Summer Reads

We MUST skate right now.

One of the books on cd we brought along on our first road trip was Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright. It’s part of the Melendy series, that begins with The Saturdays. This is a very sweet series.  (There is some drama; all kids are different in their comfort level with this.  We are on the more "careful" side of things, and it still works for us.  Just wanted you to know.)


We didn't get to finish it in the car -- Linus got bored.  He prefers the action of Geronimo Stilton.  Ugh (well, only a little, I guess).  So, we finished it when we got home.  It takes place in one summer, and both the author and narrator create                                                                                                     a beautiful flavor of summer.

The first chapter is my favorite, and it starts like this,

"What a noise that day!  It sounded like a pack of young sea lions. 

But it was really only the Melendy children.  They were building a dam. 

Rush had thought of it.  He had thought of it in the middle of the night in a dream, and this morning at breakfast he had told them about it. 

'Listen, kids,' he'd said.  'I've been thinking for a long time that we needed a bigger swimming place.  The one we've got now is too little; when we're all in it together the congestion is fierce.  And it's too shallow.  Every time I dive off the bank I'm scared I'll come up with a concussion of the brain.'

'Well, what are you planning to do?' inquired Mona with a tinge of sarcasm. 'Widen the brook, or deepen it, or something?'

'Exactly, my dear Watson,' replied Rush with a flourish of toast."

Stranded on a Rock (under the dining room table)

That hit the nail right on the head for me.  I'm planning to spend the summer reading and listening to books that spin stories about the deliciousness of summer -- and creating space for my kids to experience it.  Do you remember this?  Where you follow your interest all day long, where one activity develops into the next, where you barely look up because you're so engrossed in the game you've created?  Where you've got one "light-bulb" idea after another -- that simply has to be tried right now?!

Here are some more summer chapter books that the kids and I will explore in the coming months -
Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
Half-Magic by Edward Eager
Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager
Magic or Not? by Edward Eager
Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit
Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
 

Full disclosure: I haven't read these.  Some I've browsed, some I haven't.  Maybe some of them aren't even about summer!  I think they are : )

Please, please leave a comment and share your favorite summer books with us so that we can add them to the list!