Summer reading provides a change of pace, carrying readers to new places and offering adventure and glimpses into experiences that are thrilling, humorous, suspenseful, inspiring, and heartfelt. The books in this second summer reading collection are good company for readers wherever they are during vacation.

Ages 8–11

Away. Emil Sher. Ill. Qin Leng. 2017. Groundwood/House of Anansi.

Skip does not want to go to summer camp. Rendered in watercolor and ink, the illustrations include a series of sticky notes that Skip and her mother write to each other about daily household chores, which also express Skip’s stubborn insistence that she will not go to camp, even as she prepares for it. When her grandmother, Mimsy, visits, Skip learns that when her mother went to camp the first time, she was also sad and afraid. Yet now, her mother’s memories of camp “are warm biscuits.” Talking with Mimsy and her mother is just what Skip needs to head to camp with a positive attitude. The good experience she has is evident in a letter she writes from camp.

Danny McGee Drinks the Sea. Andy Stanton. Ill. Neal Layton. 2017. Schwartz & Wade/ Random House.

When Danny McGee and his sister Frannie go to the shore on a summer day, Danny bets her that he can drink the entire sea. When his sister disagrees, Danny asks her for a straw and proves her wrong.  But he doesn’t stop there; he swallows other things including a tree, a squirrel and a bird, and the weather reporter on TV. Rendered in mixed media, Frannie watches in amazement as Danny swallows mountains, jungles, and even the author (who finds himself writing the book from inside Danny). 

Jabari Jumps. Gaia Cornwall. 2017. Candlewick.

Anyone who is learning to swim will take solace in Jabari’s story as he works up the courage to jump off the high diving board at his local swimming pool. Seeing his son’s fear, Jabari’s father tells him to take a rest, and after an afternoon of delaying the dive, the family goes home. When they return the next day, Jabari’s father suggests that he take some deep breaths and tell himself he is ready. Illustrations, done in pencil, watercolor, and collage, show Jabari overcoming his fear and his joy at the prospect of another dive.

Ages 9–11

Beach Party Surf Monkey (Welcome to Wonderland #2). Chris Grabenstein. Ill. Brooke Allen. 2017. Random House.

The beachfront Wonderland Motel in St. Petersburg, Florida, sits in the shadow of the new high-rise Conch Reef Resort. Mr. Conch has shown interest in buying the Wonderland, with plans to tear it down and develop the property as part of the Conch Resort, prompting P.T. Wilkes, who helps his grandfather and mother run the motel, to figure out new ways to promote the motel and keep it in the family. P.T. convinces a production team to use the Wonderland as the location for their movie, a 1960s beach party musical starring Academy Award-winning Cassie McGinty, heartthrob Aidan Taylor, and a Capuchin monkey named Kevin. As Mr. Conch’s daughter, Veronica, starts a competing campaign to attract the crew to the Conch Reef Resort and Kevin disappears, P.T., his friend Gloria, and his grandfather set out to find the monkey and rescue the movie production to save the Wonderland Motel.

Lemons. Melissa Savage. 2017. Crown/Random House.

When her mother dies, almost-11-year-old Lemonade Liberty Witt moves from San Francisco to Willow Creek, California, to live temporarily with her grandfather, whom she has never met. He owns a general store with a wide selection of Big Foot memorabilia for tourists. Tobin Sky, founder and president of Bigfoot Detectives, Inc., spends much of his time at the store when he is not following leads on big foot sightings or working in his headquarters, a space carved out of the garage at his home where he lives with his mother. Lemon joins Bigfoot Detectives and becomes Tobin’s assistant. As she makes major discoveries, Lemon also learns that Tobin has his own sorrow to reckon with, the disappearance of his father after he returned from Vietnam. With humor and heart, the story shows how Lemon learns that family, home, and friendship can be found in unexpected places.

