We know, We know.
You might be thinking: “There is no way my kid is going to read at camp.” And honestly? Maybe they won’t. Camp can be the ultimate unplug, and taking a break from books is also totally fine.
But – many campers DO read.
Younger campers are often read to at night, and plenty of kids actually love winding down with a good book in their bunk. Our team has campers that really run the gamut on their levels of reading at camp. We have kids that devour books at bedtime and some that have never once thought about packing a book for camp. We have kids that made their way through almost the entire Harry Potter series at camp and ones that never got through their dreaded summer reading requirements. So we do get it!
Summer 365 advisor, Sam Shinewald, worked with Hummingbird Books, to put together a summer reading list for BOTH kids and adults. At Hummingbird Books, located in Boston, they believe reading connects us to others as we search for ideas, wisdom and sometimes just provides a much-needed break from reality – and we couldn’t agree more.
Here are their suggestions for Summer (365) Reading:
KIDS
The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brailler (8-11)
Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average thirteen-year-old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he’s armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg so he builds a team. With their help, Jack is going to slay Blarg, achieve the ultimate Feat of Apocalyptic Success, and be average no longer! Can he do it?
Slugfest by Gordon Korman (ages 8-12)
Yash is the best athlete at Robinette Middle School, so imagine his shock when he learns that his JV practices have kept him from earning a state-mandated credit for eighth-grade PE. To graduate, he has to take Physical Education Equivalency – PEE, also known as “Slugfest” – in summer school. Yash gets to know his fellow “slugs”, but when one of them tries to blow the lid off a scandal that could make all their time in summer school a waste, Yash is forced to take drastic action.
Camp Famous by Jennifer Blecher (ages 8-12)
11-year-old Abby is excited that her parents are letting her go to summer camp for the first time ever. But she’s not going to just any summer camp, she’s going to a camp for famous kids escaping the spotlight. Everything goes as planned, until she finds herself torn between who she has pretended to be and who she truly is.
The Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson (ages 8-12)
A girl who never knew she had cousins must spend the summer with them at her late mother’s family camp, uncovering secrets of the past.
The Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly (ages 8-12)
Nina is used to feeling like the odd one out, but while trying to fit in at camp, she discovers two rare birds have built a nest in the marsh behind an abandoned infirmary. Experts track all the endangered birds, but they can’t identify the female bird that Nina found. With the help of some fellow campers, Nina sets out to discover who the mystery bird really is. As she gets closer to the truth, will she find a flock of her own?
Take It From The Top by Claire Swinarski (ages 8-12)
Eowyn has waited all year to attend her sixth summer at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp. Here, the pain of her mom’s death can’t reach her, and she gets to reunite with her best friend, Jules. This year Wicked, the girls’ favorite musical, has been chosen for the camp’s end-of-year production. But when Eowyn arrives at camp, everything seems wrong. There are two sides to every story, and if you want to understand this one, you’ll need to hear both.
Spy Camp by Stuart Gibbs (ages 8-12)
Ben Ripley is a middle schooler whose school is not exactly average – he’s spent the last year training to be a top-level spy and dodging all sorts of associated danger. So now that summer’s finally here, Ben would like to have some fun and relax. But that’s not going to happen during required spy survival training at a rustic wilderness camp, where SPYDER, an enemy spy organization, has infiltrated the spies’ ranks. Can Ben root out the enemy before it takes him out – for good?
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (8-12)
For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams!
The Green Kingdom by Cornelia Funke (9-12)
Twelve-year-old Caspia hates big cities, especially one as busy as New York. So, she isn’t thrilled by the news that her parents are taking her to stay in Brooklyn. But everything changes when Caspia discovers a bundle of letters, hidden in an old dresser. Each letter contains a ‘green’ riddle, with clues leading to a different plant. Caspia’s summer is transformed when she discovers a bundle of letters containing ten botanical riddles in this enchanting adventure.
The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (9-14)
Kate Messner caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he’s in big trouble for kicking down some dead old lady’s headstone. But it turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual offer…climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks with her dead mother’s dog, and they can call it even.
The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko (10-13)
When eleven-year-old Hank’s mom doesn’t come home, he takes care of his toddler sister, Boo, like he always does. But it’s been a week and they are out of food and mom has never stayed away this long… Hank knows he needs help, so he and Boo seek out the stranger listed as their emergency contact. But asking for help has consequences. It means social workers, and a new school, and having to answer questions about his mom that he’s been trying to keep secret. And if they can’t find his mom soon, Hank and Boo may end up in different foster homes–he could lose everything.
