What's On Your Summer Reading List?

Children's and Young Adult Authors and Illustrators Tell All

Daryl Grabarek, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 6/2/2009

For readers, creating a summer reading list inspires the same sort of anticipation arranging a trip does for travelers, and planning one is part of the fun. Unlike its distant cousin, the resolution, the summer reading list is more about self-indulgence than self-improvement, though that, too, can be part of the mix. Fortunately, they are rarely guilt producing. Find out what books some of your favorite children's and young adult authors and illustrators are packing in their vacation bags this year.

From Susan Patron, author of The Higher Power of Lucky (2006) and Lucky Breaks (2009, both S & S):

This summer I'll be cleaning, nesting, scarfing down kimchi, indulging in reverie, elevating my feet, flying off the handle, and dissolving in emotion. Yep, I'll be at the end of gestation, getting ready, if all goes well, to deliver the third and final "Lucky" book to my editor. One other symptom of this condition: an inability to concentrate on fiction and a profound craving for nonfiction. So here are the books I'm stockpiling for July, August, and September: 

• John McPhee's Annals of the Former World, especially the section he calls "Assembling California."
• Anne Lamott's Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith 
• Sid Fleischman's The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West 
• Kerry Madden's Harper Lee (from the "Up Close" series). 

From Mo Willems, author of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003) and Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed (2009, both Hyperion):

I am no dummy. This summer, I will read anything my pal Kate DiCamillo recommends. And then, because I am no dummy, I will tell her I loved it. 

From Kate DiCamillo, author of The Tale of Despereaux (2003), the “Mercy Watson” series, and the forthcoming The Magician’s Elephant (September, 2009, all Candlewick):

I don’t know if this is a summer reading list, as much as it’s a “what’s-next-for-me” list. These books will surely take me into the summer. Lined up on a shelf and waiting for me: Amy Bloom’s novel Away; a poetry anthology, American Hybrid (I’m new to poetry and am always on the lookout for good anthologies); The Best American Essays, 2008 (I love the “Best American” series); The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2008 (always chock-a-block with amazing stuff); Steve Stern’s novel The Wedding Jester; The Best American Mystery Stories, 2008; Roberto Bolaño’s much-talked-about 2666; The Pushcart Book of Poetry (another anthology); and Siri Hustvedt’s novel The Sorrows of an American. 

From Adam Rapp, author of Punkzilla ( 2009) and Under the Wolf, Under the Dog (2004, both Candlewick):

I recently finished reading James Salter's amazing Light Years, which led me to his memoir, Burning the Days. I read both of those in an inspired gallop. I just started Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer, which I'm already smitten with. Next up is Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries. Blake Bailey's biography of John Cheever, Todd London's novel, The World's Room, and Craig Thompson's graphic novel, Blankets.
 

From Elise Broach, author of Masterpiece (2008) and Dessert Crossing (2006, both Holt):

What I'm reading this summer...

• Something old:  I've never read Charles Dickens' Great Expectations or George Eliot's Middlemarch, and they've been recommended to me so many times. So they're on the list.
• Something new:  I have Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls on my stack and have heard that it's great—lyrically beautiful and unsettling in just the right ways. Also, Nora Raleigh Baskin's Anything But Typical, about an autistic boy who finds a way into the "normal" world through writing. I want to read Zoe Heller's The Believers because I liked What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal so much. And I'm just starting Brenda Wineapple's White Heat, a literary biography about the friendship between Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
• Something borrowed: A friend lent me her collection of Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems, and they look really wonderful...mostly nature-focused but with sharp insights into human emotion and experience. 
• Something blue: I actually don't think any of these books will be sad, but they're about sad topics: Brendan Halpin's Forever Changes, about a teenage girl with a terminal illness; Isabel Gillies' Happens Every Day, about the cataclysmic end of a marriage—an impulse purchase at the Starbucks counter because the back jacket has a rave review from Maile Meloy, one of my favorite new novelists (Liars and Saints); and Julian Barnes' Nothing to Be Frightened Of, about his obsessive interest in his own mortality.  

