WHAT CAN I READ?

This page can help.

Check out this list of titles collected by Ms. Allen. These books are recommended by the American Library Association, through their publication called Horn Book.

Please remember that not every book is right for every child, and children in every grade read at a variety of reading levels. Find the book that's right for you.

                                                 Middle-grade menagerie

Middle-grade animal lovers have a whole field full of novels to choose from this summer. Here are four that stand out from the herd.

In The Cats of Roxville Station by veteran children's author Jean Craighead George, an abused and abandoned young tabby adapts to the feral cat community in suburban Roxville Station — and slowly, cautiously bonds with an orphan boy whose foster mother hates cats. Jean George vividly evokes the feline society, and Tom Pohrt's bird's-eye views and up-close drawings help readers easily follow the action. (8–12 years)

Kate Thompson's Highway Robbery is a horse story rich in language, told with panache and begging to be shared aloud. A wily street urchin spins a lively yarn about a gentleman who promised him a guinea for holding his horse. The man disappears, the boy waits, and eventually soldiers appear saying the mare is renowned highwayman Dick Turpin's Black Bess, and they'll reward the boy if he helps them catch the thief. Comical, detailed illustrations show this narrative's Dickensian denizens and the elegant Black Bess — if that's who she is. (8–12 years)

Horse Diaries is a new series perfect for its intended horse-obsessed primary-grade audience. In Elska by Catherine Hapka and Bell's Star by Alison Hart, the equine main characters narrate their own stories: Elska is a silver dapple Icelandic filly who lives in Iceland in 1000 BCE; Bell's Star is a Morgan colt, born in Civil War–era Vermont. Young horse devotees will love the horse's-eye view and will enjoy learning details about each breed. Occasional black-and-white drawings and fact-filled appendices add much to the tales. (7–10 years)

With the publication of Poppy and Ereth, Avi brings a close to his six-book saga about kind and brave Poppy the deer mouse and her friends and family. All the Poppy books feature plenty of fast-paced action, cliffhanger chapter endings, in-depth characterizations, and some comical theatrics courtesy of curmudgeonly Ereth the porcupine. Brian Floca's thoughtful drawings bring Poppy's woodland home to life. (8–12 years)

                                                Pictures of summer

With longer days and warm nights, June is the perfect time to celebrate everyday (and not-so-everyday) summer adventures in picture books.

In Farley Follows His Nose by Lynn Johnston and Beth Cruikshank, Farley, the floppy-eared sheepdog from Johnston's comic strip For Better or For Worse, lets his sense of smell lead him around town. Every other spread ends with what Farley smells, arranged in a wave of words ("freshpaintbananapeelspowertoolssawdust and . . . A POOL!"). Johnston's energetic cartoon drawings capture the goofy canine protagonist's zest for life. (5–8 years)

Betsy Franco's Pond Circle begins, "This is the water / the deep, still water / that filled the pond / by Anna's house." As the cumulative story progresses, so does the food chain: a frog gobbles the beetle that ate the mayfly nymph and so on. Stefano Vitale's oil on wood illustrations are beautiful and true to nature. "Facts to pond-er" includes additional information about the animals represented. (5–8 years)

The family in Thunder-Boomer! by Shutta Crum doesn't need to leave their farm for some excitement. Carol Thompson's mixed-media illustrations and the sounds strewn throughout the text ("Rumble-brum-brum" "Splash! Sploosh!") capture the urgency of a summer thunderstorm. Crum also manages to include elements of humor in the midst of the drama. (5–8 years)

For a seaside fantasy, it's worth checking out David Wiesner's wordless picture book Flotsam, winner of the American Library Association's 2006 Caldecott Medal. A young boy comes across an old-fashioned underwater camera at the beach; he has the film developed and is treated to images of a deep-sea world beyond imagination. This is no ordinary trip to the shore, and Wiesner's crisp compositions bring the fantastic visions to life. (5–8 years)

                                                    Things that go

Toy vehicles are making tracks in sandboxes all over. These books keep preschool wheels turning and gears shifting.

