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Recommended Summer Reading for Kids: 1997

These books for primary, middle grade, and high school students are recommended for summer reading by the school librarians of the Vermont Educational Media Association, an affiliate of the Vermont-National Education Association, with the assistance of Leda Schubert, school library-media consultant, Vermont Department of Education. Each group spans a wide age-range: for more specific age recommendations, see your librarian.

1997 Award winners

• Caldecott Award: Wisniewski, David. GOLEM. Clarion.
• Newbery Award: Konigsberg, E.L. THE VIEW FROM SATURDAY. Atheneum.

Grades K-4

Recommended Titles Selected by Vermont-NEA member Debbie Chamberlin of Ferrisburgh Central and Addison Central Schools...

• Alexander, Lloyd. THE FORTUNE TELLERS. Dutton. A carpenter goes to a fortune teller and finds the predictions about his future come true in an unusual way.
• Baillie, Marilyn. MAGIC FUN. Little, Brown. Mystery potions, card magic, vanishing tricks, puzzles, treats, and much more!
• Base, Graeme. ANIMALIA. Abrams. An alphabet book with a difference - filled with exotic and familiar creatures, hidden objects, and wonderful details.
• Blume, Judy. FRECKLE JUICE. Four Winds. Andrew wants freckles so badly that he buys Sharon's freckle recipe for fifty cents.
• Byars, Betsy. WANTED, MUD BLOSSOM. Delacorte. Convinced that Mud the dog is responsible for the disappearance of the school hamster that he is caring for over the weekend, Junior Blossom is determined to try the dog for the crime.
• Cameron, Ann. THE STORIES JULIAN TELLS. Pantheon. Humorous episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life include when he and little brother Huey get into trouble, plant a garden, and more.
• Christensen, Bonnie. REBUS RIOT. Dial. Colorful presentation of verses which use pictures in place of words, by a Vermont author/illustrator.
• Danziger, Paula. AMBER BROWN IS NOT A CRAYON. Putnam. The year she is in third grade is a sad time for Amber, because her best friend Justin is getting ready to move.
• Fleischman, Sid. THE WHIPPING BOY. Greenwillow. A bratty prince and his whipping boy have many adventures when they inadvertently trade places after becoming involved with dangerous outlaws.
• Marshall, James. GEORGE AND MARTHA. Houghton. A friendship between two wonderfully appealing characters, who happen to be hippos, is presented in short chapters.
• Nolan, Dennis. THE CASTLE BUILDER. Macmillan. A young boy builds an unusual sand castle on the beach.
• Rylant, Cynthia. HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE HAPPY CAT. Bradbury. Henry's family takes in a stray cat, the strangest cat they have ever seen, and an amazing relationship blossoms between the cat and Mudge, Henry's big dog.
• Steig, William. SPINKY SULKS. Farrar. Spinky feels his family doesn't love him, and nothing they say or do can convince him otherwise.
• Van Allsburg, Chris. TWO BAD ANTS. Houghton. When two bad ants desert their colony, they experience a dangerous adventure that convinces them to return to their former safety.
• Williams, Vera. THREE DAYS ON A RIVER IN A RED CANOE. Greenwillow. Mother, Aunt Rosie, and two children take a three-day camping trip by canoe.

Grades 5-8

Recommended Titles Selected by Vermont-NEA member Georgeanne Bonifanti of Manchester Elementary School...

• Avi. POPPY. Orchard. Poppy the deer mouse urges her family to move near a field of corn big enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocas, a terrifying owl, has other ideas.
• Bunting, Eve. JUMPING THE NAIL. Harcourt. When teenagers in a California coastal community challenge each other to 'jump the nail' - leap from dangerous cliffs into the ocean - group pressure and manipulative relationships quickly drive the game out of control.
• Cohen, Barbara. ROSES. Morrow. When her father becomes desperate and steals a rare rose from a florist shop, Isabel is forced into employment by the hideously deformed shop owner as payment for her father's deed. A variation on Beauty and the Beast.
• Coville, Bruce. JEREMY THATCHER, DRAGON HATCHER. Harcourt. When twelve-year-old Jeremy unknowingly buys a dragon's egg, his whole life changes.
• Deaver, Julie Reece. SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE. HarperCollins. When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with whom she has shared everything from childhood escapades to professional theater in Chicago, seventeen-year-old Morgan must find her own way to cope with his death.
• Feiffer, Jules. A BARREL OF LAUGHS, A VALE OF TEARS. HarperCollins. Roger, a prince who can't get serious, sets off on a quest to turn himself into a sober young man, worthy of the throne. Along the way he learns to care for others, finds friends, and falls in love.
• Fleischman, Sid. MR. MYSTERIOUS AND COMPANY. Little; Greenwillow. The adventures of a family of magicians traveling across the western deserts and plains in the 1880s are brought to life in this novel by the author of the new Abracadabra Kid.
• Haas, Jessie. UNCLE DANEY'S WAY. Greenwillow. When his great-uncle Daney comes to live with Cole's family after being crippled in a logging accident, the two work together all summer to find a way to make enough money to buy feed so they can keep Daney's old horse.
• Lewin, Ted. I WAS A TEENAGE PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER. Orchard. The author-illustrator describes his early days supporting himself as a professional wrestler.
• Marzollo, Jean. HALFWAY DOWN PADDY LANE. Scholastic. Fifteen-year-old Kate finds herself transported back in time to 1850 in her Connecticut town, where she must adjust to the prejudices against Irish immigrants and to working long hours in a cotton mill. She tragically falls in love with a boy who is more than just a friend.
• Mayne, William. HOB AND THE GOBLINS. DK. Hob, the friendly spirit who lives under the stairs and protects the house, must battle with a variety of evil beings trying to take control of his family's home.
• Mills, Claudia. DINAH FOR PRESIDENT. Dinah Seabrooke, now in her first year of middle school, struggles to become a big fish in what seems like an ocean.
• Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux. POSSIBLES. Following the death of her father, a twelve-year-old girl takes a summer job instead of going to camp with a friend as planned.
• Wolff, Virginia Euwer. MAKE LEMONADE. Holt. In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother.
• Yolen, Jane. WIZARD'S HALL. Harcourt. A young apprentice wizard saves the wizard's training hall by trusting and believing in himself.
• Yolen, Jane. THE GIFT OF SARAH BARKER. Viking. Two young members of a Shaker community begin to question their way of life and that of "The World."

