Ages 8-12
Are you as ready as we are for lazy days of summer? Summer is a great time to fill your kids time with fun activities that don’t feel like work. Reading can be one of those activities depending on the child, but even the most reluctant reader might find enjoyment in the list we’ve put together.
These are books with boys as protagonists, but girls may find them equally enjoyable.
Contemporary Adventure
Thomas Holland has lived next to Leepike Ridge for as long as he can remember, When Thomas’s schoolteacher asks his mom to marry him, Thomas takes off. He decides to float downstream on a piece of packing foam but soon finds he’s swept away under the mountain and fighting for his life. This book is a page turner and perfect for summertime reading.
Contemporary
“Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.” From Louis Sachar website.
From the back cover…
Why don’t parents come with an instruction manual?
Enjoy childhood, they say.
I will. I do. Or, at least, I did.
I’m over here living my best life with my best friends and science club. And in three weeks, we’re going to GamerCon.
Suddenly, my parents want to talk about my choices. It’s so unfair. Why am I grounded for enjoying my childhood? I’m doing exactly what they said to do.
I know I’m not a parent. But I’m pretty sure ‘doing what you say you’ll do’ is in the top five rules of parenting. It’s right up there with ‘feed the kid’. Just my opinion.
Now I’ve lost everything good because the grown people in my life don’t make any sense.
If I can’t spend time with my best friends, how do I keep them? And how do I get out of trouble when I’m not sure how I got there in the first place?
Fantasy
From the back cover…
In a world of flight, he was born wingless.
But that’s the least of his problems.
Since being orphaned at a young age, wingless sprite Asher Songfeather has been sure of one thing: Bat sprites aren’t to be trusted. The fact that his own mother was one is something Asher does his best to forget.
But when his adoptive sister Carinen falls deathly ill, he’ll risk anything to save her—even if it means striking a bargain with a mysterious Bat sprite newcomer. The deal sends Asher on a perilous quest into the heart of the Bat Colony itself, where nothing is as it first appears. Saving his sister will require more than just courage and wits. It will take trust, too.
And Asher will have to rethink everything he knows about Bat sprites—including himself.
From S.D. Smith site…
Heather and Picket are extraordinary rabbits with ordinary lives until calamitous events overtake them, spilling them into a cauldron of misadventures. They discover that their own story is bound up in the tumult threatening to overwhelm the wider world.
Kings fall and kingdoms totter. Tyrants ascend and terrors threaten. Betrayal beckons, and loyalty is a broken road with peril around every bend.
Where will Heather and Picket land? How will they make their stand?
Historical Fiction
From the back cover…
Courage. Imagination. Unbeatable Determination.
The Kentucky frontier was a beautiful place, but it was also a dangerous one. Jemima Boone and John Gass often heard wolves howling, bears growling, and snakes slithering through the tall grasses. There was no store, no school, no doctor at Fort Boonesborough. The settlers were on their own to deal with whatever threats arose. On a sunny summer day in July of 1776, the crisis they faced was a kidnapping . . .
Based on a true event.
From the back cover…
Climbing the tree to rescue the orphaned baby raccoons was just the beginning.
From eye dropper to bottle feedings, from wiggling worms to pinching crayfish, from cage building to camping trips to final release—Lance’s summer has never been so busy, or so bodaciously awesome. He could almost call it a perfect summer.
Except for the situation with his mom.
His mom who is thinking of adopting a human baby—a baby with Down syndrome.
And our summer release for August 1st, cover reveal in July!
Dog Talk by LuAnn M. Rod
From the back cover…
All GT wants is to make friends in his new town, but when a skateboarding dare goes wrong, his hopes are as dented as the school principal’s car. His punishment? Taking his mom’s bratty poodle Fifi—decked out in pink polka dot accessories—to her doggie summer camp where he’s vastly outnumbered by retirees with their pets. Normal life is over. When GT and Fifi are accidently zapped by a faulty phone app—technology mixed with a bit of magic—the voices they hear are each other’s, and they can talk back. Fifi is the bane of his existence, and now their lives are entangled in a way GT never dreamed. Trouble isn’t stopping there. Changes are happening to GT—he wants to howl at the moon, growl at his sister, and chase every squirrel. It won’t be long until he finds himself among the city’s stray dogs. To stop his magical transformation, GT must form a new pack built on friendship, acceptance, loyalty, and love—the things dogs do best. But he quickly learns there’s more to the situation than he realizes. Dangerously more. Saving himself might be the only way to save the whole town, dogs included.
We hope your kids find these books as engaging as we do. Let us know how you liked them! Happy Reading!