Swing into Summer Reading!
Article by liz
Browse our 2016 Summer Reading List here! With titles for all ages and tastes, we have something for every member of the family to fall in love with.
Join other book-loving kids to talk about what you're reading at our Treehouse Reading Socials! Gush about the latest series, get personalized recommendations, and enjoy book talk with new friends. Intended for ages 6-12, we'll have three of these Reading Socials this summer: June 18, July 16, and August 13 at 1:30pm. And, as always, we'll have Story Time on Saturday mornings at 10:30am for toddlers and early readers. We'll see you then!
Andy and Terry’s treehouse is back and even bigger! This zany slapstick series has been a Brazos mainstay for our young readers. Reluctant and beginner readers will love the illustrations and crafty humor, while fans of the series will enjoy seeing what new inventions fill the treehouse this time. Also available in this series: THE 13-STORY TREEHOUSE (#1), THE 26-STORY TREEHOUSE (#2), and THE 39-STORY TREEHOUSE (#3).
Three second-graders who love science get thrown into a wild spiral of adventures after meeting their reclusive neighbor, Dr. Gustav Bunsen. When Dr. Bunsen’s growth ray hits a crate of animal figurines, the toys not only start growing, but also come to life. We love this new science-themed chapter-book series! Also available in this series: DON’T DISTURB THE DINOSAURS (#2) and THE SKY IS FALLING (#3).
From the creator of THE GUARDIANS OF CHILDHOOD comes a new, fantastic adventure! Ollie is a special toy: Billy’s favorite, the highest honor and best magic of the world of toys. When Ollie is toynapped by Zozo the Clown King, will Billy be able to rescue him? This dazzling tale is perfect for daytime, bedtime, and story time with the whole family.
When Tiger and Luna investigate mysterious happenings at the house next door, they discover a reclusive old woman and her magical golden frame that lets them enter famous paintings—but they must escape before time runs out, or be trapped in the painting forever! This new chapter book series combines full-color art and thrilling adventure: a sure hit for early readers! Also available in this series: SPLAT! ANOTHER MESSY SUNDAY (#2).
When Hilda faces the prospect of leaving her snow-capped birthplace for the hum of the megalopolis, she’s forced to befriend the obnoxious elves to find a way to stall her family’s move. Hilda sets out to learn the secrets of the Midnight Giant in this brand new edition of the bestselling classic!
Readers rejoice: THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE is back in paperback! Basil—famous sleuth of mousedom—lives in the cellar of Sherlock Holmes’ house. A devoted admirer of the great detective, he learned his craft by listening at the feet of Holmes himself. The Mystery of the Missing Twins is one of the strangest cases in Basil’s career. Can you solve it? Also available in this series: BASIL AND THE CAVE OF CATS (#2).
Salina Yoon’s early reader stories are the perfect mix of dialogue and visual storytelling for beginning readers! Big Duck bosses around her little brother when they hang out with their friend Porcupine, but it’s Little Duck who really knows what’s going on. These fun and funny stories are surefire hits for the youngest readers in the family!
Bea Garcia draws anywhere and everywhere—but when her best friend moves to Australia, not even drawing makes Bea feel better. And things only get worse when a rambunctious boy moves in next door. But with a little imagination and a whole lot of doodles, Bea might just make a new friend. Check out this first book in a new chapter series!
AGES 8 AND UP
Josh Baxter’s family has moved again, and he’s starting at a new school for the third time in two years. But when poor grades make his mother take away the video games that have become his refuge, Josh realizes he has to come up with a new strategy for success. Gamers will love this book’s “level”-style chapters and watching Josh collect experience points, extra lives, and more!
Jane and her siblings are having the dullest summer ever. So when she finds a coin on the sidewalk, she idly wishes something exciting would happen. And something does: something half exciting. As the siblings figure out the magic of the coin is only “half” magic, their adventures unfold with the whimsy and charm that have captivated readers since this book’s debut in 1954.
The desolate Dreadwillow Carse lies in the middle of the lush and prosperous Monarchy. Little is known about it except an ominous warning: “If any monarch enters Dreadwillow Carse, then the Monarchy will fall.” Princess Jeniah and her friend Aon are determined to investigate—but when Aon goes to the Carse and never comes back, Jeniah must risk the entire Monarchy to save her friend. This thrilling modern fairy tale is a great story about friendship versus fate.
The newest installment in this award-winning series is sure to be a huge hit with young Texans! In the early 1800s, Texas was a prime battleground in the development of North America as we know it today. With his signature hilarity and incredibly detailed research, Nathan Hale takes young readers through the most exciting years in Texas history. Also available in this series: ONE DEAD SPY; BIG BAD IRONCLAD; DONNER DINNER PARTY; TREATIES, TRENCHES, MUD, AND BLOOD; and THE UNDERGROUND ABDUCTOR.
