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Summer Reading for Kids 2003

These books have been selected by Vermont public school librarians, and are recommended for summer reading for children and young adults. For more recommendations, see your school or public librarian. For a complete listing of American Library Association Awards, go to: www.ala.org

2003 Caldecott Award
Rohmann, Eric. MY FRIEND RABBIT. Clarion.

2003 Newbery Award
Avi. CRISPIN: THE CROSS OF LEAD. Clarion.

2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award
Grimes, Nikki. BRONX MASQUERADE. Dial Books for Young Readers.

2003 Michael L. Printz Award
Chambers, Aidan. POSTCARDS FROM NO MAN’S LAND. Dutton/Penguin Putnam.

2003 Robert F. Sibert Award
Giblin, James Cross. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER. Clarion.

For a list of honor books and other awards presented by the American Library Association, go to: www.ala.org/alsc/awards.html#others

Grades K-4. Compiled by Vermont-NEA members Angelica Harris, school librarian at Alburg Education Center, and Mary Ann Kadish, librarian at Porters Point School, Colchester.

• Brett, Jan. DAISY COMES HOME. Putnam’s Sons, 2002. Daisy, an unhappy hen in China, floats down the river in a basket and has an adventure.
• Bunting, Eve. WHALES PASSING. Blue Sky Press, 2003. A young boy and his father watch a pod of Orca whales and wonder how they find their way from place to place. Notes at the end give facts about Orca whales.
• Danziger, Paula. GET READY FOR SECOND GRADE AMBER BROWN. Putnam’s Sons, 2002. Amber is worried that her second grade teacher may not be as nice as her old teacher. Will her new teacher give “seven hours of homework? What if she’s an alien from some foreign planet?” She sets out with her friend, Justin, ready for anything…
• DePaola, Tomie. ADELITA. Putnam, 2002. A Mexican Cinderella story about Adelita who is badly mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters until she finds her own true love at a grand fiesta. Tomie DePaola chooses warm Southwestern hues for his magnificent illustrations.
• Ehlert, Lois. WAITING FOR WINGS. Harcourt, 2001. Brilliant illustrations and rhyming text tell about the beauty and diversity of butterflies. z
• Gibbons, Gail. BEHOLD, THE UNICORNS! HarperCollins, 2002. People once believed in unicorns and their magic. Today, these legendary creatures still captivate our imaginations. Discover the origins of unicorn lore and how they remain with us today.
• Karas, G. Brian. ATLANTIC. Putnam, 2002. Put a seashell to your ear and listen to the Atlantic Ocean whisper its secrets of tides, waves, dolphins and beaches. Explore its breadth and depth through the refreshing illustrations.
• Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie. FROM DAWN TO DUSK. Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Vermont author Natalie Kinsey-Warnock recalls all the hard work involved in growing up on the farm, but she also remembers all the good times. This book shows how the work and fun on a farm changes with each new season. Illustrated by Vermont artist/illustrator Mary Azarian.
• Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie. LUMBER CAMP LIBRARY. Harper Collins, 2002. A young girl, Ruby, who grows up among lumber camps, finds that with her love of learning and books she can bring happiness to many.
• Micucci, Charles. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE ANT. Houghton Mifflin, 2003. A budding naturalist will love this glimpse into the world of the lowly ant. Learn about the lifecycle, habits and perils of being an insect. Fanciful yet concise illustrations add to the fun.
• Morgan, Janet. MINERVA LOUISE AND THE BIG RED TRUCK. Penguin Putnam, 2002. Spend a day with Minerva Louise as she gets a ride in the big red truck and sees many other kinds of big and little trucks on the way.
• Riddell, Chris. PLATYPUS AND THE LUCKY DAY. Harcourt, 2002. Platypus wakes up feeling lucky and goes to fly his kite, but suddenly his luck changes. Everything he tries seems to go wrong…until he bumps into a tree.
• Sloat, Teri. FARMER BROWN SHEARS HIS SHEEP. DK, 2000. Farmer Brown shears his sheep and has their wool made into yarn; but after they beg to have it back, he knits the yarn into sweaters for them. Barnyard fun.
• Wheeler, Lisa. ONE DARK NIGHT. Harcourt, 2003. Told in rhyme, this book follows a mouse and mole as they step out one dark night. They cross a mush-murky swamp and a marsh-misty wood and find a surprise waiting for them.
• Yolen, Jane. HOW DO DINOSAURS GET WELL SOON? Blue Sky Press, 2003. What do you do with a dinosaur who is feeling ill? Colorful dinosaurs both large and small will entertain you with their antics of what they do to get well. A companion novel to How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

