Recommended Summer Stories…
Prepared by Cathy Belben, Librarian, Burlington-Edison High School
Experience the sunny season through reading. Here are some books that take place during the summer that I highly recommend!
Updated June 2004
(Asterisk * indicates the BEHS Library has this book)

*Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road.  (F BAU)
Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from Chicago to Texas to confront the son who is trying to force her to retire, and along the way Jenna hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.

Berry, Liz.  The China Garden. 
After college Clare moves with her mother from London to a rural home where her psychic ability helps unravel the past and where she searches for something called the Benison.

*Blume, Judy.  Summer Sisters (F BLU)
Victoria Leonard and Caitlin Somers, two girls from very different backgrounds, form a friendship that blooms over the summers spent in Caitlin's privileged world, until heartbreak and betrayal tear them apart.

Bradbury, Ray.  Dandelion Wine.
In a small town in 1928, a twelve-year-old boy savors the magic of childhood and the wonders of summer.

*Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (F BRA)
Four friends enjoy the benefits that come from wearing a magical pair of jeans--jeans that change to fit every wearer perfectly.  Four best friends share the pants and enjoy a magical summer.

*Brashares, Ann. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. (F BRA)
With a bit of last summer's sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer.  Bridget impulsively sets off for Alabama, wanting to both confront her demons and avoid them and lena spends a blissful week with Kostos, making the unexplainable silence that follows his visit even more painful.  Carmen is concerned that her mother is making a fool of herself over a man, and Tibby quits Wallman's to spend the summer taking a film course, but it's what she captures off-camera that teaches her the most.

*Clark, Catherine. Frozen Rodeo. (F CLA)
High-school junior Peggy Fleming Farrell finds herself without a car, working at the Gas 'n Git, and fantasizing about a boyfriend during the hot summer her distracted parents are expecting yet another baby to join their ice-skating family .

*Cole, Brock. The Goats. (F COL)
Stripped and marooned on a small island by their fellow campers, a boy and a girl form an uneasy bond that grows into a deep friendship when they decide to run away and disappear without a trace.

*Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham. (F CUR)
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

*Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. (F CRE)
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left. Winner of the 1995 Newbery Award.

*Danziger, Paula.  Remember Me to Harold Square. (F DAN)
When Frank spends the summer with Kendra and her family in their New York City apartment, a friendship develops as the two teenagers set off on a scavenger hunt exploring the city's museums, restaurants, and other landmarks.

 *Dessen, Sarah. Keeping the Moon. (F DES)
Fifteen-year-old Colie, a former fat girl, spends the summer working as a waitress in a beachside restaurant, staying with her overweight and eccentric Aunt Mira, and trying to explore her sense of self.

*Dessen, Sarah. That Summer. (F DES)
During the summer of her divorced father's remarriage and her sister's wedding, fifteen-year-old Haven comes into her own by letting go of the myths of the past.

*Dessen, Sarah.  This Lullaby. (F DES)
Raised by a mother who's had five husbands, eighteen-year-old Remy believes in short-term, no-commitment relationships until she meets Dexter, a rock band musician.

*Dessen, Sarah. The Truth about Forever. (F DES)
The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief.

 *Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. (F GRE)
Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.

*Hite, Sid.  Dither Farm. (F HIT)
A visit by an unusual aunt, a flood, a flying carpet, a kidnapping, and a groundswell of romance are all part of one summer in the lives of the close-knit Dither family in southern Virginia.

*Hite, Sid. A Hole in the World. (F HIT)
Paul Shackleford is sent to live on his relatives' farm as punishment for lying. He thinks the summer will be the worst of his life. But that's before he meets a surly dog, a mystical girl, and the ghost of a beloved farmhand.

*Holt, Kimberly.  (F HOL)
During the summer of 1971, in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend, Cal, meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.

*Howe, James.  The Watcher. (F HOW)
As she sits watching a seemingly perfect family and a handsome lifeguard on the beach, a lonely, troubled girl projects herself into the fantasy lives she has created for them.

*Kerr, M.E.. Gentlehands.  F KER)
A teenage boy falls in love with an "upper-class" girl and gets to know his estranged grandfather in one heartbreaking summer which climaxes in a shattering search for Nazi war criminals.

 *Klueger, Steve.  Last Days of Summer. (F KLU)
Joey Margolis writes letters to baseball players, President Roosevelt, his best friend Craig, and others during World War II.

Koertge, Ron.  Arizona Kid.
Sixteen-year-old Billy spends the summer with his gay uncle in Tucson and works at a racetrack where he falls in love with an outspoken horse exerciser named Cara Mae.

*Korman, Gordan.  Losing Joe’s Place. (F KOR)
Jason and his two friends move into Jason's brother's apartment and manage to wreak havoc in it during one funny and memorable summer.

