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Last Updated: Nov 14, 2008 - 12:49:26 PM |
Though summer is winding to an end – and with it, innumerable summer reading clubs and programs – that’s no reason for kids to let their reading habits slide. Michelle Harris, librarian at Chesterfield County Public Libraries, collects 20 books that are sure to delight kids from kindergarten to high school.
Ages 5-7
A Bad Case of Stripes
by David Shannon
In order to ensure her popularity, Camilla Cream always does what is expected, until the day arrives when she no longer recognizes herself.
Bats at the Library
by Brian Lies
Bored with another normal, inky evening, bats discover an open library window and fly in to enjoy the photocopier, water fountain, and especially the books and stories found there.
Clementine
by Sara Pennypacker
While sorting through difficulties in her friendship with her neighbor Margaret, eight-year-old Clementine gains several unique hairstyles while also helping her father in his efforts to banish pigeons from the front of their apartment building.
Second Grade Rules, Amber Brown
by Paula Danzinger
Amber Brown loves the second grade but wonders if she will ever receive an award from Deskarina, the desk fairy, for keeping her desk clean.
Thunder Cake
by Patricia Polacco
Grandma finds a way to dispel her grandchild’s fear of thunderstorms.
Ages 8-10
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Curtis
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Mich., during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father — the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Dovey Coe
by Frances Dowell
When accused of murder in her North Carolina mountain town in 1928, Dovey Coe, a strong-willed twelve-year-old girl, comes to a new understanding of others, including her deaf brother.
Lost and Found
by Andrew Clements
Twelve-year-old identical twins Jay and Ray have long resented that everyone treats them as one person, and so they hatch a plot to take advantage of a clerical error at their new school and pretend they are just one.
The Tale of Despereaux
by Kate DiCamillo
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
Tornado
by Betsy Byars
As they wait out a tornado in their storm cellar, a family listens to their farmhand tell stories about the dog that was blown into his life by another tornado when he was a boy.
Ages 11-13
Esperanza Rising
by Pam Munoz Ryan
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Hope Was Here
by Joan Bauer
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wis., to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways Diner, they become involved with the diner owner’s political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures
by Brian Selznick
When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
by Kimberly Holt
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600–pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.
Willoughby Spit Wonder
by Jonathon Fuqa
In 1950s Norfolk, Va., as Carter and his sister watch their dying father struggle to remain cheerful, Carter decides to emulate Prince Namor, comic superhero, in order to inspire his father to stay alive.
Ages 14-17
Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
by Deb Caletti
In the summer of her junior year, sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen and her mother, both nursing broken hearts, set out on a journey to reunite an elderly woman with her long-lost love and in the process learn many things about “the real ties that bind” people to one another.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
by Ann Brashares
Four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants.
Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.
Sunrise Over Fallujah
by Walter Dean Myers
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
Young Francie Nolan, having inherited both her father’s romantic and her mother’s practical nature, struggles to survive and thrive growing up in the slums of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century.
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