Our summer '21 reading list: Prep School edition

The summer holidays are almost here. While you will most certainly be out in the sun having fun over the next several weeks, this is also the perfect time to feed your mind with a great book. As ever, Mrs Jacobi, our school librarian, was eager to oblige us with a spectacular summer reading list. But it is so big, we had to divide it up! We kick it off here with her selections for our Prep School pupils.

You do not need to live in the country to have fun outdoors! The Wild City Book is all about finding wild places in the city and making the most of opportunities to explore and enjoy all these places have to offer. You can have fun discovering city wildlife (e.g., do a bird survey from your window; build a squirrel obstacle course; make a bean home out of straws; track the city's nocturnal animals). Use natural resources to play and invent new games (e.g., play conkers, have a game of marbles using pebbles or make your own shuttlecock from pigeon feathers and a cork).

Why is there winter in the southern hemisphere at the same time there is summer in the northern hemisphere? In the summer, why is it still light out in the evening? With simple language appropriate for young readers, non-fiction master Gail Gibbons introduces young readers to the four seasons and explains why they change throughout the year.

Clear, simple diagrams of the earth's orbit are labeled with important vocabulary, explained and reinforced with accessible explanations. The Reasons for Seasons introduces the solstices, the equinoxes and the tilt in Earth's axis that causes them, and gives examples of what each season is like across the globe from pole to pole.

In this interactive picture book, young readers help to tell the story by responding to simple verbal or visual cues. It is hilarious, perfect for reading aloud and is fun for the whole family.

A girl has a wonderful idea. She is going to make the most MAGNIFICENT thing! She knows just how it will look. She knows just how it will work. All she has to do is make it, and she makes things all the time. Easy-peasy!? But making her magnificent thing is anything but easy, and the girl tries and fails, repeatedly. Eventually, the girl gets really, really mad. She is so mad, in fact, that she quits. But after her dog convinces her to take a walk, she comes back to her project with renewed enthusiasm and manages to get it just right.

Mr Rabbit's new neighbors are otters. OTTERS! But he doesn't know anything about otters. Will they get along? Will they be friends? Just treat otters the same way you would like them to treat you, advises wise Mr Owl, and so begins Mr Rabbit's reflection on good manners.

The B on Your Thumb

Colette HIller & Tor Freeman

The B on Your Thumb is a book of 60 hilariously illustrated rhymes and delightful ditties to boost early reading. Each poem teaches a specific sound, spelling or rule. Using rhythm and wordplay, they promote phonics awareness, thinking skills and literacy. But most of all, this book delights young readers with the fun and silliness of the English language.

The Lonely Lion Cub – Book 1 in Zoe’s Rescue Zoo Series
Amelia Cobb

When Great-Uncle Horace brings back lost and homeless animals from his travels around the globe, it falls to Zoe, and her mum, the zoo vet, to settle them into their new home. She is good at this because she can understand what they say and talks to them, too. But that is a secret! 

Spooky Winnie – Winnie and Wilbur Series

Laura Owen & Korky Paulby

Whether she is telling ghost stories, turning back time, battling with mischievous wands or getting ready for a night of trick-or-treating, Winnie brings her very own brand of muddled-up magic to everything she does. Fans who have grown up with Winnie, or those new to her charms, can enjoy her chaotic capers in this latest young fiction title, perfect for reading alone or for sharing at bedtime. Korky Paul's exuberant black line illustrations complement the humour, slapstick, and moments of real drama that run through each story.

You Rule! Create Your Own Country
Scott Forbes & Emma Laura Jones

Tired of following other people's rules? Think you can do better? Now is your chance! This innovative and fun new title from Lonely Planet Kids shows you how to design a completely new nation from scratch. Decide on the laws, choose your borders, make your flag, attract loyal citizens and lots more. You will get to create, organise, govern and judge. You can be king, queen, big chief, emperor, president, dictator or whatever you decree. The book includes fun projects to complete, bold full-colour illustrations and fascinating facts about the world's micronations. Get ready to claim your throne, because right here, right now, you rule! For rulers aged eight years and up.

Britannica All New Children’s Encyclopedia

Britannica Books

This child-friendly encyclopedia is filled with information about the past, present and even the future!  Fill your brain with facts this summer holiday.

Shakespeare Stories

Leon Garfield

By skillfully weaving his own prose with Shakespeare's language, Leon Garfield has refashioned twelve of the Bard's most memorable dramas into stories, capturing all the richness of the characters, plot, mood and setting. This format will delight both those who know the great dramatist's works and those who are new to them. Michael Foreman's dramatic color illustrations and varied black-and-white line drawings are the perfect complement to this.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain (retold)

One of those most irrepressible and exuberant characters in the history of literature, Tom Sawyer, explodes onto the page in a whirl of bad behaviour and incredible adventures. Whether he is heaving clods of earth at his brother, faking a gangrenous toe or trying to convince the world that he is dead, Tom's infectious energy and good humour shine through.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Tom Angleberger

Strange things are happening at McQuarrie Middle School in the opener to the New York Times bestselling series from Tom Angleberger! It takes the wisdom of Yoda to survive the sixth grade.

The Elephantasy

Maria Elena Walsh

What would you do if you woke up one morning and found a huge and lonely elephant at your door? An elephant with a letter hanging from its ear, saying, "My name is Dailan Kifki, and I beg you not to be alarmed at the fact that I'm an elephant..."? Well, you would probably adopt him too, wouldn't you?

