Summer is here!   My favorite time of year for reading! The weather is nice and there are long stretches for uninterrupted reading!   I can recall as a little girl lowering a bucket of books out my window so I could read   on those days my mom would send me out to "play" because it was too nice to stay indoors.

A number of sequels for very popular books out just in time for the summer break:

From Erin Hunter's Warriors series: The Rise of Scourge as well as Seekers #3: Smoke Mountain from their new bear series. If your reader enjoyed these series based on cats they might also enjoy the following titles: Gaurdians of Ga'Hoole by Lasky (a series based on owls), Varjack Paw by Said and Dave McKean (another adventurous cat series).

The Magic Thief: Lost by Sarah Prineas and Antonio Javier the sequel to their very popular Magic Thief. A Dickinson an twist on a wizard tale as Conn, a young pickpocket, picks the wrong pocket, Wizard Nevery, and finds himself.

Books that I have read this year and think many of our readers would enjoy are:

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis (realistic fiction). A story of a girl with a very different view point of the   world, who tries to help her friends and creates more problems than she'd bargained for.

The Thirteenth Child (fantasy) by Patricia Wrede (author of the favorite Enchanted Forest series. This telling of a young wizard is refreshingly different, set in a parallel version of the old west. I was sucked in and found it difficult to put down.

Mysterious Benedict Society (adventure) by Trenton Stewart. This was voted one of our students favorite books this year.   Puzzles, adventure and a secret society this book had a lot to offer readers on many different levels.

My Name is Sally Little Song (historical fiction) by Brenda Woods. One of my favorite books, this is a tender account of a little girl born as a slave who escapes with her family and finds freedom and her own "voice" as an adopted member of a Seminole tribe.  

Larklight, Or, The Revenge Of The White Spiders!, Or, To Saturn's Rings And Back! : A Rousing Tale Of Dauntless Pluck In The Farthest Reaches Of Space / As Chronicl'd By Art Mumby, With The Aid Of Philip Reeve ; And Decorated Throughout By David Wyatt by Philip Reeve. With a title like this I don't think much of an explanation is needed.

Books that our 4th and 5th graders chose as the best of the year during the "Lowell Bery Awards":

Gregor the Overlander by Collins (5 votes )

Peter and the Starcatcher by Barry (9 votes )

Found by HaDDIX (9 votes )

Warrior Series by Hunter (12 votes )

Artemis Fowl by Colfer (15 votes )

Inkheart by Funke (17 votes )

The Graveyard Book by Gaiman (22 votes )

Alex Rider by Horowitz (23 votes )

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Kinney (20 votes )

The Mysterious Benedict Society ( 37 votes)