Ages 12–14

Quicksand Pond. Janet Taylor Lisle. 2017. Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

Twelve-year-old Jessie, her father, older sister, and younger brother are “summer people.” This summer, they are renting a house next to the mysterious Quicksand Pond. Their neighbor is Henrietta Cutting, an old woman who lives in the house that her father built on the pond decades ago and spends the day watching the activity around the pond. One day, Jessie discovers an old raft not far from her family’s rental. When Jessie slips the old raft out of the reeds to pole it along the shore, she sees Henrietta watching from her window. Henrietta also watches as Terri Carr, who’s fleeing her father, swims to the safety of the raft. Terri and Jessie become friends and rebuild the raft using tools and lumber from Henrietta’s barn, which is full of old family furnishings. The novel becomes a mystery as details about the deaths of Henrietta’s parents and thefts of family treasures are revealed against the backdrop of the growing friendship between Terri and Jessie.

This Would Make a Good Story Someday. Dana Alison Levy. 2017. Delacorte/Random House.

Sara has plans for the summer before the seventh-grade: spending time with her best friends, and carrying out a “reinvention project” that includes learning to surf, wearing black nail polish, reading nonfiction, and learning Latin. Instead she has to take a month-long, cross-country train trip with her younger sister, Ladybug; her older sister, Laurel, and her partner, Root; and her two mothers, one of whom has a grant to write a book about the family trip. Sara keeps a journal of sights, events, and history as they travel from Massachusetts to New Orleans, up to Chicago, and across the country to Los Angeles. She also meets Travis, who is traveling to Los Angeles with his father and two aunts, who takes an interest in Sara. In the story, told in journal entries, letters, and notes from varying points of view, Sara undergoes a “reinvention” she didn’t expect, and comes to appreciate her family and new friends.

Ages 15+

Be True to Me. Adele Griffin. 2017. Algonquin.

The year is 1976, and Jean is looking forward to a summer in the community of Sunken Haven on Fire Island, New York, sharing in the bicentennial social life of tennis, dinners, and parties.  Before she leaves New York City, she meets Burke, her godfather’s nephew. Enchanted by Gil’s interest in her, she looks forward to his arrival in Sunken Haven. Jean is also looking forward to winning the junior tennis championship back from Fritz O’Neill, who comes for summer work at the yacht club each year. When Gil arrives in Sunken Haven, both Jean and Fritz face challenges in their mutual interests in Gil and in winning the tennis tournament. 

Girl Out of Water. Laura Silverman. 2017. Sourcebooks Fire/Sourcebooks.

Anise, an expert surfer, has never left Santa Cruz, California, where she and her father live in a cottage. She and her friends have big plans for their last summer together after high school graduation. But when her aunt Jackie has a car accident and breaks her legs, Anise and her father have to go spend the summer in Nebraska to care for Jackie’s children. Anise’s disappointment and anxiety about leaving California and a new romance with an old friend is compounded by her misery in hot and flat Nebraska, but she agrees to take the children on daily trips to the park where they hone their skills on the skateboard course. When she meets Lincoln, an avid skateboarder, Anise discovers her skill in a new sport and finds her friendship with him becoming much deeper than she expected.

Unscripted Summer. Jen Klein. 2017. Random House.

At the end of her junior year, Rainie decides to audition for a summer theater program, in the Appalachian Mountains, where her classmate and crush, Tuck, spends his summers. Rainie’s friends, Sarah and Marin, are supportive, but her former best friend Ella doesn’t understand her attraction to Tuck. Since Ella is also part of the summer theater she agrees to let Rainie live with her and her sister. When Rainie meets photographer and actor Milo, her motivations and relationships are challenged. Told from Rainie’s point of view, the novel is about how Rainie discovers that she can make good decisions about her life and relationships as well as about theater production and performance. A surprise ending is funny, inventive, and heartfelt.

Sandip LeeAnne Wilson is a professor in the English department and School of Education of Husson University, Bangor, Maine.