Sunday, June 18, 2006

Recommended by our readers:

The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child, by Michael Buckley (Amulet, 2006). In this third book of the series, the sisters finally come face to face with their parents' kidnappers.

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket. Illustrated by Brett Helquist (HarperCollins). All 12 books! Make a point of spending the summer with the unfortunate but adventurous Baudelaire children.

Whispering to Witches, by Anna Dale (Bloomsbury, 2005). On his way to a family Christmas, a boy wanders into a witch-filled world.

The Star of Kazan, by Eva Ibbotson (Puffin, 2006). An abandoned young girl in Old Vienna finds out she's the daughter of an elegant and mysterious woman who lives in a castle.

10 Cool Reads for a Hot Summer

Recommended by our children's book reviewer, Elizabeth Ward:

5. Blackbeard:The Pirate King, by J. Patrick Lewis (2006, National Geographic, $16.95). Off the Outer Banks, "history's most notorious seaman" gets what he deserves. In verse.

8. Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered, by Gary Paulsen (1993, Yearling paperback ed., $5.99). An 11-year-old troublemaker meets his match down on the farm.

7. The Long Road to Gettysburg, by Jim Murphy (1992, Clarion paperback ed., $8.95). Three terrible July days that turned the tide of the Civil War.

4. The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, by E.L. Konigsburg (2004, Aladdin paperback ed., $5.99). A 12-year-old girl's summer gets much brighter after she fails to become "a true participant" at camp.

6. The Owlstone Crown, by X.J. Kennedy (1983, Handprint Books paperback ed., $8.95). Orphaned twins escape their frozen, miserable world via a magic stepping-stone. They didn't bargain on running into an army of wicked stone owls.

1. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance, by Jennifer Armstrong: (1998, Crown paperback ed., $12.95). Down in the Antarctic, battling death by ice.

10. Summer Reading Is Killing Me!, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1998; Puffin paperback ed., $4.99). Oops! The Time Warp Trio accidentally find themselves in a strange, bookish land that doubles as the world's coolest reading list.

9. That Fernhill Summer, by Colby Rodowsky (2006, Farrar Straus Giroux, $16). A biracial girl heads to Baltimore with her mom to be introduced to the white side of the family.

2. The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995, Yearling paperback ed., $6.50). A black Michigan family has fun on a summer trip south--until a local church is bombed.

3. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner (1960; CollinsVoyager paperback ed., $11.17). In Japan, they read scary stories in summer to give themselves the shivers. Here, two English kids on vacation tangle with ancient evil more chilling than Voldemort.