Daniel spends most of his time hoping no one will notice his Zaps—his strange, compulsive habits, like avoiding writing the number four, or flipping a light switch on and off dozens of times. But when he receives a note that says only “I need your help,” signed by a “Fellow Star child,” Daniel is swept up in a mystery that could change everything. It’s a perfect story for anyone who’s felt different and from a favorite author to boot.
Mai can’t believe she has to spend her summer in Vietnam with her grandmother, who’s traveling there to finally find out what happened to her husband during the Vietnam War. California native Mai doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t know the customs, and doesn’t know these distant relatives at all—how can she survive this? National Book Award and Newbery Honor-winner Lai crafts a stunning coming-of-age story in this poignant novel.
Finley’s been sent to stay with grandparents she’s never met, and is finding it harder and harder to deal with the overwhelming sadness growing inside of her. Her only retreat is the Everwood, a magical forest in her notebook. When she discovers the real Everwood in the woods behind her grandparents’ house, it’s up to her and her cousins to save the dying magic forest–if she can save herself first. A magical tale full of pitch-perfect emotion and understanding, this book is a sure hit for fans of BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA or THE CURIOUS TALE OF THE IN-BETWEEN.
When Joey is bitten by an elderly rat, he goes from aspiring seventh-grader to three-inch tall rodent. At first, it’s great—but when a bout of hunger leads Joey to pull the spork from the scone, he finds himself at the center of a longtime rat prophecy. This hilarious, adventurous mash-up of fantasy classics from comedic writer-producer Josh Lieb is brand-new in paperback!
Extraordinary orphans Philippa, Sam, and Thomas have spent happy childhoods in Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. But when knife-thrower Max joins the group, it sets off an unforgettable chain of events leading to murder, mayhem, and an incredible secret about their pasts. Perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Pseudonymous Bosch, this new series is a crafty work of sheer joy. Also available in this series: THE SCREAMING STATUE (#2).
Red longs for a space paradise far away from her annoying foster family. But when she’s mistakenly kidnapped by a UFO, she finds herself shipwrecked, marooned, and with much more than she bargained for! Comic fans and sci-fi lovers will devour this brand-new series from Eddie Pittman, the co-creator of Phineas and Ferb.
When young inventor John Coggin is informed in no uncertain terms that his fate is to enter the family coffin business, he and his sister Page hit the road to escape Great Aunt Beauregard and her coffins. When they fall in with a new host of friends, can they fight for the home they want? This whimsical middle grade adventure is perfect for fans of Roald Dahl or THE PENDERWICKS!
Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived quietly in her small Pennsylvania town, until the cruel and manipulative new girl in school starts to target the town’s reclusive World War I veteran. Annabelle’s resilience and strength make her a lone voice of justice as tensions mount, but will she be enough? This brilliant and harrowing story brings to light a dark time in America’s history—and how the courage of children can transform communities.
AGES 10 AND UP
Kwame Alexander’s stunning THE CROSSOVER won all the awards under the sun and brought a powerful, necessary voice to kids lit. In BOOKED, soccer, family, love, and friendship take center stage while twelve-year-old Nick wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. This verse novel is sure to captivate new readers just as much as its predecessor!
When the headmistress of Saint Etheldreda’s School for Young Ladies drops dead at Sunday dinner, her seven students know what must be done: they’ll bury their teacher in the vegetable garden, dress up one of their own to pose in her place, and educate themselves. But as they realize a murderer’s on the loose—and the authorities are coming—there’s far more than tea-time to worry about. We adore this brilliantly witty (slightly macabre) story of great friendships and murder most foul!
Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada sneaks out to join him. As Ada and Jamie begin to love their new life away from their mother’s cruelty, will their bond be enough to keep them free? We’re sure this stunning novel will be a new children’s lit classic.
When Quinn’s best friend Kara has to move away, she goes on one last trip with Kara and her family. But the old Victorian inn gives Quinn and Kara the creeps—and when Kara’s parents and brother disappear without a trace, the girls are stranded in a hotel full of strange guests, hallways that twist back in on themselves, and a particularly nasty surprise lurking beneath the floorboards. This emotional and suspenseful tale is just the right mix of chilling and hopeful for a great summer read!
Every nation that invades the City gives it a new name—but to the natives, forever separate from the endless wars, their home is the Nameless City. When young native Rat is forced to team up with outsider Kaidu to save the city they both love, their adventures will be the stuff of legend. This gorgeous graphic novel from store favorite Faith Erin Hicks is perfect for fans of AMULET or AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.