From Melissa Marr, author of Fragile Eternity (2009) and Ink Exchange (2008, both HarperCollins): 

My summer reading is a combination of semi-new releases, advance reader copies, and published books: Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian; Charlaine Harris's newest “Sookie Stackhouse” book; Fire, the prequel to Kristin Cashore's Graceling; Terry Pratchett's Nation; Carol Goodman's Sonnet Lover; and Joe Hill's Locke & Key. I like to have reserve stacks, so there are always a few things on hand to choose between for each night's reading.
 

From Deborah Hopkinson, author of Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole (2009) and Sweet Land of Liberty (2007, both Peachtree): 

I like to delve into relatively unknown stories in history. On my list are new biographies of two remarkable women: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirsten Downey; and The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert that Awakened America by Raymond Arsenault.

From Megan McDonald, author of the “Judy Moody” series (Candlewick), A Way-Moody Summer Reading List (Caution: Vampire Free Zone!): 

Advanced copies by two writers I am never NOT in the mood for:

• The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson 
• Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

Hoping to savor every sentence:

• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Hello! Pulitzer!)
• Home by Marilynne Robinson (author of the achingly beautiful Gilead)

Fiction:

• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
• The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro

Mysteries for beach and hammock reading:

• Newest Donna Leon mystery: About Face (Set in Venice)
• Irish writer Tana French: The Likeness (A Nancy Pearl recommendation)
• Canadian Louise Penny: A Rule Against Murder (most innovative not-scary murder plots); The Brutal Telling (clues from first editions of Charlotte’s Web and Jane Eyre!)

Essays that look funny and insightful:

• I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

Books on the bedside stand to read when late-night TV is really bad:

• “Gilda Joyce Psychic Investigator” series by Jennifer Allison

Books my nieces say I have to read:

• Julia Golding’s "Cat Royal Adventure" series

Young Adult novel I’m most looking forward to:

• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Jane Austen must reread:

• Emma 

Most un-put-downable book since The Poisonwood Bible (I hope):

• The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

Compare and contrast Larissa Volokhonsky’s and Anthony Briggs’ translations of War and Peace (Kidding!)

Wait! I have to stop at 200 words? No fair! 

From Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Eternal (2009) amd Tantalize (2007, both Candlewick): 

2009 may be the year of the debut author, and one of them tops my reading list. The picture book I'm most excited about is The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tony Persiani, a picture book biography about the guys who invented Day-Glo. It's such an off-beat sort of topic, and I had the chance to peek at the early art, which is of course in Day-Glo. How fun is that? On the novel front, I can't wait to dig into The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley, which was inspired by Tudor history. It's always interesting when authors depart from their previous work, and certainly, this historical looks much different than her debut, The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous. That said, every serious reader of young adult literature should make time for Carol Lynch Williams' extraordinarily gripping The Chosen One, which I had the pleasure of reading in manuscript and will be rereading this summer to study for craft. 

From Marilyn Singer, author of I’m Your Bus (June, 2009, Scholastic) and City Lullaby (Clarion, 2007): 

I love to read outdoors, and, of course, that means I love summer reading. I read children’s and young adult books all year long—and come spring, I enjoy a stack of books by the fabulous poets who’ll be participating in the ALSC Poetry Blast I co-host at the American Library Association conference every year. I also have stacks of books I’ve taken out of the library or collected at conventions or received as gifts or bought myself, and, let me tell you, I’m WAY behind on them. So, I don’t set aside many specific books for summer reading. I grab whatever strikes my fancy from the shelves at that moment.

