Summer vacation is a great time for adventures and new experiences. It is also a great time for reading. You can combine the two by reading about the adventures of kids on their summer vacations.
Here are some great books to read this summer.
Summerland by Michael Chabon
Ethan Feld, the worst player on his Little League team, becomes an unlikely hero when he must use his newfound skills as a catcher to save a tiny race of people, known as ferrishers, and their magical realm called Summerland.
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Ten-year-old Opal makes a makes new friends in her new hometown with the help of a scruffy, adopted dog named Winn Dixie.
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
The title tells it all—a wonderful story full of friendship, sisterhood, and adventure.
The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
Fourteen-year-old Sara, caught up in her own mood swings and teenage concerns, learns what it means to care more about someone else when her mentally handicapped younger brother goes missing.
Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood
Almost twelve-year-old Glory writes a no-nonsense letter to the editor in the summer of 1964, when she learns that the citizens of her hometown, Hanging Moss, Mississippi, would rather close down the local swimming pool than desegregate it.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Three sisters fly from Brooklyn, New York, to Oakland, California, to visit their poet mother who ran off years ago. During the summer of 1968, the girls learn about Black Power, their mother’s poetry, her involvement with the Black Panther Party, and her reason for leaving them behind.
The Watson Go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Watson family travels to Birmingham, Alabama right after the spring civil rights campaign in this story that is both serious and hilarious.
The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman
In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie wishes for an adventure to liven up a boring summer at her grandmother’s house, on former the site of her family’s plantation. She gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself mistaken for a slave on her ancestor’s plantation.