Summer Reading

​Nicole Maxwell
One of the many joys of summer break from school for students is the pleasure of having the opportunity to read books that they choose. For some this might mean enjoying books written by favorite authors while others explore books by authors new to them. The theme of 2024 Children’s Book Week is “No Rules. Just Read.” Encourage young people to take advantage of summer break to continue the celebration of the 2024 Children’s Book Week. Below are reviews of just a few recently published books that are representative of the array of options for enjoyable summer reading.      

Beach Bummer (Little Bruce #4). Ryan T. Higgins. (2024). Disney Hyperion.
Bruce the bear is his usual grumpy self on this hot, hot summer day in Soggy Hollow. Although Bruce would rather do nothing, as the book he is reading, The Joys of Doing Nothing, demonstrates, his family of mice and geese want to have a day at the beach and excitedly run out ahead, leaving Bruce begrudgingly toting all the beachy gear. Everyone, except for Bruce, is enjoying their sunny beach adventure until the rain comes, but has the rain spoiled all their fun? While the text is spare, Ryan T. Higgins’s amusing signature illustrations of Bruce with his unmistakable unibrow and sullen face, along with the animated features of his family members, make this a fun-to-read tale for the summer. Young readers will love Spring Stinks (2021), Thankful for Nothing! (2021), and Out Cold (2023), the earlier seasonal Little Bruce books too. (PreK Up)

---

Bros. Carole Boston Weatherford. Illus. by Reggie Brown. (2024). Candlewick.
Inspired by the #BlackBoyJoy meme, Carole Boston Weatherford presents the sunrise-to-sunset activities of five Black friends and one boy’s pet dog as they visit their  community’s playground, park, garden, library, and basketball court. Throughout the day, they play, use their imagination to make a time machine, engage in a royal pretend battle, read books, and play basketball. Weatherford’s spare, rhythmic text and Reggie Brown’s vibrant and lively illustrations convey childhood experiences with friends that involve happiness, laughter, and the making of lasting memories. This book communicates the significance of friendship and the reality that Black boys, just like all children, deserve to experience a carefree childhood full of enjoyment. (PreK-Gr 2) 

---

​Ferris. Kate DiCamillo. (2024). Candlewick.
Emma Phineas Wilkey, nicknamed Ferris (as she was born beneath a Ferris wheel), learns the meaning of her Grandmother Charisse’s saying, “Every good story is a love story,” as she deals with events in her decidedly unconventional family during the summer before fifth grade. Charisse shares that she sees a ghost at the threshold to her room with Ferris and enlists her to help the ghost find peace and be reunited with her loved one. Ferris’s little sister, Pinky, has vowed to live the life of an outlaw and engages in shenanigans that test the nerves of the family. Uncle Ted, recently separated from Aunt Shirley, moves into the Wilkey’s basement to paint a history of the world and asks Ferris to spy on her aunt. Thankfully, Ferris has her best friend, Billy Jackson, by her side to help her navigate all that is happening in her life. Love and humor, as well as some vocabulary words learned from Ferris’s and Billy’s fourth grade teacher, abound in Kate DiCamillo’s latest novel that middle grade readers are sure to love. (Gr 3 Up)

---

​Good Night, Good Beach. Joy Cowley. Illus. by Hilary Jean Tapper. (2024). Gecko.
Joy Cowley tells a bedtime story summing up the end of the day for a family on summer vacation at the beach. The family leaves the beach with “sunburned skin and sandy feet.” One child arranges her newfound treasures of white shells and sea glass under her pillow while the other children watch her and then get ready for bed. Together they bid the beach goodnight as they gaze longingly at it from the window. Hilary Jean Tapper’s soft hued watercolors-and-ink illustrations beautifully complement Joy Cowley’s sparse, rhythmic text. This story is sure to create warm memories of past summer vacations and leave young readers longing to spend time at the beach this summer. (PreK–Gr 2)

---

​Mahogany: A Little Red Riding Hood Tale. JaNay Brown-Wood. Illus. by John Joven. (2024). Charlesbridge.
This modern version of “Little Red Riding Hood” introduces Mahogany as a savvy young Black girl and gifted seamstress sewing a red patchwork cape while listening to music through headphones. Once Momma gets Mahogany’s attention, she asks her to deliver some freshly made honey cornbread to G-Ma’s house and warns her to stay alert. Mahogany heads to G-Ma’s through the woods, of course, and encounters the hungry wolf. Knowing a strange wolf in the woods is not to be trusted, she offers him the cornbread and tosses her cape over his head and entangles his limbs as he devours it. Then she runs away, fools the scheming wolf by blending in with her surroundings, and devises a clever plan to use her skills to protect G-Ma and herself. John Joven’s colorful, textured, cartoonlike illustrations created digitally portray Mahogany as a girl with “melanin deep in her dark skin,” as Brown-Wood describes her. (PreK–Gr 2)