Having said that, I will admit that there usually a couple of books that I plan to get to each summer. They’re often adult nonfiction, and they’re often about Broadway musicals, which I love. This year, I intend to read Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway’s Big Musical Bombs by Steven Suskin, which was a gift from my nephew, and Put on a Happy Face, a memoir by Broadway composer Charles Strouse. I met him at the Hickory Stick Bookstore in Washington Depot, CT. A girl ahead of me on line informed him that she was about to play the lead in his famous musical, Bye Bye Birdie. Grinning broadly, I said that I, too, had been in the musical in high school many, many, moons ago. Mr. Strouse told us that he was both delighted and amazed Birdie has had such a long, successful life. So, you can see why I’m eager to read his book. Outdoors. If only the weather will cooperate.

From Avi, author of Poppy and Ereth (2009) and The Seer of Shadows (2008, both HarperCollins): 

This summer I plan to read Drood by Dan Simmons; The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; Thames: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd; The Rise of Scotland Yard, a History of the Metropolitan Police by Douglas G. Browne; and Njal's Saga. 

From Tomie dePaola, author and illustrator of the “Strega Nona” stories and For the Duration (2009, all Putnam): 

I promised myself that I would re-visit some previously read titles over the summer as well as FINALLY get to several new books. Let me start with those. 

The first is a young adult novel by Jacqueline Woodson, a favorite author of mine. I don’t usually read the young adult genre, but Jackie’s writing is so wonderful that I can’t wait to read Feathers. I haven’t even peeked at the flap copy, so I will be completely surprised by the story. I love when I can do that.

Next will be Gregory Maguire’s A Lion Among Men. This is Maguire’s saga of the cowardly lion from Oz. His other books that tell (or should it be re-tell) the well known tales of Oz, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. are so well written that I know Lion will satisfy me. 

The last new book (new for me) will be The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s strange that I haven’t read this before, but then last summer I read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time. 

Now, for my re-visitation to old loves. I plan to reread Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy. For some reason, the three books are calling me from the shelves of my library. 

Then I plan to follow that up with At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill. It’s been long enough that the plot is hazy and I am looking forward to being reacquainted. 

I’ll re-open The Book of Salt by Monique Truong because even though it’s fiction it could be true and any book that features Gertrude and Alice is always a winner for me. 

And by the time summer is coming to a close (it happens sooner than later in New Hampshire). I hope to be immersed in The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz. It’s a fascinating novel concerning the royal family of Japan. 

And if there is any summertime left, I’ll grab one of the many M.F.K. Fisher books I have and get ready to eat my way through fall.

From Brian James, author of  Zombie Blondes ( 2008) and The Heights (2009, both Feiwel &  Friends):

Writing for all age levels, my reading list reflects my many varied interests: 

All About Lulu by Jonathan Evision (a coming-of-age story I've been meaning to read since last summer)

Translucent by Kazuhiro Okamoto (my manga series for the summer)

Journey to the End of Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine (a classic by one of my favorite authors) 

Ghost Medicine by Andrew Smith (I've been dying to read this young adult novel)

Miss Popularity by Francesco Sedita (a good dose of fun middle grade fiction never hurt anyone)

Daddy's Little Angel: Bedeviled by Shani Petroff (A fun looking young adult novel) 

Europe Central by William T. Vollmann

From Richard Peck, author of A Year Down Yonder (2000) and the forthcoming A Season of Gifts (Fall 2009, both Dial): 

Summer reading? Always something old and something new. The new is Ryan Smithson's coming-of-ager, Ghosts of War; The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI...because nobody in publishing seems to know a soldier. And the old?  E.B. White's Charlotte's Web because it was written the year I graduated from high school, so I was too old for it then. But not now.
 

From Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Wintergirls (2009) and Twisted (2007, both Viking) and this year's Margaret Edwards Award winner: 

I am outrageously optimistic about how much time I'll have to read this summer, and thus am accumulating tall stacks of books to be read. Here are a few I'll be devouring once I've got my garden in shape: 

• Little Bee by Chris Cleave
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Blues For All The Changes by Nikki Giovanni
• The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
• American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore 

I'll be enjoying these books while snacking on fresh-picked strawberries and sipping lemonade! 

