We read this cartoon from Foxtrot over the weekend about required summer reading and it totally amused us. Take a look here and see if it describes what happens in your classroom when you discuss summer reading!

Labels: Foxtrot, Fun Stuff, Summer Reading

Though Jenny Han is hard at work on the sequel to her newly released novel, THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, she's still taking advantage of the summer downtime to catch up on a little reading. Below, she shares the top five books on her list.


When I’m not writing books, I’m working part time at a school library on the Upper West Side. Well, school’s finally out, and I have to say, one of the best things about summer vacation is all the reading I get to catch up on. Although, truth be told, with a July deadline for the sequel to THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, I shouldn’t be doing anything extracurricular at all. But you still can! And I can too, after I turn in my revision…

Without further adieu, I present to you, my five YA must-reads this summer.

1. THE CHOSEN ONE by Carol Lynch Williams
I am a sucker for a haunting cover, and this one sure looks haunting --- a girl with long blond braid that is just starting to unravel. The story’s about a girl named Kyra, who lives on a polygamist compound with her father, three mothers, and twenty siblings. She’s just been betrothed to her 60-year-old uncle. Now what? I’m hoping she’ll be as gutsy and spirited as Nikki from “Big Love,” and bust out of that compound, come hell or high water.

2. MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco X. Stork
Everywhere I go, I hear rave reviews about this book. It's about a 17-year-old boy with Aspergers who takes care of ponies and listens to music in his head. Oh, Marcelo, I think I love you already. Marcelo is given the choice to continue to live in his own private world or to join “the real world” of lawyer fathers and corporations.

3. WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is like Steve Martin. I once read a review that said , when Steve Martin comes out with a new comedy, no matter what it is, you stand up and pay attention. When Laurie Halse Anderson comes out with a new book, you stand up and pay attention. She’s just that good. This one is about a girl named Lia who is struggling with many different problems, chief among them being anorexia.

4. SAVVY by Ingrid Law
This is one I’ve been meaning to get to for some time. It’s about a 12-year-old girl named Mississippi who is waiting for her “savvy.” In Mississippi’s family, when a kid turns thirteen, he or she gets his or her very own supernatural ability. For instance, her brother Rocket can create electricity. I wonder what Mississippi’s savvy will be?

5. ALONG FOR THE RIDE by Sarah Dessen
I’ve been waiting for this one for months! It has all of the elements I love --- thinking girl with a thinking-girl name, a sleepy beach town, a new boy. Auden is leaving for college in the fall, her mom’s a control freak, her dad’s just had a new baby, and she doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Sarah Dessen is at the top of her game, and I can’t wait to see what she’s come up with this time.

Happy reading, y’all!

-- Jenny Han

Labels: Jenny Han, Summer Reading, The Summer I Turned Pretty

Is there any better way to spend your summer vacation than with a glass of lemonade in one hand and a great book in the other? Today, Cynthia Leitich Smith --- author of gothic fantasties TANTALIZE and ETERNAL --- shares what's on her list of summer reads and recommends a few titles to add to yours.


I'm not only a "champion" of summer reading, I've won an award to prove it.

When I was a very young reader, I won the summer reading challenge at my local public library in Grandview, Missouri. It took place between the summer of second and third grade. I read more books than anybody, even though the contest went up to grade six. I remember a ceremony and being presented a certificate by the mayor and getting my picture in the newspaper.

Back then, I loved any books that had to do with magic, especially those about putting on a magic show. I wanted to be a magician when I grew up.

By the time I was teen, my summer reading had shifted to realistic contemporary books like TIGER EYES by Judy Blume and creepy stories by Stephen King.

I also re-read Elizabeth George Speare’s THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND every summer from the time I was twelve. It was a combination of the romance and Kit's strength that kept drawing me back.

It's funny because now I'm back to magic again, as a writer and reader, though not so much with tricks but rather magic of a fictional kind.

I can't wait to read THE AMARANTH ENCHANTMENT by Julie Berry or SILVER PHOENIX: BEYOND THE KINGDOM OF XIA by Cindy Pon.

You may want to add a couple of my recent reads to your list: A KISS IN TIME by Alex Flinn and WATERSMEET by Ellen Jensen Abbott. Flinn's book is a fun, funny contemporary twist on Sleeping Beauty, and Abbott's is a dark, fierce fantasy with heart.

And if you haven’t already I hope you’ll look for my own Gothics --- TANTALIZE and ETERNAL. They’re companion books set in a multi-creature-verse that includes angels, vampires, ghosts, and shape-shifters.

You don’t have to read them in any particular order. But the two casts will crossover in BLESSED, which I’m working on now, and it picks up where TANTALIZE leaves off.

If you’re already a fan, don’t miss Deborah Noyes’s short story collection SIDESHOW: Ten Original Dark Tales of Freaks, Illusionists and Other Matters Odd and Magical, which will be out in July. My contribution is “Cat Calls,” which is set in my own monstrous and magical universe.

Happy summer reading!

-- Cynthia Leitich Smith

Labels: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Eternal, Summer Reading, Tantalize