*Lee, Harper.  To Kill  a Mockingbird.  (F LEE)
Eight-year-old Scout Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer and is assigned to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman.

*Lipsyte, Robert. One Fat Summer. (F LIP)
An overweight fourteen-year-old boy experiences a turning point summer in which he learns to stand up for himself.  

*Lowry, Los.  A Summer to Die.  (F LOW)
Thirteen-year-old Meg envies her sister's beauty and popularity.  Her feelings don't make it any easier for her to cope with Molly's strange illness and eventual death.

*Lubar, David.  Dunk. (F LUB)
Chad, hoping to work out his frustrations and his anger by taking a summer job as a dunk tank Bozo on the boardwalk at the New Jersey shore, comes to a better understanding of himself and the uses of humor as he undergoes training in the fine art of insults.

*Lynch, Chris. Slot Machine. (F LYN)
When overweight thirteen-year-old Elvin Bishop is sent to camp at St. Paul's Seminary Retreat Center, he and his two best friends are forced to try out various sports in order to find out where they belong.

*McCullers, Carson.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. (F McC)
A deaf mute who has lost his only friend to a hospital for the insane becomes the recipient of the confidences of several other town residents.

*Napoli, Donna Jo. For the Love of Venice. (F NAP)
Spending the summer in Venice with his family turns confusing for Percy when he meets a beautiful, politically radical Venetian girl who wants him to help sabotage his father's engineering project in order to drive tourists out of the city.

*Paulsen, Gary. The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer. (BIO PAULSEN)
Paulsen describes his own sixteenth summer, when he left his alcoholic mother. He works with migrant Mexican farmer workers on a beet field, travels across the country with a friendly man who dies a bizarre death, and ends up working as a carnival worker, where he meets an older woman and has his first relationship.

*Paulsen, Gary.  Harris and Me.  (F PAU)
Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city boy meets his distant cousin Harris and is given an introduction to a whole new world.

*Peck, Richard.  Those Summer Girls I Never Met. (F PEC)
Drew and Steph, ages almost-sixteen and fourteen, reluctantly take a Baltic cruise with their heretofore unknown grandmother, a singing star of the 1940s, and have the experience of a lifetime.

*Powell, Randy.  Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star.  (F POW)
For a tribute to his mother, a dead rock star, fifteen-year-old Grady returns to Seattle, where he faces his mixed feelings for his retarded younger half-brother Louie while pondering his own future.

*Ryan, Sara.  Empress of the World. (F RYA)
When Nicola attends a summer camp for gifted teens, she hopes to learn more about her potential future career of archaeology. When she meets and befriends a new group of people, however, she learns far more--about herself. She falls in love with the beautiful Battle, a southern girl who seems equally interested in Nicola. Both learn, however, that relationships are troublesome, regardless of your sexual preference.

*Sacar, Louis.  Holes.  (F SAC)
Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake, a boys' reformatory program, for a crime he didn't commit. When he arrives, he discovers that the "camp" is no such thing, that there is nothing green anywhere, and that there is no lake. Worse, he learns that the punishment the inmates must face daily is to dig holes in the desert 5 feet deep and five feet wide. Stanley suspects something is strange with this program, and he and the other campers discover the secret behind their punishment.

Sleator, William.  Interstellar Pig.
Barney's boring seaside vacation suddenly becomes more interesting when the cottage next door is occupied by three exotic neighbors who are addicted to a game they call "Interstellar Pig."

*Sleator, William.  Singularity.  (F SLE)
Sixteen-year-old twins Harry and Barry stumble across a gateway to another universe, where a distortion in time and space causes a dramatic change in their competitive relationship.

*Thomas, Rob.  Green Thumb. (F THO)
While spending the summer in the Amazon rain forest of Brazil doing botanical research, thirteen-year-old Grady discovers a secret language used by the trees to communicate with each other and falls afoul of the dictatorial Dr. Carter, whose motives seem questionable.

*Weaver, Will.  Farm Team. (F WEA)
With his father in jail and his mother working full-time, fourteen-year-old Billy Baggs finds himself in charge of running the family farm in northern Minnesota and having to give up the thing he loves most--baseball.

Weaver, Will.  Hard Ball.
Fourteen-year-old Billy Baggs has to figure out how to get along with the arch-rival in his love life and on the baseball diamond, and both boys must learn how to deal with the unfair expectations of their fathers.

Weaver, Will.  Striking Out.
Since the death of his older brother, thirteen-year-old Billy Baggs has had a distant relationship with his father, but life on their farm in Northern Minnesota begins to change when he starts to play baseball.

*Windsor, Patricia. The Blooding. (F WIN)
While spending the summer working as an au pair girl for a couple in England, Maris discovers that the husband is a werewolf intent on blooding her and making her one too.

Yolen, Jane, and Bruce Coville.  Armageddon Summer.  (F YOL)
Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain, where they try to decide what they themselves believe.