From E. Lockhart, author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008) and Dramarama (2007, both Hyperion):

My holiday suitcase is always loaded with novels. The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After is the third in the series that began with Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. Austen-era magic, epistolary-style. What's not to love? The Patricia Wrede/Caroline Stevermer collaboration was inspirational in the way my co-authors and I approached writing How to Be Bad. Margarettown by Gabrielle Zevin is an adult novel by the author of Elsewhere and Memoir of a Teenage Amnesiac, about a town populated only by women named Margaret. Kind of. Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis, is widely reputed to be the funniest novel ever written, and that's enough to make me read it.   

From Jerry Spinelli, author of Eggs (2007) and the upcoming picture book, I Can Be Anything (March 2010, both Little, Brown): 

John Updike, who recently died, was a fellow Pennsylvanian and a bookmate of mine in an anthology of Pennsylvania writers. This summer I will read a novel of his that I haven't tasted yet: In the Beauty of the Lilies. And maybe revisit a few old favorite short stories, such as "Pigeon Feathers" and "A&P."
 

From Juanita Havill, author of Grow: A Novel in Verse (2008, Peachtree):

Contemplating summer, I get very ambitious. There are no beaches in Sonoita [AZ], and we usually don't travel far in summer, but here are some books I plan to read: 

The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare by Brenda James and William D. Rubinstein (I am fascinated by theories about who Shakespeare really was); John Donne, the Reformed Soul by John Stubbs; The Florist’s Daughter by Patricia Hampl; Giving Up the Ghost by Sheri Sinykin; and poetry, Diamond Willow by Helen Frost; The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle; and Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford. 

From Sara Zarr, author of Story of a Girl (2007) and Sweethearts (2008, both Little, Brown):

Right now I'm a little obsessed with Patricia Highsmith, who mostly wrote novels about sociopaths—The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train are the most well-known. The fascinating young adult connection is that in the fifties, Highsmith had a two-year affair with a writer named Marijane Meaker, who became the groundbreaking young adult novelist M.E. Kerr. In 2003, Meaker wrote a memoir about her relationship with Highsmith (who died in 1995), called Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s. It's hard to find, but I got hold of a used copy online and added it to my current stack, which also includes The Price of Salt (a lesbian romance Highsmith wrote under the name Claire Morgan), and Beautiful Shadow, a Highsmith biography by Andrew Wilson. What's so interesting about Highsmith's novels is how she manages to make the reader root for sociopaths—you find yourself hoping that Ripley gets away with murder. 

Back to M.E. Kerr: I plan to reread I Stay Near You: One Story in Three, which was one of my absolute favorite books in high school. It's tremendously tender, and breaks a lot of the so-called rules of YA that we probably don't question enough. 

From Ridley Pearson co-author with Dave Barry of Science Fair (Disney, 2008) and Peter and the Starcatchers (Hyperion, 2004):

This summer I want to catch up on Eoin Colfer's latest Artemis Fowl, The Time Paradox, and I hope to get an advance readers copy of his And Another Thing...of which I know nothing about, but "In Eoin We Trust" as it says on the back of every Irish pound note (yes, I know they're Euros now, but you get the point). 

I also promise myself to finish the outstanding, The Man Who Loved China, by Simon Winchester, the reading of which was interrupted by my downloading onto my Kindle, The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane, which very well might be the best novel I've read in the past five years. I'm reading Day like one consumes rich finger food or devours a lollypop: slowly and enjoying every single taste sensation. Will wonders never cease? 

From Dave Barry, co-author with Ridley Pearson of Science Fair (Disney, 2008) and Peter and the Starcatchers (Hyperion, 2004): 

This summer I plan to read Before I Forget, the first novel by my Miami Herald colleague Leonard Pitts, and Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone, which I keep hearing is wonderful. I also intend to read the works of Marcel Proust in the original French, as I do every summer. (I mean I intend to do this every summer; what with one thing and another, I've never actually managed to get started.) 

