Reading Tween

Too old for kids books, too young to read teen fiction?

The last installment of the Summer Book Hook is devoted to that in-between age group, the tweenagers. I selected some of most talked about and most recommended books by tweens over this past summer sprinkled in with a few recommendations of my own. Other than Harry Potter (naturally), below are a few great reads for kids not quite ready to make the jump into reading young adult fiction...

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Apothocary by Malie Meloy

The Only Ones by Aaron Starmer

Stormbreaker (The Alex Rider series) by Anthony Horowitz

Eight Grade is Making Me Sick by Jennifer L. Holm

Beauty by Robin McKinley

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen

Eragon (Inheritance series) by Christopher Paolini

Warp Speed by Lisa Yee

The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice series) by John Flanagan

Hope Was Here Joan Bauer

Two great resources for tween recommended reading: Welcome to My Tweendom and The All-Time Best Books for Tweens by Parents.com.

 

Previous Summer Book Hook posts:

Beginning Chapter Books

Audiobooks

Graphic Novels

Early Readers

My Cyber Librarians

Get a Clue! Middle Grade Mysteries

Looking For Your Next Magical Adventure

Season's Readings: Librarian selected books featured in Lawrence Kids Magazine

Summer Survival Guide for Wimpy Kids Fans

Looking for books for toddlers age kids and younger? Check out this board book list or the Reading Together picture book lists.

And that's it! I'm hoping to have a non-fiction favorites feature, "Fall Into Non-Fiction", here in the near future. I really wanted to include one in the Summer Book Hook, but alas ran out of time. I hope everyone had a wonderful summer of reading. Here in Lawrence school starts next week... where did the summer go? I hope these tips and the Summer Book Hook reading lists were helpful. I know I enjoyed putting them together and sharing them with you and yours.

RIP Summer! Vive le Fall!!

 

 

My Cyber Librarians

Lean in close, because I have a little secret to share...

Children's librarians usually have gobs and gobs of reading recommendations, but we all get stumped every now and then. It's the truth. Even librarians are human. When this happens, without even flinching, we turn to a tried and true friend--- the internet.

Today I'm spilling three of our top secret (and not so top secret) book recommendation tools, for those dire circumstances when you or your child get stumped looking for that next great read. Because everyone needs a little cyber help every now and then...

Mid-Continent Public Library

Mid-Continent Public Library Juvenile Series and Sequels: A majority of kids these days read books that are grouped into series. Not only is the Mid-Continent Public Library website a great way to find the book order of a particular series, but it is also handy for searching for book series by subject. Fairies, pirates, pigs... whatever your child has an interest in, it's probably been written in a book series and is searchable on this website.

Your Next Read

YourNextRead My new favorite toy! Flowcharts are all the rage lately and this nifty tool gives you reading suggestions in the format of a flowchart. Simply type in a book and for every one book, YourNextRead gives you eight other reading suggestions. When the flow chart pops, click any title on the chart, and it will take you to your next group of  recommended reads. This site can be a little glitchy at times and also may have a couple not so great recommendations every so often, but when that happens, there is a "thumbs-up" and a "thumbs-down" option that you can select to display an alternate title.

Goodreads

Goodreads also is a great tool for instant book recommendations even if you don't have an account set up. Search by the title, read the reviews, and browse the read-alikes. When you find the summary and reviews on a specific book, scroll down, and on the the right hand side will be similar book recommendations. More often than not, a book can also be found in reading lists created by Goodreads members. This feature is located above the reader reviews.

 This is the second to last edition of the Summer Book Hook. (Can you believe summer is almost over?) I hope you find these websites invaluable not only over the remainder of the summer months, but throughout the year.

 

 

Summer Book Hook: Get a clue!

The past couple of Summer Books Hook posts have been recommendations for popular middle grade series. Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Greg Hessey the Wimpy Kid have all made appearances, but now it's time to get a clue on read-alikes for readers who enjoyed reading the extremely popular The Mysterious Benedict Society! With the release of the newest edition to the series, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, these books are vanishing off the library's book shelf.

Oh so mysteriously, mysterious....

If you like The Mysterious Benedict Society series, why not try....

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, illustrated by Brett Helquist

Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach

The Name of this Book is Secret (Secret series) by Pseudonymous Bosch

A Whole Nother Story (A Whole Nother Story series) by Dr. Cuthbert Soup

The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes Mystery series) by Nancy Springer

The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place) by Maryrose Wood

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen ( The Puzzling World of Winston Breen series) by Eric Berlin

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

The Seven Professors of the Far North (The Seven Professors of the Far North series) by John Fardell

 

Previous Summer Book Hook booklists and entries can be found HERE!

Looking for your next magical adventure?

