It’s time to prepare for the Summer Reading Season. I recall my babysitter reading Trixie Belden mysteries to my sister and me by the barrelful, as many as she had voice left to read. We were nine and eleven, living in a little blue bungalow with a big porch, its wicker furniture just perfect for cozy reading on long, lazy, summer afternoons after a morning of hard play outdoors with friends. That summer, we had discovered the thrill of mystery stories.

Decades later, I was swinging on another porch and reading about the New York City adventures of girls in All of a Kind Family to Emily while she cut out paper dolls nearby. On other hot summer days, I vividly recall also hunting high and low for her at chore time only to find her, as usual, high up in the branches of the huge maple in the backyard – reading of course.

As promised, I share here a list of a few summer reading titles. It is a good thing I have time and space limitations or I would suggest hundreds more! These are not the only good ones, not the very best ones, not my very favorites, but they are some of the good and best favorites that come to mind at the moment.  

And, speaking of good old books, I ran across this quote when recently rereading City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge: 

In my experience, when people once begin to read, they go on. They begin because they think they ought to, and they go on because they must. Yes, they find it widens life. We’re all greedy for life, you know, and our short span of existence can’t give us all that we hunger for. Time is too short, and our capacity not large enough. But in books we experience all life vicariously.

FAMILY READ ALOUDS

These are some classic children’s titles suitable for children from birth to 90. Reading together is about the best bonding I know of:

Wild Geese Flying by Cornelia Meigs. A family story that has a bit of a mystery to it and a lot of delightful adventures with children who learn how to solve some of life’s perplexing problems by inventive hard work and caring for others. From the author of Invincible Louisa, a children’s biography of Louisa Mae Alcott. (1957)

Little Britches by Ralph Moody. Probably one of the best children’s series ever written, this first one kicks off with a family relocating to Colorado at the turn of the century to attempt a cure for the father’s bad lungs. The action is non stop as Ralph, ever-eager for cowboy life on the ranch, as untameable as the horses he tries to ride, flings himself wholeheartedly from one dangerous adventure to another. It is heartwarming and hilarious as his patient and wise father gently guides Ralph to learn honesty, responsibility, and independence. (1950)

Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard. For the dog lovers among you, here is a classic story of a boy and the dog he loves. Happily, it does not end in the sad death of the dog as so many of the great old dog stories do. It is very clear in the story that as Danny trains Big Red, Big Red is training Danny even more. (1945)

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. This 1945 Newberry winner is short and powerful. I can’t think of a book that naturally shows the value of compassion and the ugliness of excluding others as powerfully as this one does. Its lesson will stick with children for life. (1945)

The Wheel On the School by Meindert De Jong. Another time, another country, another community unlike our own, but in this well-told story, children and adults alike draw together in pursuit of a wheel to host the migrating storks that once nested in this sleepy village. Like rolling a wheel, this story starts slow and soon spins to a breathless climax. It holds all the elements that make a story stick with you forever: unforgettable characters, problems solved, family and friendships solidified. (1954)

CHAPTER BOOKS

Dandelion Cottage by Carolyn Watson Rankin.  This is a summer story about four friends who are loaned the use of an abandoned cottage in which to set up house – and all the adventures that befall them there. If your girls love Anne of Green Gables, Betsy-Tacy, or The Moffats, they will revel in this tale of girls long ago. Most appealing to girls 4-14 years old. (1904)

Iceberg by Jennifer Nielsen One of the new YA historical fiction writers whose main characters are young girls caught up in the events of history, this is about a poor girl who stows away on the Titanic to get to America in order to help her widowed mother and children back home. Humorous, suspenseful, and inspiring. For boys and girls 8-14 years old. (2023)

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. This is a fantastical fairytale story with villains and runaways and suspenseful escapes, a page turner and not too scary for the timid among us. It has that typical fairy tale ending of all is right at last and happily ever after. For boys and girls 8-14. (1962)

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry. A good one for boys who aren’t enthusiastic readers, just over 100 pages, this is a tense adventure story of a boy who fears the ocean and is challenged to face his most feared dangers. Boys (and girls of course) Ages 8-14 (1940) 

FOR MOM:

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. If you want to know where all the spy thriller novels got their start, you can blame this author. This is his first in a series that became the prototype for the host of spy adventure novels to follow. It is about an Englishman who is called upon for help by a friend who ends up murdered, which catapults him into intrigue, conspiracy, and running for his own life. If you like it, it is succeeded by further novels with the same hero. (1915)

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. If you have seen the BBC production of this story, you will not be disappointed in the actual novel, this author’s last. She was a friend of Charles Dickens and also wrote the definitive biography of Charlotte Bronte. This is an insightful and entertaining novel to savor over a few weeks. (1866)

The Summer Book by Tove Jannson. Authors lead me to authors, and Leif Enger said this author inspired him to write, which was enough to send me to find this book. She has written much children’s fantasy, but this is a fictional memoir for adults about a grandmother and granddaughter and their summer memories on an island off the coast of Finland. He was right, of course. It is beautifully written and incidentally is perfect for those who don’t have a lot of time to read. (1972)

The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin. A historical fiction story set in World War II Europe about a single American woman who wants to help in the war effort and uses her book skills to do it. Light, but not silly,  reading. (2022)

How to Know a Person by David Brooks. A most readable book with abundant anecdotes and practical help for deepening our connection, understanding, and skill in interpersonal relationships – in case you want some book that is not fiction that will help you grow as a person yourself. (2023)