Summer Reading

Borrow a great novel  from the Fraser Valley Public Library:
http://www.fvrl.bc.ca.

Or find fantastic bargains at Hemingway’s New and Used Books:
http://www.hemibooks.com.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9780385738064

Almond, David. Raven Summer.
All of Almond’s novels are for readers with speculative minds. “What if. . .” is always the question that changes the course of what might have been a straight-forward realistic novel.  And in this novel, the question is “What if an abandoned baby leads to children who have lived through horrific acts of war? What shall we do? Send them back to their nightmares?” Since Almond is a British writer, some of the references will not be familiar to Canadian students. Nevertheless, this story full of surprises will intrigue readers aged eleven and up.

Avi. A Place Called Ugly.
14-year-old Owen refuses to leave his family’s beach house that’s about to be destroyed at the end of the summer.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9780888997388

Baker, Deidre. Becca at Sea.
Becca is surprised by an eccentric aunt, bossy cousins and all sorts of adventures when she is sent to live with her grandmother on an island off the coast of B.C. You could compare this story to ‘Arthur, for the Very First Time’ by Patricia MacLachlan.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9780385905558

Banerjee, Anjali. Seaglass Summer.
While spending the summer with her uncle in the Pacific Northwest instead of visiting relatives in India, eleven-year-old Poppy Ray discovers the life of a veterinarian isn’t as glamourous as she’d expected. Readers of Becca at Sea by Deirdre Baker might comparing these two cheerful novels about indepedent and adventurous heroines.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9780307541345

Birdsall, Jeanne. The Penderwicks.
Four sisters, aged four through twelve, have adventures one summer while vacationing with their widowed father.

Blume, Judy. Fudge-a-Mania.
Pete spends an antic-filled summer vacation in Maine with his younger brother, Fudge.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0064402282

Bulla, Clyde Robert. Shoeshine Girl.
Sarah Ida is not happy to be spending the summer with her aunt. And her aunt isn’t happy when she discovers that Sarah has been ‘borrowing’ money from her new friend. She decides it is time for her niece to get a job!

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9781416949640

Cooper, Susan. Over Sea, Under Stone.
Simon, Jane and Barney, on holiday with their parents in Cornwall, England, are pulled into an ancient fight for an Arthurian treasure with the forces of darkness determined to defeat them.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0618234772

Crum, Shutta. Spitting Image.
Twelve-year-old Jessie starts to discover how complicated life can be when a government volunteer comes to help the people in her Kentucky town. All Jessie wants to do is earn some money to help her friend Robert get new glasses. Instead, she hurts the people she loves and learns how to think before she acts in this bittersweet story set in the 1960s.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0786264063

Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963.
The Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963 where their life unexpectedly changes.

Dyer, Hadley. Johnny Kellock Died Today.
Twelve-year-old Rosalie’s teenaged cousin vanishes in Halifax during the summer of 1959, and while she and a friend search for him, Rosalie discovers family secrets.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0316209481

Eckert, Allan W. Incident at Hawk’s Hill.
Based on a true story, the Newbery novel tells of a little boy who wanders away from his home one day in 1870 and disappears. How does he manage to survive most of a summer all by himself except for a badger for companionship?

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0152022724

Enright, Elizabeth. Gone-Away Lake.
Portia and her cousin Julian have adventures while exploring abandoned summer houses around a swampy lake.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=1553377389

Friesen, Gayle. The Isabel Factor.
Anna ends up going to summer camp in the Gulf Islands without her best friend. How will she survive the counsellor-in-training programme without Zoe? Or will making new friends be the best thing that could ever happen to her?

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0395665566

Hahn, Mary Downing. Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story.
Drew, spending the summer with his great-aunt in the family’s old house, travels eighty years into the past to trade places with his great-great-uncle who is dying of diphtheria.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0060516321

Hobbs, Will. Leaving Protection.
Sixteen-year-old Robbie is proud to be old enough to work on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska for the summer until the captain starts acting suspiciously. Maybe bad weather won’t be the greatest danger on the ocean!

