Summer reading doesn't have to be dull

For some students, summer reading is a pain—a dreaded assignment that interferes with the real fun of swimming or playing video games. The best solution for that attitude is a special book, the kind that will entice even a reluctant reader to sneak away and savor its unforgettable story. Here, we offer five books designed to cure the summer reading blues.

MIDDLE GRADE: How Mildred's garden grows
By ROBIN SMITH

Let me admit this right now: I like to grow plants and I have stood for hours at garden shops, weighing the difference between worm castings and cow manure. So, I understand the care that 11-year-old Mildred takes when she sets out to win the Circleville, Ohio, Pumpkin Show. I feel her anxiety when she has to thin out the seedlings and leave the growing fruit behind during a weekend trip.

Mildred is trying, once again, to fulfill her late mother's dream of growing a prize-winning pumpkin. Each year, her dreams are dashed for one reason or another. And, while the seasons are changing and the pumpkins are growing, Mildred is growing too. Her Aunt Arlene tries to notice the changes and, in her own loving but pushy way, encourages Mildred to pay attention to fashion and other girlie things. Arlene worries about Mildred's obsession with pumpkins and does her best to encourage her to follow other pursuits. Luckily for Mildred, her father not only understands his only child, he knows how to challenge her to grow into the strong young woman her mother always knew she would become.

In Me and the Pumpkin Queen author Marlane Kennedy paints a warm picture of a real family, quietly going about the job of living each day, healing and growing pumpkins. Young readers and listeners will enjoy finding out how things turn out for Mildred. This marvelously heartwarming story deserves a big blue ribbon!


MIDDLE GRADE: The perils of being a pre-teen tycoon
BY ANGELA LEEPER

Not old enough to work at the Clucket Bucket or Dairy Whip and with no plans for sports or camp, the 12-year-old hero of Gary Paulsen's hilarious novel, Lawn Boy, simply wants to earn a little extra money to repair his bike. His grandmother's odd birthday gift—an old riding lawn mower—sets the course for his surprising and profitable summer.

Arnold, one of his first clients, has a cash-flow problem of his own. The work-at-home stockbroker offers to invest the boy's pay in the stock market, and when the preteen has more demands for mowing than he can possibly supply, Arnold helps set him up as the boss of 15 employees. The business operations are hard for the boy to follow, and he is shocked to learn that he not only owns stock in a coffin-making corporation, he's also the sole sponsor of a heavyweight boxer. The threat of a hostile takeover forces the boy to let his parents in on his sizable new income—nearly half a million dollars!

With his quick-paced, conversational narration and such chapter headings as "The Law of Increasing Product Demand Versus Flat Production Capacity," Paulsen presents capitalism—and storytelling—at its best in this delightful summer story.


TEEN: Keeping it real
BY NORAH PIEHL

Fifteen-year-old Kendra Bishop is sick and tired. She's sick of her parents, high-powered Manhattan bankers and exercise junkies who always have time to run another marathon but can't spare a second to give Kendra a hug. She's tired of living according to the rules her parents keep in a binder and expect her to follow without question. So when Kendra sees an ad for the reality show "The Black Sheep," in which teenagers from wildly different environments switch families, she writes a heartfelt letter of application.

When Kendra is actually picked for the show, she has second thoughts about spending time in California, with the crunchy-granola Mulligans, a free-wheeling family with a full house, few rules and a kleptomaniac ferret. She's especially put off by Judy, the show's producer, who's so determined to create a good story that she has entirely lost sight of, well, reality. After a few days with the Mulligans, though (and especially with their hot teenage son Mitch), Kendra's determined to see her "Black Sheep" experience as an opportunity: "A Black Sheep tosses out her parents' rule book and invents her own."

The sassy, sharp-tongued narrator of The Black Sheep will appeal to teen readers. Kendra's transformation into a passionate, independent thinker reminds us of the ways in which all young people eventually define themselves as individuals—even if it means being the black sheep of the family for a while.


MIDDLE GRADE: Gaiman's haunting new collection
BY CAROLINE RICHARDSON

Best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman has become a household name to fans of the genre, with books and graphic novels such as The Sandman, Coraline and Anansi Boys. As a child, Gaiman found that short stories were ideally suited to how he read, offering potent mouthfuls of other worlds, just the right size to be swallowed whole before lights-out. Another benefit of story collections is their diversity—if one tale doesn't suit, the reader can always skip ahead to the next. Both of these elements make Gaiman's inventive new collection, M Is for Magic, a particularly good choice for summer reading.

One of my favorite stories is "Chivalry," in which an elderly widow purchases the Holy Grail from her neighborhood thrift shop. An errant knight appears and attempts to win the Grail from her, only to be put to work on delightfully mundane tasks, his offers staunchly refused. A favorite of a different sort, "The Price" leaves readers with an unsettled chill. A devoted rescuer-of-cats learns that a favorite stray is actually rescuing him, fighting a losing battle with the devil, who is stalking the narrator's family. And then there's the dreamy, utterly terrifying "How to Talk to Girls at Parties," where two would-be Romeos crash the wrong party in search of some action and end up angering a universe.

"Horror stays with you hardest," Gaiman says; "Fantasy gets into your bones." Stories can terrify or entrance—in M Is for Magic, they do both at once.


TEEN: Inside the Magic Kingdom
BY NORAH PIEHL

Every year millions of families visit a magical place—Walt Disney World in Orlando. But do they ever stop to think about what life might be like for the people who make that magic happen, for the Snow Whites and Plutos who work there? That's the premise of Dream Factory, in which Cinderella and Prince Charming—or at least the people who play them—might not live happily ever after after all.

When Disney's regular costume characters go on strike, the company hires kids from around the country to fill in. The show must go on! Cinderella is played by Ella, a wistful girl whose family history haunts her, even in the happiest place on earth. Her Prince Charming is a Disney insider named Mark, who has royal good looks but fails to set Ella's world on fire. Also on the staff is Luke, whose Disney stint is a way to delay his future career in the family business, which seems planned out, down to his wing-tipped shoes. His future is ideal, but is it possible that Luke might want a future that's less than perfect on paper, but just right for him? Written in alternate chapters in Luke's and Ella's voices by Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler, this behind-the-scenes novel is both a touching love story and a commentary on a culture that treasures fairy-tale endings, sometimes at the expense of real life. Dream Factory has plenty of funny, imaginative details about theme park trivia, insufferable guests and characters who go naked under their costumes, but it also has a serious message about creating an authentic life, far away from fairy land.


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