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Recommended Summer Reading for Kids: 1998

These books are recommended by the library staff of the Colchester School District, who are members of the Vermont Educational Media Association, an affiliate of the Vermont-National Education Association, with the assistance of Leda Schubert, Vermont Department of Education. For more recommendations, see your school or public librarian.

1998 Newbery Award: Karen Hesse, OUT OF THE DUST. Scholastic.

1998 Caldecott Award: Paul Zelinsky, RAPUNZEL. Dutton.

Grades K-2 Recommended Titles

Selected by Vermont-NEA members Judy Flanagan and Mary Ann Kadish at Porters Point and Union Memorial Schools in Colchester.

• Bunting, Eve. SUNFLOWER HOUSE. Harcourt Brace. A young boy creates a summer playhouse by planting sunflowers and saves the seeds to make another house the next year.
• Christelow, Eileen. FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS WITH NOTHING TO DO. Clarion. Five little monkeys are bored, but their mother has them clean up the house for Grandma Bessie's visit. Then something happens just before Grandma Bessie arrives.
• Grossman, Bill. MY LITTLE SISTER ATE ONE HARE. Crown. Little sister has no problem eating one hare, two snakes and three ants, but when she gets to ten peas, she throws up quite a mess.
• Hest, Amy. YOU'RE THE BOSS, BABY DUCK! Candlewick. When her parents make a fuss over their new baby, Baby Duck feels neglected, until her wonderful Grandpa helps her to realize that she is still important.
• Legge, David BAMBOOZLED. Scholastic. A young girl on her weekly visit to her grandparents feels that there is something out of the ordinary, but can't figure out what.
• London, Sara. FIREHORSE MAX. Harper Collins. This story takes place in a Vermont town where Grandpa Lev, an old peddler, needs a new horse to pull his wagon. Firehorse Max is big and fast and just the horse to help until he hears fire bells clanging in the distance.
• Osborne, Mary Pope. POLAR BEARS PAST BEDTIME. Random House. It's icicle city when the Magic Tree House whisks Jack and Annie to the frozen Arctic. Luckily, a seal hunter on a dog sled lends them warm clothes. Unluckily, they get stuck on cracking ice. Will the giant polar bear save them? Or will Jack and Annie become frozen dinners? Another great Magic Tree House adventure for young readers.
• Parish, Herman. BRAVO, AMELIA BEDELIA. Morrow. Amelia Bedelia makes her musical debut in the school orchestra's concert. The conductor, however, isn't quite as enthused with this new musician.
• Parks, Barbara. JUNIE B. JONES IS A PARTY ANIMAL. Random House. Lucille invites Junie B. and her friend Grace to sleep over at her very rich nana's house, where everything is beautiful, expensive and breakable! Sleeping at nana's is sure to be a dream come true for Lucille and Junie B.
• Schwartz, David M. SUPERGRANDPA. Lothrop. A sixty-six-year-old grandfather, barred from entering the 1000-mile tour of Sweden because of his age, unofficially joins the bicycle race and, to the delight of his countrymen, emerges victorious.
• Wells, Rosemary. BUNNY MONEY. Dial. Max and Ruby spend so much on emergencies while shopping for Grandma's birthday presents that they just barely have enough money left for gifts.

Grades 3-5 Recommended Titles

Selected by Vermont-NEA member Mary Stamm of Malletts Bay School in Colchester.

• Byars, Betsy. THE NOT-JUST-ANYBODY FAMILY. Delacorte. With a young brother in the hospital, a grandfather in jail, and their mother traveling with a rodeo, Maggie and Vern try to settle family problems.
• Conford, Ellen. WHAT'S COOKING, JENNY ARCHER? Little, Brown. Follows the comic mishaps of Jenny Archer as she goes into business preparing lunches for friends at school.
• Conrad, Pam. STAYING NINE. Harper & Row. Nine-year-old Heather doesn't want to turn ten until wacky Rosa Rita shows her that growing up isn't so bad.
• Henkes, Kevin. RETURN TO SENDER. Greenwillow. When Whitaker writes a letter to Frogman, a TV super hero, his family laughs, but they stop laughing and start wondering when he receives an answer.
• Honeycutt, Natalie. THE ALL NEW JONAH TWIST. Bradbury. Jonah's efforts to survive the third grade are complicated by the new boy in class, who has the potential for either becoming a friend or beating him up.
• Hurwitz, Johanna. ALI BABA BERNSTEIN, LOST AND FOUND. Morrow. Throughout a series of adventures, ten-year-old David "Ali Baba" Bernstein spends most of his time thinking about becoming a detective and getting a dog.
• Mills, Claudia. DYNAMITE DINAH. Macmillan. Mischievous Dinah struggles to remain the center of attention when her baby brother comes home from the hospital and her best friend gets a lead role in the class play.
• Paterson, Katherine. FLIP-FLOP GIRL. Lodestar. Uprooted following the death of their father, nine-year-old Vinnie and her five-year-old brother, Mason, cope in different ways with the help of Lupe, the flip-flop girl.
• Robinson, Barbara. MY BROTHER LOUIS MEASURES WORMS AND OTHER LOUIS STORIES. Harper Collins. Young Mary Elizabeth relates the humorous misadventures of her brother Louis and the other wacky members of her unpredictable, very odd family.
• Shura, Mary Francis. THE SEARCH FOR GRISSI. Dodd. Eleven-year-old Peter feels uncomfortable at home and school after his family moves to Brooklyn, until his search for his sister's missing cat opens up a new life for him.
• Taylor, Mildred D. THE FRIENDSHIP. Dial. Four children witness a confrontation between an elderly black man and a white storekeeper in rural Mississippi in the 1930's.
• Wallace, Barbara Brooks. THE TWIN IN THE TAVERN. Atheneum. A young orphan, afraid of being sent to the workhouse, finds himself at the mercy of the unsavory owner of a tavern in Alexandria, Virginia, while he tries to solve the mystery surrounding his past and a missing twin.