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9780375845826

Horvath, Polly. My One Hundred Adventures.
Twelve-year-old Jane lives at the beach in a run-down old house with her mother, two brothers, and sister. She spends the summer baby-sitting, meeting her mother’s former boyfriends and making some astonishing discoveries about life.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0374380708

Horvath, Polly. The Vacation.
Henry is left in the care of his aunts, Magnolia and Pigg, when his mother and father go to Africa.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0439507227

Korman, Gordon. The Discovery.
Four kids make a dangerous discovery during a summer deep sea diving trip in the Caribbean.

Laird, Elizabeth. Hiding Out.
Peter’s parents have an argument while on holiday with friends in France. In the confusion and turmoil, Peter gets left behind when everyone heads for the ferry to go back to England.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0439388813

Martin, Ann M. A Corner of the Universe.
Hattie spends the summer becoming friends with a girl who works at the carnival that has come town and getting to know her childlike uncle. And she begins to question the adults who think they know what is best for her.

Mowat, Claire. The French Isles.
Andrea unexpectedly encounters mystery and romance and makes new friends during a summer on the islands of St. Pierre et Miquelon.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9781416955320

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Alice In Rapture, Sort Of.
The summer before Alice enters the seventh grade, she discovers that love and boyfriends can be very confusing.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0689849613

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Shadows on the Wall.
Fifteen-year-old Dan, on a family holiday in York, England is overwhelmed by inexplicable feelings of dread whenever he visits some ancient landmarks.

Oppel, Kenneth. Starclimber.
Matt Cruse is looking forward to his summer in Paris, France with Kate de Vries, but life becomes even more exciting when the Canadian government offers to send the two of them on an expedition into space aboard the Starclimber.

Peck, Richard. Fair Weather.
In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe, and attend the World’s Columbian Exposition.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0060092734

Perkins, Lynne. Criss Cross.
Debbie, Hector and Lenny discover that their friendships are changing during a hot summer when romances seem to be starting.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0786856297

Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief.
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson keeps getting in trouble at school. To complicate matters, he discovers he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. And when his mother sends him to a summer camp, he finds himself on a quest to save the world from the wrath of the gods.

Robertson, Keith. Henry Reed, Inc.
Henry and his friend Midge enthusiastically set up a research firm, start projects and make money during a summer vacation.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=0060760451

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. The Green Dog.
Suzanne, a daydreamer who likes to fish and walk through the woods, enjoys spending time with her new dog during a summer vacation.

Taylor, Cora. Adventure in Istanbul.
Jennifer and Maggie, on a Mediterranean cruise with their grandmother and their friend Sam, race to save the life of their father who has disappeared somewhere in the Middle East.

Taylor, Cora. Murder in Mexico.
Maggie and Jennifer, on holiday in Mexico, are plunged into murder and intrigue and don’t know if they’ll ever get home again.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=1551433311

Tullson, Diane. Red Sea.
Fourteen-year-old Libby is unwilling dragged along on a sailing adventure with her mother and stepfather. Pirates attack, her stepfather is killed, and Libby has to find a way to save her mother.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=9780060080730

Whelan, Gloria. Summer of the War.
Fourteen-year-old Belle spends her summers with her grandparents on Turtle Island, Michigan. But during the summer of 1942, her older cousin Caroline arrives and trouble starts. Caroline prefers cities and scorns rural life. She also prefers to spend her time with Ned, who no longer seems to notice Belle, at all. This quiet novel about the effects of the war will appeal to girls 12 to 15 years old.

http://images.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=ebsfraser&Password=fraser&Return=1&Type=L&Value=1551433613

Withers, Pam.  Camp Wild.
Wilf is resentful because his parents have sent him off to camp for another summer because they don’t have time for him. So he steals a canoe and takes off down the river. But two other campers decide to come along and all three boys end up having a wilder ride than they’d expected. This short novel published by Orca is a quick read for sixth to ninth graders.

Wynne-Jones, Tim. Rex Zero and the End of the World.
Rex has just moved to Ottawa from Vancouver. It’s the summer of 1962 and there are television reports about the possibility of nuclear war. How can he be expected to settle into a new home and make new friends when the world might end?

Happy reading!