summer beach animationOverbooked Summer Reading List for Kids of All Ages: 2005

The list includes both fiction and nonfiction books for all ages (preschoolers to teens). Most of the titles are appropriate for grades 3-7 , and there is an emphasis on action and adventure for summer reading fun. Titles are arranged alphabetically by author.

The edition listed is the trade book, library bindings are not listed unless that is the only available format. Titles received starred reviews from Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Horn Book.

The theme information is derived from cataloging information and is not comprehensive. Books are suggested for ages 12 and older. Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.

 

  • Down the Rabbit Hole
    Author: Abrahams, Peter
    Publisher: Laura Geringer $ 15.99 ISBN: 0060737018 Date: 2005
    starBulletin
    Ingrid Levin-Hill lands the plum role of Alice in the Echo Falls production of Alice in Wonderland. Things in Ingrid's small town soon keep getting "curiouser and curiouser." Then events in Echo Falls turn into a nightmare, and Ingrid is determined to wake up.
    Grades: 5+ Category: Fiction | Mystery
    Updated 6.3.05
  • The Witch of Clatteringshaws
    Author: Aiken, Joan
    Publisher: Delacorte $ 15.95 ISBN: 0385732260 Date: 2005
    starPW
    Dido Twite's sharp wits are put to the test in this new adventure. After King Richard dies, Dido's good pal Simon is put on the English throne, but he hates being the king. If only another descendant of the king could be found, Simon would gladly be replaced.
    Grades: 5-9 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • The Xanadu Adventure
    Author: Alexander, Lloyd
    Publisher: Dutton $ 16.99 ISBN: 0525473718 Date: 2005
    starBooklist
    Alexander's beloved heroine Vesper Holly is back for one last adventure. Vesper and her friends set out for the site of the legendary Troy. When they fall into a trap laid by the despicable Dr. Helvitius, Vesper needs all of her cunning to escape.
    Grades: 3-7 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Whales on Stilts
    Author: Anderson, M.T. & Kurt Cyrus (ilt)
    Publisher: Harcourt $ 15 ISBN: 0152053409 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarBulletin
    This first installment of a riotous and wonderfully weird new series introduces three intrepid kids who must foil a madman's plan to unleash an army of stilt-walking, laser-beaming, thoroughly angry whales upon the world.
    Grades: 5-9 Category: Fiction | Humorous | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • The Book Without Words: A Fable of Medieval Magic
    Author: Avi
    Publisher: Hyperion $ 15.99 ISBN: 0786808292 Date: 2005
    starPW
    Grades: 5-9 Category: Fiction | Speculative
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Granite Baby
    Author: Bertrand, Lynne & Kevin Hawkes (Ilt)
    Publisher: FSG $ 16 ISBN: 0374327610 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarBulletinstarKirkus
    Back when folks first discovered granite, five burly sisters ruled the mountains of New Hampshire. When one sister carves a real live baby out of granite, a big problem appears. With its droll humor and inventive, witty pictures, this tall tale is a true original.
    Grades: Preschool - 3rd Category: Fiction | Fairy & Folk Tales | Humorous
    Updated 6.3.05
  • How the Amazon Queen Fought the Prince of Egypt
    Author: Bower, Tamara
    Publisher: Atheneum $ 16.95 ISBN: 0689844344 Date: 2005
    starBulletinstarKirkus
    Based on an actual Egyptian scroll from the Greco-Roman period, this pre-feminist tale is illustrated with intricate paintings, hieroglyphic translations of key phrases, and extensive notes about the cultures of ancient Egypt and the Amazons of legend.
    Grades: 2-6 Category: Fiction | Legends & Myths | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • The Giant Rat of Sumatra or Pirates Galore
    Author: Fleischman, Sid & John Hendrix (ilt)
    Publisher: Greenwillow $ 15.99 ISBN: 0060742380 Date: 2005
    starKirkus
    Newbery Medalist offers a new pirate adventure set in San Diego, California, in 1846. Twelve-year-old Shipwreck, a cabin boy on the pirate ship "The Giant Rat of Sumatra," is so named because he survived a shipwreck. This is his story.
    Suggested Reading: Pirate Stars
    Grades: 5-8 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Where I Want to Be
    Author: Griffin, Adele
    Publisher: Putnam $ 15.99 ISBN: 0399237836 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarBulletinstarKirkus
    The National Book Award nominee for Sons of Liberty has crafted a spellbinding book, told in the alternating voices of two very different sisters dwelling on opposite sides of life and death, and who are bravely trying to overcome the void and bring light to each other.
    Grades: 7-12 Category: Fiction
    Updated 6.3.05
  • The Witch's Boy
    Author: Gruber, Michael
    Publisher: Avon $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060761644 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarBulletin
    In his first novel for young readers, the author of the acclaimed thriller Tropic of Night, creates a world that is at once deceptively familiar and stunningly original in this collection of ingenious retellings of classic fairy tales.
    Grades: 3-7 Category: Fiction | Speculative
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Jitterbug Jam
    Author: Hicks, Barbara Jean & Alexis Deacon (ilt)
    Publisher: FSG $ 16 ISBN: 0374336857 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarBulletinstarKirkus
    What does this monster have under his bed?
    Bobo is a young monster who's afraid to sleep in his own bed. He is sure there is a boy hiding beneath it - a boy with "pink skin and orange fur on his head where his horns should be." This rambunctious story of a youngster overcoming anxiety and limitations is set in a captivating otherworld that springs to life in pictures full of enchantment and surprise. - Publisher Marketing
    Grades: Preschool - 3 Category: Fiction | Picture Book
