All ages

Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse. By Marilyn Singer. Read the poem in one direction and it tells the folktale from one point of view. Read it in the opposite direction and the point of view is reversed.

Biographies of influential historical figures by Demi…from Marco Polo to Mother Theresa; Ghandi to Genghis Khan.

Younger Readers

Bink and Gollie. By Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee. Dissimilar, yet steadfast friends, celebrate the ups and downs of their daily escapades in three lively chapters that explore compromise, asserting independence, and jealousy. Geisel Award Book

Middle Readers

How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships. By Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. Animal partnerships often defy explanation; Jenkins and Page explore and clarify these relationships in concise text and glorious torn-paper collage.

Older readers

90 Miles to Havana. By Enrique Flores-Galbis. The author’s experience, as one of 14,000 children moved from Cuba to a refugee camp in Miami in 1961, is told through engaging, fast-paced writing and well-developed characters. Belpré Author Honor Book

Nothing. By Janne Teller. As classmates struggle to convince a friend that life has meaning, they force each other to prove and provide meaning, with consequences that are deep, dark, and disastrous.  Batchelder Honor Book & YALSA Printz Honor Book

When You Reach Me. By Rebecca Stead. Shortly after sixth-grader Miranda and her best friend Sal part ways, for some inexplicable reason her once familiar world turns upside down. Maybe it’s because she’s caught up in reading A Wrinkle in Time and trying to understand time travel, or perhaps it’s because she’s been receiving mysterious notes which accurately predict the future. Newberry Medal Winner

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Recommended Summer Reading for the “People Smart” Child