Turning Two Thousand, Three Hundred, and Twelve Pages on the Book Beach!

Greetings from the Book Beach! 

We hope that your summer days have been full of of relaxation, recreation, and reading... lots of reading! 

Here are some of the pages we've been turning this season:

Welcome to Wonderland: Home Sweet Hotel by Chris Grabenstein. Eleven-year-old P.T. Wilkie loves living at the world’s wackiest motel. The Wonderland has poolside ice cream, a snack machine in the living room, a frog sliding board… and a dismal lack of customers. If business doesn’t improve, P.T. and Gloria may have to say goodbye to the beloved motel. The friends develop a big, bold, outrageous plan to save The Wonderland, and they solve a mystery or two along the way... 304 pages of fun-in-the-sun from one of Lafayette School’s favorite authors!

Chris Grabenstein Discusses Welcome to Wonderland.

Regarding the Fountain: A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks by Kate Klise. The Dry Creek Middle School drinking fountain needs to be replaced, and principal Walter Russ requests a catalog from Flowing Waters Fountains, Etc. When the company’s resident artist Flo Waters solicits design suggestions from Dry Creek fifth graders, hijinks and hilarity ensue, revealed in letters and documents... 144 pages of splish-splashy fun!

Fountain Designs from Lafayette School.

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones. In a series of letters to her grandmother, twelve-year-old Sophie Brown tells of her family’s move to her Great Uncle Jim’s farm where, with help from new neighbors and friends, she cares for a flock of extraordinary chickens with supernatural abilities... 224 pages of quirky, clucky entertainment!

Unusual Chickens... Book Trailer.

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs. When Henry the Hippopotamus—star attraction at FunJungle, a newly-opened Texas zoo—is found dead under mysterious circumstances, twelve-year-old Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt Fitzroy and his feisty friend Summer McCraken launch an investigation, working diligently to crack a case of hippo homicide... 320 pages of zoological intrigue!

Summer Reading on The Book Beach by Megan Y.

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham. Thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone, who knows a lot about the law—and who knows every judge, police officer, and court clerk in his small hometown of Strattenburg—finds himself involved in a sensational murder trial because of knowledge he might have about a cold-blooded killer... 288 pages of high-stakes, first-in-a-series suspense.

Check out Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer.

Tru and Nelle by Greg Neri. In the small town of Monroeville, Alabama, at the beginning of the Great Depression, misfits seven-year-old Tru and six-year- old Nelle strike up a friendship and play detective when someone breaks into the local drugstore and steals candy and an elegant brooch... 352 pages of humor and heartache, based on the real-life childhood friendship of famous authors Truman Capote and Harper Lee.

Summer Reading by Eva.

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton. Happy-go-lucky Narwhal and no-nonsense Jelly may not have a lot in common—other than a shared love of waffles, parties, and awesome ocean adventure.  This silly, colorful graphic novel shows the fun of friendship, the power of imagination, and the benefits of working together… 64 pages of under-the-sea escapades!

Narwhal and Jelly by Scarlett.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show The $20,000 Pyramid, twelve-year-old Miranda tries to make sense of increasingly mysterious events… and a series of anonymous notes that seem to defy the laws of time and space... 224 pages of clever Newbery Medal reading.

Miss Killea Recommends When You Reach Me.

Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans by Gary Northfield. Julius Zebra and his friends, Milus the Lion and Cornelius the Warthog, are captured and transported from a peaceful Serengeti watering hole in Africa to the raucous Colosseum in Ancient Rome. The motley crew must learn how to be gladiators and win the love of Roman crowds in order to regain their freedom... 288 pages of madcap, cartoon-style exploits!

Rumble through History with Julius Zebra.

Who Wins? 100 Historical Figures Go Head-to-Head by Clay Swartz. Charles Dickens challenges Mother Teresa to a light saber duel? Nelson Mandela takes on Jane Austen in a karaoke contest? Mix-and-match die-cut pages allow readers to flip panels to match one hundred historical figures in fifty whimsical categories, from mini-golf to mountain climbing. Each character is given a brief biography and ranked in six categories: bravery, leadership, artistry, wealth, wisdom, and physical fitness. There are no right or wrong answers in this game—just entertainment and learning... 104 pages of spiral-bound competitive history!

As the countdown to back-to-school continues, there is still time to find a special summer reading spot, pick up a book, and turn those  pages!