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Conrad's Fate: A Chrestomanci Book
    Author: Jones, Diana Wynne
    Publisher: Greenwillow $ 16.99 ISBN: 0060747439 Date: 2005
    starKirkus
    In this latest Chrestomanci adventure, someone at the mysterious Stallery Mansion is in control. At first only small details change, but the changes keep getting bigger and bigger. It's up to Conrad Tesdinic, a 12-year-old with truly terrible karma, to find the person behind it all.
    Grades: 5+ Category: Fiction | Speculative | Humorous
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Gentle's Holler
    Author: Madden, Kerry
    Publisher: Viking $ 16.99 ISBN: 0670059986 Date: 2005
    starKirkusstarPW
    Living in a North Carolina holler with her parents and eight siblings, 12-year-old Livy Two is an aspiring songwriter and self-appointed guardian to her little sister Gentle, who is going blind. But when tragedy strikes, can Livy Two continue to stay strong for her family.
    Grades: 7-12 Category: Fiction
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Zen Shorts
    Author: Muth, Jon J.
    Publisher: Scholastic $ 16.95 ISBN: 0439339111 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarKirkus
    With graceful art and simple stories that are filled with love and enlightenment, Jon Muth--and Stillwater the bear--presents three ancient Zen tales that are sure to strike a chord in everyone they touch.
    Grades: Preschool - 3 Category: Fiction | Picture Book
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries
    Author: Napoli, Donna Jo, Robert Furrow & Heather Malone (ilt)
    Publisher: $ ISBN: 0803729936 Date: 2005
    starBulletin
    There's only one person who can solve the mysteries of the neighborhood: Sly the Sleuth, grade-schooler by day and private detective by afternoon, who uses sharp wit and reasoning skills to get to the bottom of these odd goings-on.
    Grades: 4-7 Category: Fiction | Easy Reader
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Project Mulberry
    Author: Park, Linda Sue
    Publisher: Clarion $ 16 ISBN: 0618477861 Date: 2005
    starBookliststarKirkus
    In her first novel with a contemporary setting, the Newbery Medal-winning author of A Single Shard delivers a funny, lively story that illuminates both the process of writing a novel and the meaning of growing up American.
    Grades: 5-9 Category: Fiction
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Only You Can Save Mankind
    Author: Pratchett, Terry
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 15.99 ISBN: 0060541857 Date: 2005
    starBooklist
    The inimitable author of the bestselling Discworld series brings to life a reality-bending tale of aliens, war, and virtual heroism, as 12-year-old Johnny Maxwell discovers that the boundary between war and war games is perilously thin.
    Grades: 3-7 Category: Fiction | Speculative | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
    Author: Riordan, Rick
    Publisher: Hyperion $ 17.95 ISBN: 0786853297 Date: 2005
    starKirkus
    Classic Greek mythology is mixed with modern adventure in this brand-new, action-packed series. After learning he is a demigod, Percy Jackson is sent to a summer camp on Long Island, where he meets the father he never knew--Poseidon, God of the Sea
    Grades: 5-9 Category: Fiction | Speculative | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Guys Write for Guys Read
    Author: Scieszka. Jon (edt)
    Publisher: Viking $ 10.99 ISBN: 0670060275 Date: 2005
    starSLJ
    Selected by voters at the Guys Read Web site and compiled by Jon Scieszka, this collection shows that guys do read. Authors and illustrators including Stephen King, Matt Groening, T.A. Barron, Avi, and Jerry Spinelli share stories, essays, cartoons, and anecdotes about being boys.
    Grades: 6-9 Category: Collection
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook
    Author: Silverstein, Shel
    Publisher: HarperCollins $ 17.99 ISBN: 0060256532 Date: 2005
    starKirkusstarPWstarSLJ
    The legendary creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends welcomes readers to the world of Runny Babbit and his friends Toe Jurtle, Skertie Gunk, Rirty Dat, Dungry Hog, Snerry Jake, and many others who speak a topsy-turvy language all their own. Conceived many years ago and completed before Silverstein's death, this new book of poems and drawings is filled with wordplay rhymes and clever spoonerisms.
    Grades: 4-7 Category: Poetry
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Bone: Out of Boneville
    Author: Smith, Jeff
    Publisher: Scholastic $ ISBN: 0439706238 Date: 2005
    starPW
    In OUT FROM BONEVILLE, volume 1 of this 9-book epic, the three Bone cousins -- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone -- are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures. Eventually, the cousins are reunited at a farmstead run by tough Gran'ma Ben and her spirited granddaughter Thorn. But little do the Bones know, there are dark forces conspiring against them, and their adventures are only just beginning!
    Grades: 4-7 Category: Graphic Novels
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Tiger
    Author: Stone, Jeff
    Publisher: Random $ 15.95 ISBN: 0375830715 Date: 2005
    starPW
    From a first-time author comes a brand-new adventure series set in ancient China that follows five young warrior monks known as the Five Ancestors. Practitioners of the martial arts, each monk is named after an animal for its particular fighting style.
    Grades: 5-7 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure
    Updated 6.3.05
  • Montmorency on the Rocks: Doctor, Aristocrat, Murderer?
    Author: Updale, Eleanor
    Publisher: Orchard $ 16.95 ISBN: 0439606764 Date: 2005
    starHorn Book
    The gripping sequel to Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? Five years after giving up his life of crime in the sewers, Montmorency is back in London. But his evil alter ego, Scarper, has returned too, pulling him back into a dark world of crime.
    Grades: 4-7 Category: Fiction | Mystery & Suspense
    Updated 6.3.05
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