"GZZZZZZZZZK!" In Machines Go to Work by William Low, a backhoe is ready to go, but is it going to dig up the tulips? Nope. Open the flap: the backhoe is digging holes for new trees. What about the fire truck? Is there a fire? No — a kitten is stuck in a tree. Each flap offers a surprise and, along with some terrific sound effects, encourages listeners to join in the reading. Richly colored art features realistic pictures of the machines and their operators. (2–5 years)

Need more flaps? Roxie Munro's got 'em. In Go! Go! Go! readers can open, open, open, to see balloonists go up, divers go down, race-cars go round, horses go fast, and more. Each vignette has a multi-flap scene of the go-getters getting ready (unloading and prepping hot-air balloons, for instance) followed by a spread with a flap or two that opens further and further to show the action (the balloons rising higher and higher). (3–6 years)

Jennifer Riggs Vetter's version of Down by the Station expands the well-known song about those "little puffer-billies all in a row" to include all kinds of familiar vehicles: school buses, tractor trailers, airplanes, sailboats, rockets, etc. Frank Remkiewicz's cheery watercolors illustrate the zippy rhyming text, showing happy animals and their rides. "Vroom vroom beep beep! Off we go!" (2–5 years)

"Millions of years ago prehistoric trucks roamed the earth." Dinotrux by Chris Gall shrewdly combines two of kids' biggest obsessions. Unlike today's trucks, Dinotrux were not so helpful: clever art and a tongue-in-cheek text introduce, among others, Rollodon, who "NEVER watches where he's going," Garbageadon, who eats "everything in sight," and Deliveradons (think UPS), who nap "when they should have been working." (3–6 years)

                                                 Audiobooks

Some suggestions for listening during those summer road trips ahead.

Families with young children — particularly young siblings — will enjoy the seven new stories in Friend or Fiend? With the Pain & the Great One by Judy Blume. Older sister Abigail ("the Great One") and younger brother Jake ("the Pain") survive an embarrassing pronunciation mistake during reading-circle time (Jake), a friend betraying a confidence (Abigail), and a disastrous visit with some fiendishly behaved cousins. Throughout, Blume demonstrates her remarkable understanding of how kids act and feel. Narrator Kathleen McInerney's spot-on interpretation captures both the humor of and the challenges of the situations. (7–10 years)

Dominic isn't one of William Steig's best known books (those would be Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Doctor De Soto, and of course Shrek!), but this brief, heartfelt novel is worth knowing. Dominic the dog sets off to seek his fortune, choosing the adventurous fork in the road over the dull one. And adventure he gets, tangling with the villainous Doomsday Gang and along the way finding true friends and, eventually, true love. In his compelling yet gentle narration, Peter Thomas brings out the action but also a quiet philosophical undertone. (7–10 years)

Three series conclusions for middle-grade and middle-school listeners are all excellent.

Katherine Kellgren reads The Diamond of Darkhold, the conclusion of Jeanne DuPrau's Book of Ember series, with great drama and vim, as befits the story's excitement.

Rick Riordan's immensely popular Percy Jackson and the Olympians series comes to a close in The Last Olympian, and longtime series narrator Jesse Bernstein reads with enthusiasm, if not always consummate skill — a lot like Percy himself. Best of all, perhaps, is the audiobook version of Louise Erdrich's The Porcupine Year, the conclusion to the Birchbark House books. Twelve-year-old Ojibwe girl Omakayas endures a difficult winter of famine and loss but emerges, stronger, on the cusp of womanhood. Narrator Christina Moore reads with such immediacy that listeners will find themselves rapt. (9–12 years)

If the movie version of Prince Caspian wasn't enough, families can listen to Lynn Redgrave reading C. S. Lewis's classic, as the four Pevensey children return to Narnia to depose the wicked usurper King Miraz and restore Prince Caspian to his rightful throne. Redgrave's classically trained, theatrical voice is a perfect match for the romanticism, drama, and old-fashioned flavor of the book. (For total immersion in Narnia, the complete Chronicles are available in a boxed CD set, narrated by Redgrave and fellow luminaries such as Derek Jacobi and Patrick Stewart.) (9 years and up)

An audiobook that will be treasured as much by adult listeners as by their children is Terry Pratchett's Nation (winner of a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award — see above). Though it's set in an alternative nineteenth-century universe, it's less a fantasy than a compelling adventure, coming-of-age tale, romance, and subtle challenger of accepted wisdom. It all begins when a devastating tsunami wipes out everyone on a South Sea island except young Mau; the same wave also maroons a sheltered British girl there. Pratchett brings all his signature wit, imagination, and ability to craft believable characters for his story of how Mau and Daphne rebuild the Nation. Stephen Briggs's superb narration highlights the story's energy, emotion, and humor. (10 years and up)