Starting a summer reading list

Summer is here. Your children are home from school. What will they do all summer?

Reading should be put somewhere near the top of your child’s list of things to do. Children who are good readers do better in school than students who do not like to read.

Studies show that children who are engaged in constructive activities maintain their grade level when they return to school in the fall. Children who read at least six books during the summer maintain their reading level over the summer and into the next school year.

Sign your child up for the summer reading program at your local library. If they don’t have specific books that you or your child want, they can get an inter-library loan and obtain the book you want from another library in the system.

Each time this column appears, it will present ideas for some good summer reading. Some will be old favorites, and some will be brand-new books.

A new title for the very young is “Lull-a-Bye, Little One,” by Dianne Ochiltree and illustrated by Hideko Takahashi. It is a delightful and colorful bedtime story for babies and toddlers, about a baby winding down and getting ready for bed. In a soft, rhyming verse, the baby says goodnight to her toys, getting them put away. A relaxing bath is next with toys and bubbles, and then a song is sung. The baby is wrapped in a blanket and read a book (of course); the night sky grows dark and baby is fast asleep.

Ochiltree is a local author who lives in Dingmans Ferry, PA. She is the author of several picture books. You can learn more about her and her books at her website www.ochiltreebooks.com

“Lost in the Woods,” by photographers Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stock, is an amazing picture book about a newborn fawn. This is a book to read aloud to your little ones or have your second- or third- graders read to themselves.

In the book, the woodland animals see the fawn by itself and are concerned that it is lost, wondering where the baby’s mother is. The fawn, however keeps telling them. “Mama said to wait right here. She will come back.”

The incredible wildlife photography displays the wonders of the woodland animals. You will feel like you are inside the woods with the animals as they voice their concern about the fawn. The book also teaches a gentle lesson to well-meaning humans who try to “rescue” fawns whom they believe to be orphaned, taking them away from the spots where their mothers have put them for safekeeping.

If you and your child enjoy this book, you might also want to try another book by the same authors, “Stranger in the Woods.”

“Peter and the Starcatchers” by Dave Barry and Ridley is an adventure story that children in grades four through seven may enjoy reading by themselves. This is a story that reveals what might have happened before J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Peter and his bunch of orphan boys have been sold to the evil king of Rundoon Island and are put on an old ship to be sent there. Once aboard the ship, they meet Molly, a girl about Peter’s age. Molly lets Peter in on a secret. She is an apprentice starcatcher, one who guards the magic starstuff from others who would use it to do harm. Starstuff is magic that when it falls to Earth; it brings about intelligence, happiness, and the ability to fly.

Add to the story Pirate Black Stache and the evil pirate crew of the ship the Sea Devil, and you have an exciting story. Throw in a shipwreck, the missing cargo of starstuff, mermaids and a flying crocodile, and the story goes from interesting to amazing.

[Susan Couture currently is the librarian at the Western Sullivan Public Library and is owner of Shady Lane Quitlers.]