Summer Reading While You Wait til July 8th

~ Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series; my personal favorites in the series: Many Waters, A Desperate Time, The Arm of the Starfish, though really, they are all good! (Like I would recommend anything that wasn't!)

~ Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting, a really cool book about immortality.

~ Roald Dahl's Matilda and The Witches; the first will definetly give the Dursely's a run for their money in the worst family category and the second presents a vastly different though also interesting portrayal of witches.

~ L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series; ok, so these aren't really in the same category as Harry, but Anne has her own special magic!

~ Lois Duncan's teen novels; man are these freaky! Some of the ones that stuck in my memory: Killing Mr. Griffin, Ransom, Locked in Time

~ Gene Stratton Porter's Freckles; this one has a magic that is all its own. Read it find out what poetic prose is really all about.

~ Lois Lowry's The Giver; this book is definitely different, definitely dystopic (look it up...) but cool nonetheless. Number the Stars is also really good!

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~ Frank Herbert's Dune; this is truly a sci-fi epic! Read it-- its one of my favorites.

~ Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon; this is the defining re-telling of the King Arthur legend-- believe me, despite its length, once it's done, you'll be screaming for more!

~ Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series; these are great escapist novels and nice and juicy-- something to really sink one's teeth into. Lots of cool Scottish stuff and time travel. Make sure to check it out!

~ J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; I've only read the first one, but I thought it was really cool and I've heard a lot of good stuff about LOTR (plus it's practically literature!).

~ William Goldman's The Princess Bride; Hey, this book is as good if not better than the movie (which if you have not seen, then you have no idea what you're missing!!). It's funny and fantastic!

~ John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany; this book is a little hard to get into, but definitely worth the journey. It'll give you a feel of magic that almost could be real.

~ Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead; ok, so this one isn't at all in the same category as Harry, but it's still a great book that contains some fascinating ideas...

Now, I don't mean to restrict what anyone can or cannot read by putting the books into two different categories, but a) I wanted it to be easier to know what kind of book it is and where you can find it in your local library and b) I don't want anyone accusing me of encouraging fifth graders to read trashy romances or idealistic epics!