Great Summer Reads for Kids: 2009 edition

Categories: Children's Books

Need suggestions for beach reading or books to bring to camp? Below are some of my favorite new titles, all published within the last year, that are ideal for the season. And don’t forget, the library’s summer reading program kicks off this weekend! Lots of great programs and prizes to be had all summer at every location.

Picture Books

There’s a Wolf at the Door retold by Zoe B. Alley
Five interlinked and thoroughly retold tales, compiled in an oversized format and presented in engaging panel illustrations, all end with the wolf foiled. Grade level: 1–4.

Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator by Sarah C. Campbell

Close-up photography and spare text graphically convey a predatory wolfsnail’s single-minded pursuit of an unlucky garden snail; information on wolfsnail habits and life cycle is appended. Grade level: Preschool–2.

Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo
Longing for adventure, barnyard hen Louise leaves home and is subsequently captured by pirates, chased by a lion, and kidnapped at a bazaar before returning home to tell her tales. Grade level: 1–4.

Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley
The Emberleys’ irreverent re-visioning of the classic folktale plays up the bird-braininess of the participants in Chicken Little’s ill-informed sky-is-falling crusade. Grade level: Preschool–2.

A Couple of Boys have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee

With lively, detailed, subtly retro cartoons, Frazee gently pokes fun at adult expectations and captures the unbounded joy of two friends experiencing a parent-free summer adventure. (2009 Caldecott Honor Book)

Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp by Denise Fleming

After a week at Cowboy Camp for Dogs, Buster’s homesickness evaporates as he joyfully joins the controlled canine chaos of camp activities. Fleming’s richly colored multimedia art details the camp’s layout and the animals’ constant motion.

Birds by Kevin Henkes
This is in my top 5 of picture books published this year! A young child muses on birds, their colors and sizes, their movements and mysteries; Dronzek's acrylic paintings are an inviting accompaniment to Henkes's simple text. Grade level: Preschool.

Easy Readers & Beginning Chapter Books:

Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter or Ivy and Bean Bound to Be Bad by Annie Barrows
In their fourth and fifth books, friends Ivy and Bean make the best of a bad situation when left in the care of Bean’s older sister, then resolve (and fail) to be so good that animals will flock to them a la Saint Francis of Assisi. Grade level: 1–3.

Snake and Lizard by Joy Cowley
In fifteen episodes, Snake and Lizard meet, bicker, and form an unlikely friendship marked by comical repartee. Grade level: K-2.

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Rain or Shine by Erica Silverman
Cowgirl Kate and cowhorse Cocoa return in four rainy-day adventures that highlight the close friendship between girl and horse. Grade level: 1–3.

Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems
Piggie is miserable when one drop of rain threatens his outside plans; Gerald, his elephant friend, tries to steady the mood; and two worms remind Piggie that rain doesn’t mean the end of play. Grade level: K–2.

Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian
Beginning by defining “The Age of Dinosaurs” and ending with their demise, Florian rounds up the usual prehistoric suspects and presents them in poems characterized by wordplay, mixed-media illustrations, and a scientific fact or two. .

Frogs by Nic BishopBishop presents salient facts about frogs through clear text, augmented with fascinating photographs of species around the world. Even the frog-phobic will be fascinated. The Mount Rushmore Calamity: Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures #1Ever since Stanley was flattened by a bulletin board, every trip is an adventure! The whole Lambchop family is off to see Mount Rushmore. But when Flat Stanley and his brother, Arthur, team up with a scrappy cowgirl Calamity Jasper, their vacation turns into the Wild West experience of a lifetime. A slapstick new series for ages 7-9. 

Intermediate Readers

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Life for the four Penderwick sisters is going along as it should…until their father contemplates dating, prompting his panicked daughters to concoct a “Save-Daddy Plan.” Sequel to The Penderwicks

Paleo Bugs: Survival of the Creepiest by Timothy J. Bradley
Bradley uses crisp graphics to trace the evolution of anthropods from 530 million years ago to the present.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

In a race against time, twelve-year-old Ted, with his sister Kat, uses his special skills and perceptions to discover how their cousin Salim disappeared while riding the London Eye, the world’s tallest observation wheel.

Little Sister is Not My Name by Sharon Draper

It’s not easy being nine, especially when you’re Sassy Simone Sanford. Especially when you were named for sticking out your tongue on the day you were born and everyone in the family calls you Little Sister. But, Sassy Simone Sanford has devised a plan to make her mark in the world and show everyone just who she is with the use of some shiny lip gloss and her lively best friends, Carmelita, Jazzy, and Tandy, at her side.

For twenty-two years, since a fateful baseball game against their rival town, it has rained in Mudville, so when the rain finally stops, twelve-year-old Roy, his friends, and foster brother Sturgis dare to face the curse and form a team.