because” isn’t an answer. But sometimes, “just because” is an answer that takes you back to the things that matter most for the simplest of reasons.
The View at the Zoo
by Kathleen Long Bostrom
Ideals Children’s Books, ages 4–8, $14.99
Do you ever wonder what the zoo looks like before it opens? See the wild animals in their early morning glory, puffy eyes and crazy hair included. Later, as the zoo closes for the day, the animals reveal the fun they have watching the silly people who are so easily entertained by the creatures’ simple antics.
The Crows of Pearblossom
by Aldous Huxley
Abrams Books, ages 4–8, $16.95
Differing greatly from Huxley’s other stories, he tells of the Crow couple who fight to keep their eggs safe with the help of Old Man Owl.
intermediate readers
Cicada Summer
by Kate Constable
Allen and Unwin, ages 9–12, $9.99
Eloise is along for the ride on one of her dad’s crazy real estate trips. While alone in the country with no friends, Eloise uncomfortably makes “friends” with a girl named Anna. Anna is no ordinary girl; she’s a ghost. The summer the girls spend together is one neither Eloise nor Anna will ever forget.
Cahoots
by Karla Oceanak and Kendra Spanjer
Bailiwick Press, ages 7–13, $12.95
Aldo Zelenick is back again and on a miserable family trip to his aunt and uncle’s farm. No video games, no television and no computer. What’s a boy to do? He isn’t sure what is worse: the rooster waking him every morning or his crazy twin cousins, who he’s sure are out to get him.
Middle School: The WORST Years of My Life
by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts
Little, Brown and Company, ages 8–12, $15.99
Sixth grader Rafe Khatchadorian has lofty ambitions and a clear goal in mind. He’s going to break every rule at Hills Village Middle School. The only things holding him back from total domination are Miller the Killer and Jeanne Galletta, Rafe’s dream girl.
Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading
by Tommy Greenwald
Roaring Book Press, ages 9–12, $14.99
Charlie Joe reads books for school. He only reads the first and last chapter, though, and he pays buddy Timmy McGibney in ice cream sandwiches to read the rest for him. Timmy has a change of heart and starts charging Charlie Joe three ice cream sandwiches per book, leaving Charlie Joe only one option: He’s going to have to read.
middle school
Discovering Pig Magic
by Julie Crabtree
Milkweed Editions, ages 10–14, $6.95
Mattie, Ariel, and Nicki, all 13, are growing up and are finding things are a lot different than they expected. Each girl has individual stressors and, in a final effort to solve them, the girls each bury a significant object in a ritual meant to clear their troubled minds. Instead, the girls find the only things controlling their lives are their own minds and attitudes toward change.
Meanicures
by Catherine Clark
Egmont USA, ages 10+, $15.99
Madison and friends Olivia and Taylor are getting used to the petty bullying from Cassidy, Alexis, and Kayley, the school’s It girls and Madison’s former BFFs. The girls gather a few mementos from past times with the mean girls and burn them in a silly ceremony. Suddenly, Madison and crew are the new thing and Cassidy and her cronies are slowly lowered on the hierarchy they once owned. Was real witchcraft working during the fire? Is there a way for Madison and the girls to set things right?
The Last Martin
by Jonathon Friesen
Zonderkidz, $14.99
Martin Boyle has enough problems. His mother is terrified of germs and sick children, his dad reenacts war battles with vigor, and Julia, the prettiest girl at school, doesn’t know he exists. With all this going on, Martin shouldn’t have to worry about dying, right? Wrong. When a new Martin Boyle is born, the previous Martin Boyle dies, and Martin is about to have a new baby cousin: a boy who will be named Martin. Will this new birth be the end of Martin?
high school
A&L Do Summer
by Jan Bazanin
Egmont USA, ages 12+, $8.99
Laurel and Aspen are determined to make the best of the summer they’re about to spend trapped in Cottonwood Creek, Iowa. Though their prospects of fun are bleak and the guys at school aren’t exactly boyfriend material, the girls make their own fun in the most unlikely places.
My Life, The Theater, and Other Tragedies
by Allen Zadoff
Egmont USA, ages 12+, $16.99
Rather than face the lights as an actor, Adam Ziegler takes his position 25 feet in the air behind the lights on the tech crew. After a strange encounter with a dark-haired fairy actress, Adam discovers his stage fright extends to the wings and he decides to break the production’s number one rule: Techies and actors don’t mix.
The Darkest Evening
by William Durbin
University of Minnesota Press, $11.95
It’s 1930, and Jake and his Finnish-American family are finding the American dream is harder to attain than they realized. His father earns only meager wages as a janitor and his mother makes the most of what little she can feed her three children. The family moves to Karelia in northwestern Russia to the socialist paradise his father was promised. Upon arrival, they instead find themselves running from Stalin’s police, who are targeting Americans and the family is forced into the freezing wilderness as they secretly make their way to the safety of Finland.
Tighter
by Adele Griffin
Alfred A. Knopf Books, ages 14+, $16.99
Jamie takes a job as a summer au pair to escape her addiction to stolen pills and the gory dreams the pills induce. She enjoys Isa, her young charge, and living in picturesque Little Bly. Rumors about Jamie begin after locals see her uncanny resemblance to Jessie, Isa’s au pair from the previous summer whose death shocked the quiet community.
Scars
by Cheryl Rainfield
Westside Books, ages 14+, $16.95
Kendra is haunted by the faceless sexual assault she endured as a child. Through cutting herself, she finds a bit of peace she can’t find with family, her therapist, or in the loving arms of a girlfriend. Few know about her destructive habit, and those that do don’t know how to help. Kendra, in the end, finds the people closest to her were the ones she searched for all along.
The Kissing Game
by Aiden Chambers
Amulet Books, ages 14+, $16.95
Sixteen short stories, all in various teenage voices, are told in this so-realistic-it’s-raw book that is easily identifiable for both young men and women. Chambers runs straight into the characters’ angst and anger rather than skirting around them.
