Fantastic Summer Reading
By Lisa Von Drasek

For Lisa Von Drasek's latest audiobook recommendations click here

At our school we prepare for the coming summer months by compiling a list of peer recommendations. What do students' grade-level cohorts suggest for summer reading? To peek at last year's summer reading lists, go to http://streetcat.bankstreet.edu/children/booklists.html

We are looking forward to the new and last "Harry Potter," but while we wait, here is a list of suggested fantasy reading that our students think your students should be reading. Most of these titles are available in paperback or for under 10 dollars.

For third and fourth grades
Escape From Jabar-loo by Tony Abbott (Scholastic Paperbacks, 2007, ISBN: 0-439-90251-7). I hadn't even heard about "The Secrets of Droon" series before my third graders recommended the series for summer reading. I can see the appeal. The books are fast-paced adventures that have the ease of reading about familiar friends.

The New Kid at School #1 by Kate McMullan (Grosset & Dunlap, 2003, ISBN: 0-448-43108-4). This is the first of the "Dragon Slayers' Academy" series. For students not quite ready to face the volume of pages of Harry Potter, this series has the charming underdog protagonist, Wiglaf, and his charming pet pig, Daisy, who can communicate in pig Latin. These stories are perfect for students who can read but often choose not to.

Time Warp Trio: South Pole or Bust (an Egg) by Jon Scieszka (HarperTrophy, 2007, ISBN: 0-061-11640-8). Best-selling author Jon Scieszka created "The Time Warp Trio" series for boys – boys who were having trouble finding books that they wanted to read. Where were the books with gross jokes and page-turning adventures? The premise of the series is that a magic book unexpectedly sends three boys through time to high-interest time periods. This is the first title in this series to be geared toward a younger (level three) reader. Joe, Fred, and Sam are stranded in Antarctica and they join Robert Scott on his journey to the South Pole.

Secrets of Dripping Fang, Book One: The Onts by Dan Greenburg (Harcourt, 2005, ISBN: 0-152-05457-X). For the kids who are going through Lemony Snicket withdrawal, there is a new series they'll like. The author of the popular "The Zack Files" series, Dan Greenburg, takes on gothic fantasy with pun-filled, deadpan humor. He spins the tale of the Shluffmuffin twins who are alone in the world and whom no one wants to adopt. In the first book, Wally and Cheyenne are taken in by the Mandible sisters who reside in Dripping Fang Forest. Readers will know immediately that no good could come of this.

For fourth and fifth grades
Into the Wild (Warriors Book 1) by Erin Hunter (Harper-Collins, 2004, ISBN: 0-060-00002-3) and The Merchant of Death (Pendragon Series 1) by D. J. MacHale (Aladdin, 2002, ISBN: 0-743-43731-4). The most popular fantasy series for these grades are "Warriors"– an epic mythic tale about cat clans – and the "Pendragon" series, in which the protagonist Bobby Pendragon, an apparently normal 14-year-old, suddenly finds out that that he is destined to save the world. I can't keep these books on the shelves.

The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler (Candlewick, 2006, ISBN: 0-763-62811-5). For those students looking for a female heroine, I give you 12-year-old Emily Windsnap. There must be a reason that even though she lives with her mother on a boat, Emily's mom never let her learn to swim. It won't ruin the story to know that the mystery has something to do with mermaids, the deep blue sea and discovering her father, who was her mother's biggest secret.

For those students enthralled with a fantasy world populated with interesting characters, look no further that the "Septimus Heap" series by Angie Sage. Her first offering was Magyk (Katherine Tegen Books, 2005, ISBN: 0-060-57731--2). This quest tale is plotted with multiple points of view and sharply veering twists and turns, yet it is an easy read, with a touch of light humor. Our students are literally fighting over copies of the second one, Flyte (Katherine Tegen Books, 2006, ISBN: 0-060-57734-7). Book three, Physik (Katherine Tegen Books, 2007, ISBN: 0-060-57737--1), is just out in hardcover.

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (Miramax, 2007, ISBN: 1-423-10145-6). I have boys and girls lined up outside my office begging for the third title in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series. The first, The Lightning Thief (Miramax, 2005, ISBN: 0-641-72344-X), introduced us to a young man who was having trouble in school and it turned out that his attention deficit was the natural result of being a demi-god – half human, half Greek god. No wonder he couldn't sit still. The usual suspects of Greek mythology make their appearances in this often humorous, downright engaging fast-paced adventure. Book two, The Sea of Monsters (Miramax, 2007, ISBN: 1-423-10334-3) is just as riveting as the first.

For sixth grade and up
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (HarperTeen, 2004, ISBN: 0-060-01238-2). The Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, team up with a nine-year-old witch-to-be named Tiffany to save her baby brother from the evil Faerie Queen. Pratchett's use of Scottish vernacular takes some getting used to, but once engaged, students will find themselves drawn into this entertaining world.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (Miramax, 2004, ISBN: 0-786-85255-0). This is the first of the Bartimaeus Trilogy and just the beginning of a rich, sweeping adventure. It is set in a parallel London, as original as Phillip Pullman's. The narration alternates between the third-person story of young Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, and is studded with the sly humor of the narrator, Bartimaeus, a 5,000-year-old djinni.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, 2007, ISBN: 1-599-90073-4). New in paperback is this Newbery-honor title. Don't be fooled by the title – this is not one of those slight, pinky-pink princess stories. Miri is a girl in a depressed mining village in which girls are rounded up to be trained at a boarding school so that the prince of the land can choose his bride from among them. Despite her inner conflicts, Miri finds herself becoming a leader and surprises herself by what she accomplishes.

For Lisa Von Drasek's latest audiobook recommendations click here

Lisa Von Drasek is Children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education in New York, NY.

May, 2007, Vol.37, No.8