Summer Reading Club suggestions

Children in the Library’s Summer Reading Club need suggestions.  How about one or more of these. 

Eoin Colfer might be known best for his Artemis Fowl books for children, but I just discovered another Colfer hero who is every bit as engaging.  

These two fast-paced stories were great.  I just had to forget everything and read until I finished them.  Benny is my kind of guy – all boy through and through. 

 I first met Benny Shaw in Benny And Babe (2001.  YA COL).  He believes he knows it all until the summer he spends with his grandfather and meets the resident tomboy and all-around tough girl, Babe Meara.  They team up in a little beachcombing business and end up in a nasty situation trapped by the in-coming tide of the Irish Sea.  Benny gets a pin in his shattered knee and a torture session from Babe. 

In Benny And Omar (1998, YA COL) Benny’s family relocates to Tunisia where his father takes a new job with an oil and gas company.  Benny is devastated, especially when he gets there and finds no one has a clue about his beloved hurling, a sport somewhat like lacrosse and field hockey combined.  He meets Omar, an orphan who introduces him to a whole new world of adventure and danger. 

Get your children to check Benny out at the library, or one of these other ones. 

The Vacation by Polly Horvath.  2005.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J HOR)

 Henry and his two aunts embark on a trip aimed at doing and seeing all the things they had been putting off.

 Perilous Fear by Annie Brummel Crook.  2003.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J CRO) 

Alex and Ryan stumble into an adventure with pirates and put themselves and their family in peril. 

The Black Book Of Secrets by F. E. Higgins.  2007.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J HIG) 

Ludlow Fitch becomes Joe Zabbidou’s assistant and records the deepest secrets of the inhabitants of Pagus Parvus for Joe in the Black Book.

 The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke.  2001.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J FUN) 

Prosper and Bo hide out in Venice and meet the mysterious Thief Lord.

 My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath.  2008.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J HOR)

 Jane is ready for adventures, and over the summer they keep finding her.

 Somebody Else’s Summer by Jean Little.  2005.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J Lit)

 Sam and Alex meet on a flight to Toronto, and realize that each would rather be doing what the other is.  The girls decide to trade places for the summer.

 The Prairie Dogs by Glenda Goertzen.  2005.  Juvenile Fiction.  (J GOE)

 Pierre, a pampered show dog, is left behind at a gas station, and falls in with a gang of mutts who call themselves the Prairie Dogs.

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Taken with permission from Gloria Novak’s “Good Reads at the Library”.