Summer Reading Recommendations Round 2

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to another round of Summer Reading Recommendations. These recommendations are based on more of the prompts from the young adult summer reading bingo card (you can learn more about that here). Hopefully these suggestions can help you figure out what to read if you get stuck.  Let’s get to it.

Classic Books

  • Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables is a charming story about 11-year-old Anne Shirley as she finds herself adopted by a brother and sister who were expecting to be getting a boy. As the Cuthbert’s navigate Anne’s presence, Anne gets up to a number of shenanigans you can’t help but laugh at. A light, fun, sweet story that’s perfect summer reading. Follow it up by enjoying one of the many movie adaptions or the Netflix show Anne with an E.
  • The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton: Ponyboy is a greaser. He’s always been on the outside and has to watch his back, and he’s proud of that. However, when one of his friends kills a Soc (social) Ponyboy’s world begins to fall apart and he starts to learn that pain feels the same for everyone, no matter what your background. This is an extremely popular classic that speaks to social divides and the perspective of social class while in high school. “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.”
  • The Princess Bride by William Goldman: A fantasy, adventure classic, The Princess Bride is a personal favorite of mine. This story follows Buttercup as she loses her true love Westley to the Dread Pirate Roberts and subsequently finds herself engaged to the greedy Prince Humperdink. Chaos ensues as Buttercup is kidnapped, only to find herself trapped by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. This book has everything you need for an epic story: sword fights, rodents of unusual size, quicksand, giants, romance and more. It’s an extremely fun read and one you won’t want to put down. The Princess Bride also has a movie adaptation that is just as wonderful as the book.

Books by Authors from Other Countries

  • A Girl in Three Parts by Suzanne Daniel: From Australia, author Suzanne Daniels has written this lovely story about 11-year-old Allegra as she navigates splitting her life between her two grandmothers, her two grandmothers that hate each other. Along with this, she tries to cope with her dad, who’s still figuring out how to be a good parent. Allegra struggles to find herself while she orbits these three family members and starts to think nothing will change, until this division pushes Allegra to her breaking point and they all have to work together to pick up the pieces.
  • The Book of Dust (La Belle Sauvage) by Philip Pullman: Philip Pullman is from England and weaves fantastical tales like The Book of Dust and The Golden Compass. The Book of Dust is a prequel to the His Dark Materials trilogy, but can be enjoyed without reading the trilogy. This story follows a mysterious woman with a golden monkey, a man on the run, a mysterious substance called Dust and a baby named Lyra that everyone seems to be after.
  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki: Canadian author Mariko Tamaki tackles high school relationships and breakups in her stunning graphic novel, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with me. Laura Dean is Freddy’s dream girl, or so she thought and Freddy is starting to wonder if Laura Dean is so great after all. As Freddy continually tangles with Laura Dean, her friend Doodle tries to help her by taking her to a medium. Freddy continues to spiral in her relationship with Laura Dean and starts to wonder if she’s the one who’s the problem. This graphic novel is all about teaching us to embrace the healthy relationships we need and let go when we need to.

Books with “New” Stickers

  • We are the Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian: This newly acquired book follows a varsity, female hockey team as they begin to share some long held secrets on the night of their team sleepover. The secrets shared are unsettling, but lead them down a road proving that they’re willing to do anything for their team. As they find their strength and resilience, no one is more surprised by this change than their toxic coach. Told through six diverse voices, this book is both suspenseful and powerful.
  • Solstice by Alison Lorence: Adri is looking forward to an all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical island music festival before she has to settle into her parent’s expectations and head to law school. However the island definitely doesn’t live up to what was described and when a dead body washes up on shore, Adri and the other partiers soon find themselves in a deadly nightmare. Suspenseful and thrilling, with a Scooby-doo like quality, this will both horrify and delight.
  • Girls Save the World in This One by Ash Parsons: June has been looking forward to ZombieCon all year, the ultimate fan convention for all things zombies. Everything seems perfect upon arrival and June is thrilled to finally meet the heartthrob lead of her favorite zombie show, but people start acting strange, and then someone bites a cast member! It’s only then that June and her friends realize that real zombies are taking over the con and they have to be the ones to save the day.

 

 

Books with Movies

  • Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan: Nick and Norah find themselves on a very long first date after they share a kiss. Nick asks Norah to pretend to be his girlfriend for five minutes when his ex-girlfriend shows up at his gig and what results is a whirlwind night of music, romance and humor. This love story is one you won’t want to end. The movie is a fun, music infused follow up to the book.
  • The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot: An older, yet wonderful book about geeky and awkward Mia Thermopolis as she learns that she is in fact a princess. Told in a series of diary entries, readers will laugh, cry and be embarrassed alongside Mia as she figures out how to be a princess and navigate high school. Full of loveable characters (most importantly Mia’s cat, Fat Louie) this book will fly by. While the movie is a bit different than the book, it’s still wonderful and one that I’d definitely recommend watching.
  • The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien: I believe I may have mentioned this one in a past post, but I can’t help by recommend it again. This is the ultimate fantasy story, full of adventure and second breakfasts. Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, a treacherous journey to destroy an evil ring – what’s not to love? While the movie does stray a bit from the book, both really hold up and if you’ve seen the movie and loved it, you’ll definitely love the book too.

 

 

 

Hopefully there will be some titles here to help you through your book bingo. If you need more recommendations, please feel free to reach out. You can reach me by email at kendall.chapman@bhpl.net or by phone at 374-5515. Best of luck in your bingo endeavors!