From Ann M. Martin, author of the upcoming Everything for a Dog (Fall 2009, Feiwel & Friends): 

My summer reading list is divided into three categories: what’s already sitting on my bedside table, favorite books to reread, and titles (new or old) by favorite authors. On my table are Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin; Life Sentences by Laura Lippman; and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

I can’t wait to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith; and the play, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder. (I’ll need a giant box of tissues for Our Town.)

Finally, I’m very much looking forward to reading Elizabeth Berg’s new book, Home Safe: A Novel, and an older title by Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. I’m a Stephen King fan, and recently realized that I never read It (Signet, 1987).

I probably won’t manage to get to every one of these books. My list is a bit ambitious, as it is every summer. But it’s nice to have choices. 

From James Preller, author of the acclaimed novel Six Innings (2008) and the forthcoming Bystander (Fall 2009, both Feiwel & Friends): 

I have a stack of unread books bedside and, to that extent, a summer reading list: 

• Columbine by Dave Cullen. I recently visited with four hundred 6th graders and only two of them had ever heard of Columbine. We’ve got to find a way to talk about this stuff.

• Music From Big Pink by John Niven. I love this little “33 1/3” series put out by Continuum. Each book is about a specific rock album, and I’ve already gobbled up about 10 titles.

• Clockers by Richard Price. I much admired the hyper-realism of last year’s Lush Life, especially the crisp, true dialogue. I need to catch up on what I’ve missed.

• Hang Tough, Paul Mather by Alfred Slote. An out-of-print young adult title that centers on a Little Leaguer with leukemia—a setup that mirrors my own life. I’m curious to see how Slote handles it.

• The Narrows by Michael Connelly. I’m slowly working my way through Connelly’s “Harry Bosch” books. I’m a sucker for a well-written police procedural.

• Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison. A topic I find endlessly fascinating.

From Joyce Sweeney author of The Guardian (2009) and Headlock (2006, both Holt):

Since I teach and mentor other writers, I will spend this spring and summer reading books by my students. Pretty cool when I can get all my reading from my own workshop people. And look at the variety!

• A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn (young adult)
• Riding the Universe by Gaby Triana (young adult)
• Shrinking Violet, a debut young adult title by Danielle Joseph
• For Baby, For Bobbie, a new picture book by Janeen Mason based on the John Denver song
• H, fiction by Barbara Dinerman
• Mama Rides Shotgun, a mystery by Deborah Sharp
• Sea Fare, a memoir by Victoria Allman

From Paul Janeczko, who selected the poems for A Foot in the Mouth (2009) and is the author of many poetry collections, including Worlds Afire (2004, both Candlewick): 

I don’t have a summer reading list because my reading doesn’t change when the weather gets warm. I do, however, have reading piles from which I choose a book when I’m ready for something new.

My morning reading comes from my nonfiction pile. Currently I’m working on John McGraw, a biography of the legendary manager of the New York Giants, by Charles C. Alexander; The Wisdom of Imperfection by Rob Preece, an exploration of Buddhist psychology; and Over the Edge of the World, Laurence Bergreen’s story of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the Earth.

My bedtime reading is fiction, usually mysteries. I am a huge fan of Michael Connelly novels. I’ve become addicted to mysteries about UK detectives, including the work of Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson, Charles Todd, Martha Grimes, and Anne Perry. In between these, I choose mainstream fiction such as The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl; Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen; and Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig. Yes, I do open a classic title now and then, most recently: John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.

I read poetry whenever the mood strikes me. Among my latest discoveries are The Underwear Salesman by J. Patrick Lewis; Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up by Lisa Westberg Peters; Pond Circle by Betsy Franco; and Monsterology, a deliciously creepy book of poems by Bobbi Katz.

So many books…well, you know the rest.

          We do.

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