Grades 6-8 Recommended Titles

Selected by Vermont-NEA member Maria Angelika Mahoney of Colchester Middle School

• Alexander, Lloyd. THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF PRINCE JEN. Dutton. Bearing six unusual gifts, young Prince Jen embarks on a perilous quest to learn the skills of a good ruler.
• Avi. BEYOND THE WESTERN SEA I and II. Orchard. Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year-old Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord's runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America; their adventures continue on board ship and in the New World.
• Barron, T.A. THE ANCIENT ONE. Putnam. While helping her Great Aunt Melanie try to protect an Oregon redwood forest from loggers, thirteen-year-old Kate goes back five centuries through a time tunnel and faces the evil creature Gashra, who is bent on destroying the same forest.
• Curtis, Christopher Paul. THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM - 1963. Delacorte. The life and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
• Hahn, Mary Downing. FOLLOWING IN MY OWN FOOTSTEPS. Clarion. In this sequel to STEPPING ON THE CRACKS, Gordy's grandmother shortly before the end of World War II takes him and his family into her North Carolina home after his father is arrested. Gordy just begins to open up and make a friend when his father returns.
• Hesse, Karen. MUSIC OF DOLPHINS. Scholastic. After rescuing an adolescent girl from the sea, researchers learn that she has been raised by dolphins and attempt to rehabilitate her to the human world.
• Korman, Gordon. THE TWINKIE SQUAD. Scholastic. Chaos spreads when Douglas, the most eccentric 6th grader in Thaddeus G. Little Middle School, joins the Twinkie Squad, a special counseling group for problem students.
• Littlefield, Bill. CHAMPIONS: STORIES OF TEN REMARKABLE ATHLETES. Little. A collection of sports profiles exploring athletes such as Satchel Paige, Julie Krone, Pele, and Susan Butcher who have made extraordinary achievements.
• McCaffrey, Anne. BLACK HORSES FOR THE KING. Harcourt. Galwyn, son of a Roman Celt, escapes from his tyrannical uncle and joins Lord Artos, later known as King Arthur, using his talent with languages and way with horses to help secure and care for the Libyan horses that Artos hopes to use in battle against the Saxons.
• Paulsen, Gary. PUPPIES, DOGS, AND BLUE NORTHERS. Harcourt. Author and dog musher Gary Paulsen recounts his experiences with Cookie, his favorite sled dog and her last litter.
• Sebestyen, Ouida. OUT OF NOWHERE. Orchard. When he no longer fits into his vagabond mother's life, thirteen-year-old Harley adopts an abandoned dog and falls in with an outspoken old woman, a cantankerous junk collector, and an energetic and loving teenage girl.
• Wright, Betty Ren. OUT OF THE DARK. Scholastic. When Jessica moves to her grandmother's childhood home and makes friends with the handicapped girl next door, she begins to have nightmares about the old schoolhouse in the woods.

Grades 9-12 Recommended Titles

Selected by Vermont-NEA member Louise Hill of Colchester High School.

• Coelho, Paulo. THE ALCHEMIST. Harper. This is a magical story of Santiago, a shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of worldly treasure. From his home in Spain he journeys across the Egyptian desert where he encounters the Alchemist. This story is about listening to our hearts and following our dreams.
• Hautman, Pete. MR. WAS. Simon and Schuster. After his dying grandfather tries to strangle him, Jack Lund discovers a door that leads him fifty years into the past and involves him in events that determine his own future.
• Lamb, Wally. SHE'S COME UNDONE. Pocket Books. Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood good-bye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she really goes under.
• Levenkron, Steven. THE LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD. Scribner. Katie is an attractive figure skating star. Her smile cannot camouflage the pain she feels inside. Katie internalizes her pain and "spaces out". She brings herself back to reality by cutting herself.
• McLaren, Clemence. INSIDE THE WALLS OF TROY. Atheneum. The events surrounding the famous battle between the Greeks and the Trojans are told from the points of view of two women, the beautiful Helen and the prophetic Cassandra.
• Myers, Walter Dean. FALLEN ANGELS. Scholastic. Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
• Myers, Walter Dean. SLAM. Scholastic. Sixteen-year-old " Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.
• Paulsen, Gary. THE CAR. Harcourt Brace. A teenager left on his own travels west in a kit car he built himself, and along the way picks up two Vietnam veterans, who take him on an eye-opening journey.
• Pennebaker, Ruth. DON'T THINK TWICE. Holt. Seventeen years old and pregnant, Anne lives with other unwed mothers in a group home in rural Texas where she learns to be herself before giving her child up for adoption.
• Thomas, Rob. RATS SAW GOD. Simon and Schuster. In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment which helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed him from promising student to troubled teen.

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