• Banks, Kate. DILLON DILLON. Frances Foster Books, 2002. Dillon had long wondered why his first and last names were the same, but during his tenth summer, on a lake in New Hampshire, he is taken aback when his loving family reveals the whole truth. A touching story of growing up.
• Blacker, Terence. THE ANGEL FACTORY. Simon & Schuster, 2002. Why are his parents so darn perfect? When his friend Gip urges him to press for answers, Thomas begins a gripping odyssey into the unknown as he learns not only that he’s adopted, but also that his family is controlled by an unworldly secret society. A British fantasy for older readers.
• Chabon, Michael. SUMMERLAND. Hyperion, 2002. A zany, rambling saga about baseball on an island where it never rains in summer; a lovable but eccentric scientist father; his son Ethan, who cannot catch or hit though he tries; Ethan’s friend, Jennifer, who excels at hitting; and a classmate who is only part android. Also the end of the world, lots of evil and good, very active small creatures, and a car that travels by hot air balloon.
• Cummings, Priscilla. A FACE FIRST. Dutton, 2001. Twelve-year-old Kelly wonders if she’ll ever be normal again after a fiery car crash burns her face so badly she must wear a plastic face mask for at least a year. An absorbing story of one girl’s healing.
• Eckert, Allan W. INCIDENT AT HAWK’S HILL. Little, Brown, 1971. Ben, a shy six-year-old boy, wanders away from his home on the Canadian prairie, takes shelter in a badger’s den during a thunderstorm, and spends three months surviving in the wild with the help of a female badger. This survival story is based on a true event from 1870.
• Elish, Dan. BORN TOO SHORT: THE CONFESSIONS OF AN EIGHTH-GRADE BASKET CASE. Atheneum, 2002. Matt’s jealousy over his friend Keith’s height, looks, popularity, and athletic success causes him to wish bad luck on Keith and good luck on himself. Then, when the wish seems to come true, Matt is confused by both guilt and first love in this humorous, quick read.
• Farrell, Mame. AND SOMETIMES WHY. Farrar, 2001. They have always been best friends, but now that they’re eighth graders, and he’s a boy and she’s a girl, Jack is stunned to realize that Chris has turned into a knockout. Love and humor for older middle schoolers.
• Gaiman, Neil. CORALINE. HarperCollins, 2002. Behind a locked door in Coraline’s new house lurks a wicked being who looks and sounds like her mother, yet has sharp red fingernails and big black buttons in place of her eyes. This horror-fantasy is on the DCF list for 2004.
• Gantos, Jack. JOEY PIGZA SWALLOWED THE KEY. Scholastic, 2000. Joey also tried to sharpen his fingernails in the pencil sharpener, and worse. He’s in a desperate battle with Attention Deficit Disorder, trying to avoid going to a special school. This funny, realistic book which never laughs at Joey is followed by two sequels: Joey Pigza Loses Control and What Would Joey Do?
• Kehret, Peg. SMALL STEPS: THE YEAR I GOT POLIO. Albert Whitman,1996. The inspiring true story of Peg Kehret’s long ordeal and slow recovery from the pain and paralysis of the much-feared disease polio when she was 12 years old.
• Leguin, Ursula. WIZARD OF EARTHSEA. Parnassus, 1968. Magic rules the world when a rough peasant boy uncovers his own enormous and dangerous abilities. This fantasy is the first of three books about Sparrowhawk.
• Lynch, Chris. SLOT MACHINE. HarperCollins, 1995. Elvin, an unathletic 13-year-old, is sent to an army-style sports camp “to prepare him for high school.” Unpredictably, Elvin finds himself and where he belongs. A cutting look at fitting teens into slots.
• Paulsen, Gary. MY LIFE IN DOG YEARS. Delacorte, 1998. Cookie was a sled dog who saved Paulsen’s life, and this book is dedicated to her. But other dogs besides sled dogs have shared his life. Here are their stories. And his.
• Pierce, Tamora. MAGIC STEPS. Scholastic, 2000. Sandry, a high-born trained mage at 14, discovers Pasco who can weave dancing spells. Can they learn to work together fast enough to defend their country against a fate worse than death? A good introduction to The Circle Opens series.
• Waugh, Sylvia. EARTHBORN. Delacorte, 2002. What if your perfectly normal parents told you that they were really from outer space and that you need to return with them to the home planet the weekend after next? But Nesta was born on Earth, and she wants to stay, even if she has to stay alone. Realistic science fiction.

• Marsden, John. TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN. Houghton Mifflin, 1993. An apocalyptic adventure written by an award-winning Australian author, Marsden portrays his teenage protagonists as sensitive, caring, resourceful, lustful and courageous. A riveting and taughtly drawn novel that is only the beginning of a series that is impossible to stop reading.
• Goodkind, Terry. WIZARD’S FIRST RULE. Tom Doherty Associates, 1994. Epic in scope, this fantasy has it all: romance, adventure, horror, and suspense - a great escape from our everyday lives and headlines. Teens consume each book in the series and impatiently await the next publication. First in the ongoing Sword of Truth series.
• Atwood, Margaret. ALIAS GRACE. Doubleday, 1996. Grace Marks is convicted of murdering her wealthy employer and his housekeeper/mistress. Grace tells her story from a lunatic asylum where she is serving a life sentence. This psychological murder mystery set in nineteenth century Canada is one of Atwood’s best. A captivating, disturbing and ultimately satisfying novel.
• Marillier, Juliet. DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST. Tom Doherty Associates, 2000. A beautiful retelling of the Celtic “Swans” myth, this novel is a mixture of history and fantasy, myth and magic, legend and love. Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, watches in horror as her six brothers are bound by a spell that turns them into swans and her father is bewitched by a wicked sorceress. Only Sorcha can lift the spell and she embarks on a journey that is filled with pain, loss and terror.
• Kingsolver, Barbara. PRODIGAL SUMMER. HarperCollins, 2000. Recommended for mature teens, this novel nourishes souls with environmental and ecological passions. Kingsolver weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling farms of southern Appalachia.
• Sebold, Alice. LOVELY BONES. Little, Brown, 2002. 14 year-old Susie Salmon watches from her place in an interim heaven as her family, friends and community members deal with their grief and the investigation into her murder. Susie realizes that she cannot release herself completely until she can give up her earthly concerns. Sebold confronts a brutally violent death with lightness and humor that counteracts the grim subject.
• Citro, Joseph A. SHADOW CHILD. University Press of New England, 1998. A powerful, malevolent force is at work in the mysterious stone structures set in the Green Mountains. Baffling incidents begin to happen in a small New England town and people begin to vanish. When Eric Nolan, whose twin brother disappeared at the age of five, returns to town, he finds himself in the midst of a shocking and terrifying truth.

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