Grades 9-12

Selected Titles Compiled by Vermont-NEA member Pat Williams of Hazen Union High School...

• Ackerman, Diane. A SLENDER THREAD: REDISCOVERING HOPE AT THE HEART OF CRISIS. Random. A prolific writer and expert on natural history and evolution, Ackerman weaves together animal and human experiences in dealing with suffering. She relates situations from her volunteer work at a suicide prevention and crisis center against the backdrop of events in the natural world.
• Bennet, James. SQUARED CIRCLE. Scholastic. A young basketball prodigy's path to glory plunges into a nightmare when he becomes enmeshed in a college recruitment scandal. Sonny is a refreshing hero and role model because the reader feels his pain and his recovery is unique.
• French, Albert. BILLY. Viking. Ten-year-old Billy Lee Turner is convicted of and executed for murdering a white girl in 1930's rural Mississippi, and the theme of racism and injustice rears its ugly head with nearly unbearable intensity. Billy, his mother, and other characters will not be soon forgotten.
• Hahn, Mary Downing. THE WIND BLOWS BACKWARD. Although they share a love of poetry and problems with their parents, a shy high school senior's attraction to a popular classmate is tempered by her fear of his moody, self-destructive side. This is a compassionate handling of depression and how little can be done for it.
• Lester, Julius. OTHELLO: A NOVEL. Scholastic. A modernized retelling of William Shakespeare's tragedy, in which a jealous general is duped into thinking that his wife has been unfaithful. Lester reinterprets some motives of the characters, thus providing a startling exploration of racism, but is faithful to the 'inner human landscape' of Shakespeare, which he explains in a brief but vibrant introduction.
• Magorian, Michelle. GOOD NIGHT, MR. TOM. HarperCollins. The unforgettable story of Will, a battered child who learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during World War II. A moving example of love's healing powers.
• Marsden, John. LETTERS FROM THE INSIDE. Houghton. In this Australian novel, two teenage girls form an intense relationship as pen pals who confide in and advise each other. When Mandy learns that Tracey has been disguising her true identity, forgiveness brings them even closer. Although the ending is unexpected and upsetting, this is an engaging and important novel, especially in this world of e-mail pen pals.
• Napoli, Donna Jo. SONG OF THE MAGDALENE. Scholastic. Possibly controversial in its interpretation of both Old and New Testament history, this is the story of how Miriam, an ill-fated girl in ancient Israel who suffers from seizures and prejudice, learns about a miraculous healer in Galilee, and turns out to be Mary Magdalene.
• Peck, Richard. THIS FAMILY OF WOMEN. Delacorte. A brilliantly warm and colorful family saga is told in six related books, each with its own narrator from the next generation. The narrative moves from the pioneer trail to San Francisco and the Gold Rush, and on to Europe with women as varied and fascinating as the times and places they lived in.
• Raybon, Patricia. MY FIRST WHITE FRIEND: CONFESSIONS ON RACE, LOVE AND FORGIVENESS. Viking. This self-proclaimed 'diary, journal, journey' is a hypnotic narrative of the author's discovery of racial forgiveness; she ultimately finds the ability to love herself after analyzing societal norms for middle class blacks in a white person's America.
• Rinaldi, Ann. THE BLUE DOOR. Scholastic. In this completion of The Quilt Trilogy, Amanda, granddaughter of Abigail, returns in disguise and fear to her great-grandfather's textile mill to bring home the piece of the quilt which Abigail took when she ran off with a Southerner right under her father's nose. The quilt itself symbolizes a patchwork of themes that both separate and unite a family.
• van Dijk, Lutz. DAMNED STRONG LOVE: THE TRUE STORY OF WILLI G. AND STEPHAN K. Holt. In German-occupied Poland, in 1941, sixteen-year-old Stephan has a love affair with Willi, a young Austrian German soldier who is stationed in his town. Their passion is so sincere they cannot believe the danger they are in. Naively, Stephan sends Willi a letter which is answered by the Gestapo, who imprison and brutally torture Stephan. Willi's fate, ominously, is never discovered. Identifying the story as true, the author appends an afterward to the American edition by the real-life Stephan K.
• Walker, Alice. ALICE WALKER BANNED. Aunt Lute. The contents of this tiny book are two stories by Alice Walker, with debates over their censorship. In the introduction, Patricia Holt describes the irony in Walker's being offered a Governor's Award for two stories that were abruptly removed from a test for tenth-graders, one because it was 'anti-meat-eating.' Includes appendixes of news clippings on challenges to Walker's writings.
• Weaver, Will. FARM TEAM. HarperCollins. In this sequel to Striking Out, Billy's father is in jail and his mother is working full-time, so it's up to fourteen-year-old Billy to run the family farm in northern Minnesota. This leaves him precious little time for what he loves and is best at: baseball. The spunky kid who is forced to grow up too fast will strike home with many readers.

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