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Summer is the perfect time
to dig into a good book.

I love reading books, but there is something extra luxurious about reading in the summer. Do you find that too?

Maybe it’s because we have extra time to read on vacation. Good books become great books if you read them while relaxing in a beach chair with your toes in the sand. Or huddled around a flashlight in a tent listening to the crackle of a campfire. Maybe those extra hours of summer twilight that invite those magical post-tub wet-headed snuggle-in-with-pajamas and share a good book moments are the reason. And, with no homework, kids have more free time for leisure reading. Summer is just made for reading.

Lots of you ask me for recommendations for good books. I guess you know I love reading and that I read a lot. So I’m a pretty good resource. I thought I’d share a few of the books I’ve read this month so that you and the young readers in your house could check them out.

For Elementary School Kids

I loved A Hippy-Hoppy Toad with it's wonderful bouncy rhyme and pages filled with bugs and beetles and summertime scenes. This is a fun read aloud for the elementary school age readers in your house.

For Middle Schoolers

My debut features a blueberry pie, so I'm a bit partial to books that feature pie. And why not a Summer of a Thousand Pies? This middle grade novel puts Cady at her aunts pie shop and away from an unstable life of poverty with her father. It's not all a la mode, but with friendship and the help of family, Cady will bake her way to a better future.

For Young Adults

When a summertime internship puts country boy and hopeless romantic Arthur in the path of heartbroken New York city native Ben it's the recipe for summer romance or disaster in What If It's Us. This is a fun young adult romance novel filled with awkward moments, swooning heart beats, and plenty of new love angst.

For Adults

If a book features a bookshop, I'm already invested. Bookshops are amazing! Yes, I want to spend time in a story that takes place in The Bookshop of Yesterdays! When Miranda inherits her eccentric and estranged uncle's bookstore it is equal parts dream come true and nightmare as the truths about her family unfold with literary clues.

Click on the cover of each book to find out more about the book and to find a local independent bookstore that carries it!

I will have news on my debut, How Long Is Forever? soon! The incredible illustrator, Qing Zhuang, is putting the final touches on the illustrations. They look amazing and I'm excited to share them with all of you.

In the meantime, it's blueberry picking season in New England! Go out and pick some berries! Then make a pie! Maybe read a book while it's baking!

Summer is the perfect time to dig into a good book.

Summer is the perfect time
to dig into a good book.