Wizards, Greek mythology, and tales of princesses long ago... The most popular fantasy requests for middle grade readers this summer. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson rule and Ella Enchanted is still holding her own. Continuing the Summer Book Hook marathon, these are a tried and true read-a-likes that will keep kids coming back for more!

If you're crazy for Harry Potter...

Magyk (Septimus Heap series) by Angie Sage

The Flight of the Phoenix (Nathaniel Fludd: Beastologist series) by R.L. La Fevers

Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark is Rising series) by Susan Cooper

The Lives of Christopher Chant (Chestomanci series) by Diana Wynne Jones

Midnight for Charlie Bone (Charlie Bone series) by Jenny Nimmo

The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus Trilogy) by Jonathan Stroud

 

If you read Rick Riordan like he's going out of style...

The Akhenaten Adventure (Children of the Lamp series) by P.B. Kerr

Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl series) by Eoin Colfer

The Sea of Trolls (Sea of Trolls series) by Nancy Farmer

Odysseus in the Serpent Maze (Young Heroes series) by Jane Yolen & Robert J. Harris

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos (Theodosia Thockmorton series) by R. L. LaFevers

Secrets of the Sirens (Companions Quartet) by Julia Golding

 

My fair maiden! You like Ella Enchanted, Fairest, and other Gail Carson Levine books?

Try these...

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Dealing with Dragons (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles) by Patricia C. Wrende

Once Upon a Marigold (Once Upon a Marigold series) by Jean Ferris

Princess Academy (Princess Academy series) by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern series) by Shannon Hale

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Book Hook: Season's Readings

For the latest edition of the Summer Book Hook, I'm going to direct you to the Summer 2012 issue of Lawrence Kids Magazine featuring picks from Lawrence Public Library's youth librarians. You can see this summer reading feature and the magazine in it's entirety HERE!

(Psst... Also check out the Sturdy for Common Things feature of this butterfly craft in the back of the issue!)

Books mentioned in Lawrence Kids Magazine's summer reading article "Season's Readings":

Preschool

Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin, illustrated by James Dean

You Are a Lion! And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo

Easy Readers

Chicken Said, "Cluck!" by Judyann Ackerman Grant, pictures by Sue Truesdell

Frog and Friends by by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Josee Masse

Beginning Chapter Books

Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon

Mercy Watson by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen

Middle Grade

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Teens

Ripper by Stephan Petrucha

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

A BIG THANK YOU to LAWRENCE KIDS for supporting the library and childhood literacy!

 

 

image sources: Lawrence Kids Magazine

Summer Survival Guide for the Wimpy Kid Fan

Haven't been able to get the Summer Book Hook posts out the past couple weeks, so this week there will be TWO Summer Book Hook editions. Whaahooo! Additionally, the next few Summer Book Hook editions will be devoted to Middle Grade Books (i.e. 3rd - 7th grade reading level), specifically current favorite series. Double Whaahoo!

Today's Summer Book Hook topic... Summer Survival Guide for the Wimpy Kid Fan. Or, what do do when the library is (gulp) out of Wimpy Kid books.

Daily scene at the library: Kid walks in as quick as (s)he can without it being a full out sprint. Gets to the children's room reference desk and out of breath asks, "Do you have Diary of a Wimpy Kid?!!"

New York Times Bestseller for 5 years and counting, and June's featured NPR Backseat Book Club selection, kids can't get enough of Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid. But being the summertime with kids out of school, the chances that a copy of this popular series is available is slim to none. So, to avoid panic and chaos, I've compiled a list of awesome alternatives Greg Hessey fans will surly love almost as much, if not just as much, as Wimpy Kid to keep them reading over the summer months.

Same hypothetical child: "You don't have any of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books?!!!!! What about the movies? The guide books? Feeling faint... might... internally...  combust... "

Me: "Take deep breaths. Inhale, exhale, everything is going to be alright."

If you enjoy reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you might like:

Big Nate books by Lincoln Peirce

The Popularity Papers series by Amy Ignatow

Justin Case books by Rachel Vail, illustrated by Matthew Cordell

Dork in Disguise series by Carol Gorman

N.E.R.D.S: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society series by Michael Buckley

Wonkenstein: The Creature from my Closet by Obert Skye

Dork Diaries series by Rachel Renee Russell

Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts

Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder series by Jo Nesbo, illustrated by Mike Lowery

Knights of the Lunch Table graphic novel series by Frank Cammuso

I hope one or two of these books will help satisfy the Wimpy Kid addiction. Need more suggestions? Send me an email!

Happy Summer Reading!

Previous Summer Book Hook posts:

10 Tips to Get Kids Reading This Summer

Week 1: Early Readers

Week 2: Graphic Novels for All-Ages

Week 3: Audiobooks

Week 4: Beginning Chapter Books

 

 

image source: wimpy read