---

​No Cats in the Library. Lauren Emmons. (2024). Paula Wiseman.
“Clarisse was a stray cat who loved books.” When she sees a building that people come out of with books in hand, she must find a way to get in there. Unfortunately, the “keeper of the books” makes her leave saying, “No cats in the library.” Then Clarisse finds the book drop and manages to sneak in unnoticed by dropping down the chute. When she finds a young girl just learning to read who offers to read the story to Clarisse, her love for books grows exponentially as she realizes that the squiggly lines in books tell stories that accompany the pictures she has been seeing. Will she be able to stay this time, or will the keeper of books find her and kick her out, again? The “Read to Our Cats” sign in Laura Emmons’s colorful digital illustrations reveals a happy ending for Clarisse as a reading companion in the library. (PreK-Gr 2) 

---

​The Last Bookwanderer (Pages & Co. #6). Anna James. Illus. by Marco Guadalupi. (2024). Philomel.
In the final installment of the Pages & Co. series, Milo, Tilly, Oscar, and Alessia are on a mission to save the world’s imagination from the Alchemist and protect the magic of bookwandering. To do this they travel into Arthurian legends searching for the first bookwanderer, Merlin the Wizard, to seek his help. Merlin sends them into Greek and Norse mythology where they learn about the mysterious roots of bookwandering and begin questioning all that they have known about it. Anna James skillfully wraps up this fantastic adventure series by connecting this last book to previous ones. Readers will be enthralled from the beginning of The Last Bookwanderer and will have a hard time putting it down until all the secrets are revealed. It will be hard for fans to say goodbye to this imaginative series of books. (Gr 3 Up) 

---

​Running in Flip Flops from the End of the World. Justin A. Reynolds. (2024).  Scholastic.
In this entertaining follow-up to It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit (2022), 12-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway, “your friendly narrator and master storyteller,” starts by apologizing directly to readers for the cliffhanger that ended the first book. Eddie and his four friends are still trying to survive the potential apocalypse. One thing is certain, they have no idea where everyone else is or what happened. If only they could make it to the beach where the town’s biggest event of the summer was happening when this all started. The friends decide to create their own video diary, allowing readers a glimpse into the other characters’ thoughts in addition to what Eddie freely shares throughout the book. Justin A. Reynolds hooks readers from the beginning and keeps them wondering what will happen next until the very end, which sets the stage for the series to continue. (Gr 3-5) 

---

​The Secret Language of Birds. Lynne Kelly. (2024). Delacorte.
Nina is accustomed to feeling like the odd one out at school as well as at home where she is the middle child of five. She is an amateur birdwatcher with a deep desire to learn more about birds, and she is also a bit socially awkward. As summer arrives, she takes advantage of the opportunity to visit her Aunt Audrey’s summer camp in Bee Holler, Texas, which is appealing for potential birdwatching and space away from her busy family. While on a clandestine journey to an off-limits area of camp with her new friends from the Oddballs cabin, as well as other campers, she discovers what she thinks may be a whooping crane and its nest. However, that can’t be possible since no whooping cranes have nested in Texas for over a century. Thus begins her adventure of confirming the bird’s species and secretly monitoring the nest with her friends until the secret gets out. This is a touching account of growing up and finding your niche. (Gr 3 Up) 

---

​Summer is Here by Renée Watson. Illus. by Bea Jackson (2024). Bloomsbury. “Summer is here! // She tiptoes into my room, / waking me up with her light. / Her sunrays tickle me, whispering, // Rise and shine.” Renée Watson personifies summer in this ode to summer’s arrival through a young African American girl’s experiences on her perfect summer day from sunrise to sunset. The girl starts by wondering, “What joy will summer bring me today?” She finds that it brings fresh fruits, swimming and jumping rope with friends, a cookout with family and friends, ice cream treats, and the sun’s warmth on her skin. At the end of the day, the girl longingly stares at the moon and stars and shares her desire, “I wish summer would stay.” Bea Jackson’s digital illustrations bring the flawless day to life through luminous light and realistic depictions of diverse children and adults that complement the celebratory mood of Watson’s text about summer and its many joys. (PreK-Gr 2) 

---

Nicole Maxwell is an associate professor specializing in literacy instruction in the Elementary and Special Education Program at the University of North Georgia.