Book List: Summer Reading

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Summer vacation is here! Now the big question is, what to read!? Here's a list of our sunshine-beach-cookout-wakeboarding-sunglasses-watermelon-rollercoaster-fun-related picks.

Title: Peaches: A Novel
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Published: 2005
Synopsis: Three teenaged girls from very different backgrounds, thrown together to pick peaches in a Georgia orchard, spend a summer in pursuit of the right boy, the truest of friends, and the perfect peach.

Title: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Author: Ann Brashares
Published: 2001
Synopsis: Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whoever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer.

Title: Sleepaway Girls
Author: Jen Calonita
Published: 2009
Synopsis: When the exceptionally people-pleasing Sam spends a summer as a counselor-in-training, she learns how to say no, to stand up for herself, and what it feels like to have a crush on a great guy.

Title: Two Steps Forward
Author: Rachel Cohn
Published: 2006
Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Annabel's extended family gathers in Los Angeles for several weeks over the summer where she must contend with step- and half-sisters and brothers, and her own mother's failing marriage.

Title: Fireworks: Four Summer Stories
Author: Lauren Myracle; Sarah Mlynowski; Erin Haft; Niki Burnham
Published: 2007
Synopsis: Four of today's bestselling authors for teens come together for a romantic collection of summertime love stories. Each author shows us a different side of summer romance, from the first flush of a seaside crush to the sting of breakup.

Title: How I Survived My Summer Vacation; and Lived to Write the Story
Author: Robin Friedman
Published: 2000
Synopsis: Determined to write a novel during the summer before he starts high school, thirteen-year-old Jackie struggles with his inability to finish anything and with the advice of others.

Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty
Author: Jenny Han
Published: 2009
Synopsis: Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different.

Title: I'm Exploding Now
Author: Sid Hite
Published: 2007
Synopsis: This summer Max has no job and nothing to do, but after spending a lot of time hanging out in Manhattan, thinking about life, writing, and visiting his aunt in Woodstock, he develops a personal philosophy called "coolism" which seems to help turn things around.

Title: The Canning Season
Author: Polly Horvarth
Published: 2003
Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Ratchet spends a summer in Maine with her eccentric great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, hearing strange stories from the past and encountering a variety of unusual and colorful characters.

Title: Spells and Sleeping Bags
Author: Sarah Mlynowski
Published: 2007
Synopsis: Rachel and her younger sister, both witches, spend the summer at Camp Wood Lake, where Rachel tries to have a normal camp experience while surreptitiously honing her newly discovered talents.

Title: Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks
Author: Lauren Myracle
Published: 2009
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Carly's summer volunteer experience makes her feel more real than her life of privilege in Atlanta ever did, but her younger sister starts high school pretending to be what she is not, and both find their relationships suffering.

Title: Lawn Boy
Author: Gary Paulsen
Published: 2007
Synopsis: Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy when a neighbor convinces him to expand his summer lawn mowing business.