Summer Reading 2012
Posted 6.8.12
Summertime for many means slower days. Perfect for grabbing a good book. Cecelia Wallin, our librarian, has put together a list highlighting new and noteworthy books for summer reading and sharing.
Summer Reading 2012
Picture Books
999 Tadpoles by Ken Kimura
A frog mother and father decide to move their 999 tadpoles to a bigger pond and face dangers along the way.
A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead.
Vernon the toad takes the silent Bird on a journey in hopes of finding Bird's home.
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
The author details how he ignored naysayers and was able to bring electricity and running water to his Malawian village when he built a makeshift windmill out of scrap metal and spare parts.
Chirchir is Singing by Kelly Cunnane
Chirchir, a young girl in Kenya, wants to be useful, but her botched attempts at helping send her looking for the one thing she does best.
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
With a supply of yarn that never runs out, Annabelle knits for everyone and everything in town until an evil archduke decides he wants the yarn for himself.
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Illustrations and simple, rhyming text explore the many shades of the color green.
My Side of the Car by Kate Feiffer
Sadie and her father have been planning a trip to the zoo for a long time but something always gets in the way, so when they finally start out and her father sees some raindrops, Sadie insists there is no rain on her side of the car.
Young Readers
Bink & Gollie --Two for One by Kate DiCamillo
The state fair is in town, and now Bink and Gollie - utter opposites and best friends extraordinaire - must use teamwork and their gray matter while navigating its many wonders.
Binky under Pressure by Ashley Spires
Binky, a house cat that believes he is a space cat, is dismayed when Gracie, a too-perfect foster cat, comes to live at his space station, and decides to investigate to learn the truth about this unwelcome guest.
Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre ; art by Rafael Rosado
Claudette wants nothing more than to slay a giant but her little village is too safe and quiet.
Penny and her Song by Kevin Henkes
Penny comes home from school eager to share her very own song, but must wait until the time is right to teach it to her parents and the babies.
See Me Run by Paul Meisel
A dog has a fun-filled day at the dog park, in this easy-to-read story.
Tales for Very Picky Eaters by Josh Schneider.
A father tells outlandish stories while trying to get his young son, who is a very picky eater, to eat foods he thinks he will not like.
Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-new Someone called Plastic by Emily Jenkins
Contains six linked stories that tell how Lumphy, StingRay, and Plastic become part of a little girl's toy collection and follow their adventures as they make friends with some of her other toys and try to navigate in the world of real people.
Poetry
Forget-me-nots: Poems to Learn by Heart selected by Mary Ann Hoberman
A collection of more than 120 poems for children to learn, including selections from classic and contemporary poets, with tips and tricks from former Children's Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman on memorization and recitation.
Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists edited by Chris Duffy
Presents fifty traditional nursery rhymes in comic book format, with illustrations by well-known cartoonists.
Middle Readers
Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver
After her father's death, Liesl is locked away in a tiny attic room by her stepmother, where she meets Po, a lonely ghost, and Will, an alchemist's apprentice who bungles an important delivery and enlists Liesl and Po's help in setting things right.
Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers by Pendred Noyce
Thirteen-year-old cousins Ivan and Daphne are sent out to the barn on a rainy afternoon after their Great Aunt Adelaide presents them with a puzzle to solve, but a greater challenge presents itself when the cousins enter Lexicon, a world rampant with words and numbers, and embark on a quest to rescue some missing children.
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny-- Detectives Extraordinaire! by Mrs. Bunny; translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath
Middle-schooler Madeline's hippy parents have been kidnapped from Hornby Island, Canada, by foxes and Madeline, upon discovering that she can understand animal languages, hires two rabbit detectives to find them.
Sidekicks by Dan Santat
Captain Amazing tries to hire a new sidekick when he feels he is getting too old to be a reliable superhero, but his pets have different ideas.
Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker
A foster child named Angel and twelve-year-old Stella, who are living with Stella's great-aunt Louise at the Linger Longer Cottage Colony on Cape Cod, secretly assume responsibility for the vacation rentals when Louise unexpectedly dies and the girls are afraid of being returned to the foster care system.
Titanic Sinks! by Barry Denenberg.
Retells the events surrounding the sinking of the RMS "Titanic," describing the ship's construction and launch, and featuring authentic photographs and illustrations from the period.
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunts and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
Older Readers
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
The difficult star of the reality television show, "Expedition Survival," disappears on location in the Florida Everglades, where they were filming animals from the wildlife refuge run by Wahoo Crane's family, and Wahoo and classmate Tuna Gordon set out to find him, but they must avoid Tuna's gun-happy father.
The Fairy Ring, or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World by Mary Losure
Relates the story of Francis and Elsie, cousins who concocted a story and photographs about fairies because nobody believed Francis could see the tiny men and were surprised when their photographs were found by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who truly believed in fairies.
The Fault in our Stars by John Green.
Sixteen year old Hazel, who has cancer, meets Augustus at a kids-with-cancer support group and as they fall in love they both wonder how they will be remembered.
Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks.
After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and three older brothers, Maggie enrolls in public high school, where interacting with her peers is complicated by the melancholy ghost that has followed her throughout her entire life.
My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve
Ten-year-old Franziska Mangold escapes Nazi Germany on the kindertransport she boards in Berlin, and when she arrives in London, she takes on the name Frances and struggles with her identity as she pieces together a new life without her family.
For more information about any of the above or further suggestions, please see Cecelia in the library.
Play the Reading Game at your local library.
Happy Reading! Happy Summer!
