Beat the Heat with Some Cool Summer Reads!

We're all about to be right smack in the middle of Summer. Especially for those in Texas! Beat the heat with some awesome books. These are some of my favorite books and some new ones that I have passed my desk and peaked my interest. Check them out at your local library! And don't miss out on the Summer Reading Program!

Easy Picture Books

• Dinosaur Starts School by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
• Possum Magic by Mem Fox
• My Garden by Kevin Henkes
• If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
• The Dot by Peter Reynolds
• Ish by Peter Reynolds
• A Chair for Mother by Vera B. Williams
• Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems

WP-CC's All-Time Most Favorite Author: Mary Downing Hahn
From the moment I read The Doll in the Garden I was hooked to her novels. Her books are perfect for any season, but her ghost stories are the best during summer. They are scary, but not too scary - a perfect mixture. The Doll in the Garden still gives me chills and I really love time For Andrew. Explore her awesome books that I've listed below by genre:

Ghost Stories

• All the Lovely Bad Ones: A Ghost Story
• Deep and Dark and Dangerous: A Ghost Story
• The Doll in the Garden: A Ghost Story
• The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story
• Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story
• Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story

Historical Fiction

• Anna All Year Round
• Anna on the Farm
• As Ever, Gordy (sequel to Following My Own Footsteps)
• Following My Own Footsteps (sequel to Stepping on Cracks)
• The Gentleman Outlaw and Me - Eli
• Hear the Wind Blow
• Promise to the Dead
• Stepping on Cracks

Mysteries

• Closed for the Season: A Mystery Story
• The Dead Man in Indian Creek
• Following the Mystery Man

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

• Daphne's Book
• December Stillness
• Janey and the Famous Author
• The Jellyfish Season
• The Sara Summer
• The Spanish-Kidnapping Disaster
• Tallahassee Higgins
• The Wind Blows Backwards

Fantasy

• Look for Me by Moonlight
• The Time of the Witch
• Witch Catcher

JF and YA Books for All!!!

Great Mysteries to Solve

• Who Stole the Wizard of Oz by Avi
• A great trilogy by Blue Balliett

Chasing Vermeer

The Wright Three

The Calder Game

• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Kongsburg
• The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Need a Little Action with Your Greek Mythology?

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters

The Titan's Curse

The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian

The Demigod File

Ooh, Vampires! (beyond Twilight!)

• Look for Me By Moonlight by Mary Downing Hahn
• The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
• Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
• The House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast:

Marked

Betrayed

Chosen

Untamed

Hunted

Tempted

Burned

Get ready for the next book Awakened coming January 2011!!!

Also get ready for the House of Night Fledgling Handbook 101 that's being released October 26, 2010!!!!!

"Swish and Flick!" - What is summer would it be without some Harry Potter?
by J.K. Rowling

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Great Guy Read

• The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen
• The Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Study in Scarlet

The Sign of Four

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Hounds of Baskervilles

The Valley of Fear

His Last Bow

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• the Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan
• The Long Way Home by Andrew Klavan (sequel to The Last Thing I Remember)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

Girls Have Adventures and Misadventures Too!

• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
• Hunger Games by Susanne Collins
• Catching Fire by Susanne Collins (sequel to Hunger Games) (get ready for the next book Mockingjay coming August 2010!!!)
• The Gentleman Outlaw and Me - Eli by Mary Downing Hahn

Can't Mess with the Classics!!!

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (and the remaining original Oz books)
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
• The Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Beowulf translation by Seamus Heaney (Heaney's translation is the best out there, plus you can see the Old English text along with the English translation!)
• The Nancy Drew mysteries by Caroline Keene
• The Hardy Boys mysteries by Franklin B. Dixon
• The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis

The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe,

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (get ready for the new movie coming December 2010!!!)


The Silver Chair

The Horse and His Boy

The Magician's Nephew

The Last Battle

• Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

What would Summer be
Without a little
Poetry?

• Shout! Little Poems that Roar by Brod Bagert
• Give Yourself to the Rain: Poems for the Very Young by Margaret Wise Brown
• Don't Step on the Sky: A Handful of Haiku by Miriam Chaikin
• Fold Me a Poem by Kristine O'Connell George
• Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems by Kristine O'Connell George
• Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems by Eloise Greenfield
• Behind the Museum Door: Poems to Celebrate the Wonders of Museums by Lee Bennett Hopkins
• Pocket Poems by Bobbie Katz
• I Once Ate a Pie by Patricia and Emily MacLachlan