A Long Walk to Water

Linda Sue Park 

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories told in alternating sections about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home. She makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the 'lost boys' of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.

Digby O’Day Up, Up and Away

Shirley Hughes

 
Digby O’Day and his best friend, Percy, are headed to the air show to see gliders, helicopters and hot-air balloons. Ariel, the new pet parrot of insufferable neighbor Lou Ella, sneaks out to tag along. But when the friends get to the air show, they notice that Lou Ella has followed them. They hide, but unfortunately, they are crouched in the basket of a hot-air balloon, and one big gust of wind sets the balloon flying. Between Digby’s fear of heights and Percy’s hungry tummy, they have problems—and then a big storm rumbles in. Can the trio find a way to land the balloon safely?

The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice
A F Harrold 

 
Thie collection of poems is a riotous celebration of words and a modern take on cautionary tales featuring advice on parrots, gravy, mathematics, castles (bouncy), spiders, vegetables (various), breakfast, cakes and removing ducks from soup. Filled with colour illustrations and packed with silly rhymes, witty wordplay and thought-provoking story poems, this book will delight children of all ages.

Poems Aloud

Joseph Coelho 

 
Perfect for confident children and shy readers alike, this book teaches all sorts of clever ways to perform poetry. Children will learn 20 techniques for reading aloud by trying out 20 funny and thoughtful original poems by the much loved and award-winning performance poet, Joseph Coelho. There are tongue twisters, poems to project, poems to whisper, poems to make you laugh. There are poems to perform to a whole class and others to whisper in somebody's ear. Richly textured, warm and stylish illustrations by Daniel Gray-Barnett bring each page to life.

Lonely Planet’s Global Chocolate Tour for Chocolate Lovers

Lonely Planet

 
Chock-full of the world's tastiest chocolate experiences, the latest book in this  series is sure to satisfy the sweet tooth of cocoa lovers near and far. From South America to Europe to Australia, this global chocolate tour includes master chocolatiers and artisan producers, exotic cocoa plantations and must-visit shops, plus illustrated spreads on the history, production and the science of chocolate making.

The World of Sherlock Holmes

Martin Fido

 
As well as the history of the character's origin, this book also looks at some of the many different portrayals of the 'deerstalker' detective through the years, concluding with the modern BBC Sherlock series, the American spin-off Elementary and the action-packed Sherlock Holmes films directed by Guy Ritchie.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain 

 
What are you looking for? Danger? Adventure? Excitement? Fun? After escaping from his cruel father, Huckleberry Finn teams up with runaway slave, Jim, and they head off on a raft down the Mississippi River. But danger is always close at hand. Will they survive and win their freedom? Oxford Children's Classics present not only the original and unabridged story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but also help you to discover a whole world of new adventures with an amazing assortment of recommendations and activities.

Fever 1793
Laurie Halse Anderson

 
It is late summer 1793, and the streets of Philadelphia are abuzz with mosquitoes and rumors of fever. Down near the docks, many have taken ill, and the fatalities are mounting. Now they include Polly, the serving girl at the Cook Coffeehouse. But fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook does not get a moment to mourn the passing of her childhood playmate. New customers have overrun her family's coffee shop located far from the mosquito-infested river, and Mattie's concerns of fever are all but overshadowed by dreams of growing her family's small business into a thriving enterprise.

Strange Days
Constantine Singer 

 
Alex Mata does not want to worry about rumors of alien incursions. He would rather just skate and tag and play guitar. But when he comes home to find an alien has murdered his parents, he is forced to confront a new reality: aliens are real, his parents are dead and nobody will believe him if he tells. On the run, Alex finds himself led to the compound of tech guru Jeffrey Sabazios, the only public figure who stands firm in his belief that aliens are coming.

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

 
A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blues seas, but at night, their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive, and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.

While the Others Sleep
Tom Becker 

 
Hospitalised for suffering from insomnia, Alfie is haunted by visions of a strange creature moving through the darkness at the edge of the patients beds. Are his tired eyes hallucinating, or is he starting to lose his mind? When Alfie learns that the creatures are hunting a demon escaped from the depths of Hell — and that the only protection against them is to be asleep — suddenly insomnia becomes the most dangerous condition of all.

Burning Midnight
Will McIntosh

 
Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It does not pay much — Alex Holliday's stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers — but it helps him and his mum make the rent. No one knows where the brilliant-coloured spheres came from. One day, they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better — an inch taller, skilled at maths, better-looking.

The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas 

Alexandre Dumas’s classic swashbuckling tale of adventure, swordplay, and unbreakable friendship is enriched with brand-new, action-packed illustrations by renowned artist Brett Helquist.

A Little Piece of Ground
Elizabeth Laird 

Written by Elizabeth Laird, one of Great Britain’s best-known young adult authors, A Little Piece Of Ground explores the human cost of the occupation of Palestinian lands through the eyes of a young boy.

Twelve-year-old Karim Aboudi and his family are trapped in their Ramallah home by a strict curfew. In response to a Palestinian suicide bombing, the Israeli military subjects the West Bank town to a virtual siege. Meanwhile, Karim, trapped at home with his teenage brother and fearful parents, longs to play football with his friends.