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I'm doing something a little different today. Instead of writing paragraph reviews of three books, I'm giving quick summaries of thirteen books for the elementary school crowd. But in missing the review, you'll get my personal stamp of approval over the many summer books I have known - and I've known quite a few. These are in addition to my already profiled summer books I listed the books in roughly in order of the target age of the reader, starting with youngest to oldest. That said, many of the books would be great to read aloud to younger readers as I've made up this collection of mostly lighter summer books.

Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown
by Jarrett Krosoczka
A new addition to younger graphic novels is this series featuring a Lunch Lady with astonishing abilities to fight crime and serve tater tots. With the Breakfast Bunch kids, she tackles a new enemy at summer camp. Silly fun!

Babymouse: Beach Babe
by Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm
An earlier book in the Babymouse graphic novel series brings us a trip to beach that can't help but go wrong. Oh, Babymouse, I love you so. (Also look for Camp Babymouse).

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
by Barbara O'Connor
Feeling bored in his small Southern town, Popeye befriends a newcomer named Elvis who finds adventure in everything. A great book for seeing the wonders in the everyday world.

Moxy Maxwell does not Love Stuart Little
by Peggy Gifford
Someone has been putting off her summer reading - and continues to find ways to do so in amazingly elaborate ways. The photographs and the clever section titles add to this amusing book. (Also, one of my favorite covers of all time.)

Summer Reading is Killing Me
by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith
Summer reading doesn't work out well for the Time Warp Trio either as the boys put their booklist in "The Book" and end up caught in a world of good and bad characters from children's liter

Reading books about summer during the summer just makes sense. With lazy days, cold pools, and swinging hammocks, who wouldn’t want a double dose of the perfect season? With many great books that take place in the summertime, I’ll be sharing some of my favorites.

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
by Jeanne Birdsall
After their father rents a guest house for a few weeks in the summer, four sisters explore the large estate grounds making friends and having adventures along the way. Absolutely delightful, The Penderwicks has a old-fashioned cover, title, and story, yet keeps a contemporary feel. It could take place anytime — though a few small references do set the tale in the present day — forming a large part of its appeal. The reading level is upper elementary, but would be a perfect read-aloud for younger elementary kids. Simply a perfect summer story artfully told.

Lowji Discovers America
by Candice Fleming
When Lowji moves to America from India, he looks forward to making new friends and having a pet. Unfortunately, he and his family arrive in the middle of the summer and there are no kids around the neighborhood. Plus, his longing for a pet is thwarted by the cranky landlady who hates animals. Bright and inquisitive, Lowji doesn’t let these obstacles get in his way with interesting and funny results. Sweet and humorous, the book lightly makes the point of keeping a positive outlook. The observations of American ways and slang are interesting from the view of this engaging character. Younger elementary kids can easily enjoy this charming story.

Seaglass Summer
by Anjali Banerjee
When eleven-year-old Poppy skips a trip with her parents to India, she makes the decision with the goal of being a vet like her Uncle Sanjay. What she finds is that it working with animals can be difficult, gross, and heartbreaking. Over the summer Poppy also adjusts to the slow-pace island lifestyle, makes new friends, and learns more about herself. She even comes to handle the animals in emergencies and in passing. This book is a lovely read, but the sections on animals suffering or dying

I'm sorry, but as school finishes up for the year, I'm just not in blogging mode. I actually have less to do than during the year, but feel more time urgency on those things that I need to do. With elementary school graduation yesterday and the actual last day of school today, I'm hoping to get my brain back in working order. For now, I'll continue with another summer stories selection - a book to read in the summer that takes place in the summer.


Turtle in Paradise
by Jennifer L. Holm

Turtle and her mom have always gotten through tough times together, but now that mom is employed as a live-in maid for a woman who doesn't like kids, Turtle is send to live with relatives in Key West. It's the middle of the depression, and many folks don't have much, but Turtle is still surprised by the poverty on this little stretch of land. Almost as surprised as she is by finding all of her long-lost relations. With the sea and the trees to provide, the families get by - even if shoes are a rarity - and there is even some fun to be had in seeking payment of sweets for babysitting. There are also literal treasures to be found, for those crazy, brave and bored enough to seek them. And along with her cousins, Turtle finds herself right in the middle of all of the adventures. Turtle's family situation and a terrifying hurricane give weight to the lighter touch of the book. But it's the light touch that makes this book special for bringing out the depth and feel of the characters without weighing them down in their poor and/or uncertain surrounding. The people and places jump off the page with such a sense of being there. I can picture the kids pulling the wagon around as if I watched a movie of it - which, by the way, there should be one. In any case, an enjoyable read that exposes a lost place in time.

For my summer reading, I love books that take place in the summer. I don't think it's meta as much as reinforcement. Summer is for imagination and fantasy and play and deserves a distinct world from that occupied by school problems and worries. So, over this summer I'll be sharing some of my favorite summer stories for all ages.

First is a book I booktalked just yesterday at an elementary school, and it went down like gangbusters. I start my booktalk by asking the fourth and fifth graders what they are afraid of. I get answers like heights, spiders, lightning, etc. Then I introduce some of the stranger fears from the book like loose cows, killer robots, and falling into the toilet. After calming down the giggles from saying "toilet," I go on to explain that Gabriel King is afraid of all of those things and more, but the thing that scares him most is moving up a grade to the school where the big kids will bully him, and then I go on to talk more about the book. Here's my mini-review:

The Liberation of Gabriel King
by K. L. Going

Gabriel King is afraid of everything - spiders, robbers, cows - but his biggest fear is moving up to the next grade, where he'll be in the same school as the bullies who pick on him. His best friend Frita decides to take the summer to liberate Gabriel from his fears by facing each and building up to his biggest one. She's rarely afraid, but one of her biggest fears is about to confront the pair head on as their cross-racial friendship catches the attention of the wrong people. Set in the deep south in 1976, this book is a comedy, drama, and historical fiction. With a deft and light touch, the story tackles fear, hatred, racism, but ultimately is about courage. And friendship. A Printz Honor Book from 2005, this absolutely wonderful book should not be missed.

In the happiest video of the summer (embedded above), Old Spice spokesmodel Isaiah Mustafa defended libraries in a surreal speech.

Mustafa stole the hearts of millions of Americans with his ads that mix stream-of-consciousness narration with surreal special effects. In the video, he answered librarian Andy Woodworth's question--how do you feel about libraries?"

Welcome to our Top Stories of Summer 2010 series. For all our readers returning from summer homes and Caribbean yacht trips, we've created a short list of the 15 stories you may have missed during this long, strange summer for the publishing industry.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

At the end of June, author Molly Ringle (pictured, via) won the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, writing the world's worst opening sentence to an imaginary novel. The contest was named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, who wrote the line: "It was a dark and stormy night."

Welcome to our Top Stories of Summer 2010 series. For all our readers returning from summer homes and Caribbean yacht trips, we've created a short list of the 15 stories you may have missed during this long, strange summer for the publishing industry.

Here is the award winning sentence: "For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You don't always have to read a fantasy novel to visit another world.  Sometimes other worlds exist right here on Earth, next to us, in front of us, behind us.  And sometimes I think it is harder to create a real world like the one Andrea Beaty conjurs up in The Secrets of the Cicada Summer than it is to bring to life a realm filled with wizards and wands.  While in high