After a lightning strike, when twin brother and sister Fenton and Fiona find a ball of light in their backyard, things get weird. And weirder when they figure out it can bring things back to life. Bugs, trees—even their grandfather. But bringing things back from the dead gets a little more complicated when those things won’t go back. This oddball, optimistic story is great for readers not quite ready for YA, but still ready for complex stories.
When Genie and his big brother Ernie go to spend the summer with their grandparents in the country, Genie’s amazed to find that his grandfather is blind, yet just as cool and capable as Genie would have imagined. But when Grandpop decides that Ernie, turning fourteen, has to learn to shoot a gun to be a man, can Genie handle the tension? This first middle-grade novel from award-winning author Jason Reynolds is a phenomenal story of self-esteem and self-discovery.
Kammie Summers has fallen into a well during a (fake) initiation into the popular girls’ club. Now she’s trapped in the dark waiting to be rescued, and as the hours pass, her situation mixes with memories of the best and worst moments of her life so far—including the awful reasons her family moved to this new town in the first place. Karen Rivers gives us a deeply authentic book with a wise-cracking narrator, making this a great realistic pick for preteens.
Max is about to face the scariest place he’s ever been: South Ridge Middle School. After a lifetime of homeschooling, Max has begged his parents to finally let him start attending public middle school—only the biggest bully in school keeps stuffing Max in his locker. Can Max find his heroism in time to salvage this school year? Enjoy this brand-new series from #1 bestselling DORK DIARIES author Rachel Renee Russell!
Bee is an orphan in the poor kingdom of Aradyn. When she’s caught stealing a bun from a bakery, the lonely baker offers to take her on as an apprentice—but when she meets Princess Anika and her “guardian,” the evil mage Joris, Bee decides to use her own baker’s magic to save Anika and the kingdom. This joyful fairy-tale adventure is a surefire new favorite!
AGES 12 AND UP
During the day, Elizabeth Milton serves as scribe for her blind father John as he composes his latest masterpiece: the epic poem Paradise Lost. By night, however, she studies languages and sword fighting, and suspects her father is training her for some different purpose. When the King’s men arrive to burn the manuscript and imprison her father, only Elizabeth can stop a deadly conspiracy that could turn the world upside-down. This stunning novel of literature, science, history, and poetry is a roaring, rollicking adventure from store favorite Anne Blankman!
Maya’s cursed horoscope has earned her the scorn of her father’s kingdom. She’s never expected she’ll marry or be a queen, until her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of convenience. Maya finds herself thrown into two roles she never expected to play, and tasked with solving an ancient mystery spanning memories, reincarnated lives, and more realms than just her own. This lush and vivid story is steeped in Indian folklore and mythology—a perfect summer read.
Introverted pizza boy Frankie can’t stand his out-there family; he’d rather fade into the background than pursue his own art and become like them. When he meets the errand-runners for elusive street artist Uncle Epic, Frankie finds the perfect opportunity to get back at his family for a lifetime of torture—but the lines start to blur between art and life. This illustrated novel of street art and sibling rivalry is a perfectly vibrant mix of art and story.
Mercy Wong’s not going back to the poverty of Chinatown, and she won’t be intimidated by the (wealthy, white) girls of St. Clare’s School, not after using her best cunning (and bribery) to sneak her way in. But when an historic earthquake rocks San Francisco, it’s up to Mercy to marshal her classmates and help their ruined city. Breakout author Stacey Lee masterfully crafts another stunning historical novel with a fantastically bold heroine.
Adrian Piper blends into the background: he’s a talented artist, a sci-fi geek, and gay, but at his Texas high school, he’d get the worst kind of attention for all that. The only place he feels free is at his drawing table, crafting a secret world through his own Renaissance-inspired superhero Graphite. But when a shocking hate crime flips his world upside down, Adrian must decide where to draw the line in this stunning debut novel exquisitely illustrated by the author.
Brilliant, clueless Stewart and popular, struggling Ashley collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. Stewart is trying to be 89.9 percent happy about it, but Ashley is 110 percent horrified. She already has to hide the real reason her dad moved out; “Spewart” could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder. Award-winning author Nielsen has made a pair of narrators so authentic and so hilarious, you’ll race through this fantastically real story.
$10.99, PAPERBACKLibby and May invented whole worlds as children, writing and drawing all the adventures of their heroine Princess X, until Libby and her mother’s car went into the river one rainy night. At sixteen, May is a lonely teenager, until one day she sees a sticker in the corner of a window—Princess X? As May begins to find a growing fanbase for this new Princess X, she starts to wonder if Libby’s still out there somewhere... This cyber-thriller from a favorite genre author has heart and smarts in equal amounts—perfect for a summer read.
Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school. All she wants is to make friends and fit in, but the secret she keeps makes it scary to get close to anyone. When she meets sweet, easygoing Grant, Amanda can’t help but start to let him into her life, even as she’s terrified that once she tells him the truth, he won’t be able to see past it. Because the truth is that at her old school, she used to be Andrew. Meredith Russo’s debut novel is a universal story about feeling different and a love story that everyone will root for.
Montgomery Sole is defiantly weird in a small town. It would all be impossible if it weren’t for her best friends Thomas and Naoki and their Mystery Club, dedicated to exploring the weird and unexplained—like the Eye of Know, the possibly-magical crystal amulet Monty bought online. Will it help anything at all, or is Montgomery doomed to the boring impossibility of her town forever? This beautiful and offbeat novel is new from Mariko Tamaki, co-creator of the bestselling Printz Honor and Caldecott Honor Book THIS ONE SUMMER.
Higgs Boson Bing has seven days left before his perfect high school career is completed. Then it’s on to Harvard to fulfill the fantasy portrait of success that he and his parents have cultivated for the past four years. But when Higgs’s girlfriend presents him with a seemingly innocent hypothetical question about whether or not he’d give her a kidney, the exposed fault lines reach straight down to the foundations of his life. This breakout debut novel is a painfully honest and side-wrenchingly hilarious portrait of the worst week ever.
AGES 14 AND UP
Nolan doesn’t see darkness when he closes his eyes. Instead, he’s transported into the mind of Amara, a girl living in a different world. Nolan’s life is full of history tests, family tension, and laundry; Amara’s world is full of magic and danger. To keep the princess—and themselves—alive, they’ll have to work together. This debut fantasy with its diverse cast will grab boys and girls alike!
Lady Jane Grey, sixteen, is engaged to a total stranger and caught up in an insidious plot to rob her cousin King Edward of his throne. But that’s the least of Jane’s problems: she’s about to become Queen of England. Full of romance, adventure, and hilarity, with authentic teen narrators and a wild sense of humor, MY LADY JANE is a fact-revising, genre-bending, fourth-wall-breaking magical romp through early modern history.
Cross-country star Addie has always known what she was running toward—until she and her boyfriend are careless one night, and Addie has to make a difficult decision. And after that—even though she knows it was the right decision for her—nothing is the same anymore. Told brilliantly and sensitively in free verse poetry, ASK ME HOW I GOT HERE is a literary exploration of sexuality, religion, and self-discovery.
When the Twin Towers fell, New York City was blanketed by dust. On the Lower East Side, Yolanda vows to gather as much of the dust as she can. Maybe if she can return it to Ground Zero, she can comfort all the voices. As tragedies from her past mix in the air of an unthinkable present, Yolanda searches for hope. Maybe it’s buried somewhere in the silvery dust of Alphabet City. From U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, this stirring novel about one teen’s emotional journey in the days after 9/11 is a phenomenal read.
Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps—gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza went missing, the people of Bone Gap weren’t surprised—though Finn knows there’s more to the story than that. As we follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap, Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness.
Caden Bosch is on a ship that’s headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. Caden Bosch is designated the ship’s artist in residence to document the journey with images. Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn. This powerful, personal novel won last year’s National Book Award!
Vika can summon snow and turn ash into gold; Nikolai can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are the only two enchanters in Russia—and the tsar needs a powerful enchanter. So he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient enchanter’s duel, where the victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter, and the defeated is sentenced to death. As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear: the Crown’s Game is not one to lose. A thrilling and atmospheric historical fantasy set in Imperial Russia, perfect for fans of RED QUEEN and SHADOW AND BONE.
If your town was sliding underwater, how would you and your friends spend your last days together? While the adults plan for the future, Keeley Hewitt and her friends decide to make the most of every minute. And for Keeley, that means taking one last shot at the boy she’s loved forever. It’s the end of Aberdeen, but the beginning of Keeley’s first love story. From the critically-acclaimed author of THE LIST comes a stunning new novel about a girl who must say goodbye to everything she knows.
Solomon has agoraphobia: he hasn’t left his house in three years, which is fine by him. Ambitious Lisa will do anything to get into a top psychology program, so she decides to befriend, treat, and write a paper on Solomon. What could go wrong? At turns hilarious and heartwarming, HIGHLY ILLOGICAL BEHAVIOR showcases the different ways in which we hide ourselves from the world, and how love, tragedy, and the need for connection bring us back into the light.
1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. Now her father’s killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee’s father wasn’t killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him—who happens to be Hanalee’s new stepfather. Prohibition, the KKK, and Hamlet col-lide in this richly imagined historical mystery by Morris Award finalist Cat Winters.