In the Key of Us by Mariama J. Lockington (ages 10-14)
Winner of a Stonewall Honor, this gorgeously told story of two girls who meet at sleepaway music camp and consider taking their relationship beyond friendship sensitively navigates body image, mental health, grief, and racial and queer microaggressions, all wrapped up in the endless possibilities of summer.
Holes by Louis Sachar (10-14)
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize they are digging holes for a reason. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment – and redemption.
It Watches in the Dark by Jeff Strand (10-14)
Twins Oliver and Trisha love going on adventures with their dad. Canoeing and camping on the Champion River will be their best trip yet! But when they capsize in rapids, their father is knocked unconscious. Alone and without cell phone reception, their only choice is to continue down river for help until they find an old dock, and a narrow path that leads them to a small village. The townspeople are kind and helpful but strangely focused on the giant scarecrow in the village square. They are warned not to spend the night in the village. But with the sun soon to set and their father not well enough to be moved, how can they escape? More importantly, can they survive?
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki (12+)
Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. Rosie’s friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose’s mom and dad won’t stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. One of the local teens – just a couple of years older than Rose and Windy – is caught up in something bad… Something life threatening.
ADULTS
FICTION
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
I’ll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom (Out June 24)
After the end of World War II, Gazala, a young Frenchwoman, leaves Paris with the help of her employer, the writer Colette, and lands in New York. There, she takes on work as a baker, develops a close friendship with two sisters and reconnects with her adopted older brother, in a multigenerational tale of love, compassion and found family.
Our Last Resort by Clemence Michallon (Out July 8)
Frida and Gabriel reunite at a luxury resort in the Utah desert, hoping for a fresh start in their sibling relationship. But the illusion of paradise is shattered when another guest is found dead and Gabriel becomes the prime suspect. To clear their names, Frida is forced to confront their pasts – namely, the fallout from their childhood in a cult.
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Like bottles of sunscreen, the best beach reads are shareable. Pass this one-size-fits-most gem among fellow vacationers and, odds are, everyone under your Cool Cabana will find something to appreciate. In Brown’s sixth novel, a father-daughter duo live off the grid in remotest Montana. Only something isn’t quite right in their tightly controlled world: Jane, a perspicacious teenager, begins to realize that her father isn’t who he says he is. When she makes a courageous – and dangerous – break for freedom, we find ourselves embedded in the early dot-com boom in San Francisco. If the Unabomber had a daughter, this could be her story. It might prompt a pop-up book club, and it will definitely make you think about our reliance on technology (especially if you’re squinting at a screen).
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Welcome to Little Crescent Island, Ga., where two journalists are vying to write the memoir of Margaret Ives, a reclusive heiress who calls to mind both Patty Hearst and Priscilla Presley. Alice Scott is hoping to shore up her fledgling career with this white whale of a story, while Hayden Anderson coasts into the competition fresh off a Pulitzer win. Of course, the two fall for each other – this is Henry’s world, we just read in it – while violating every basic rule of journalism. Surprisingly, Ives’s back story proves more scintillating than the sunset trysts and cozy diner meals. “Queen of the beach read” is an oft bandied term but let the record state: Henry wears the crown.
Mansion Beach by Meg Mitchell Moore
If you love Elin Hilderbrand and “The Great Gatsby,” Moore’s frothy confection of a novel, set on Block Island, is a satisfying treat. The outsider here is Nicola Carr (get it? Nick Carraway?), who trades a failed relationship and a miserable job for a borrowed cottage and an internship at a local maritime institute. Her stab at equilibrium is quickly thwarted by a love triangle involving her cousin’s wife (whose family is her real estate benefactor) and the party-throwing fashion entrepreneur next door. We learn about their shenanigans – which culminate in a death – in part from a chorus of podcast guests. This might not be the freshest plot device, but what Moore sacrifices in originality she makes up for with smocked maxi dresses and snarky asides.
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
A year in the life of a wayward young man in New England who, by chance, becomes the caretaker for an eighty-two-year-old widow living with dementia, powering a story of friendship, loss, and how much we’re willing to risk to claim one of life’s most treasured mercies: a second chance.
NONFICTION
How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast
“I was born to privilege, born on third base, but desperate to strike out and go home,” writes Jong-Fast of her childhood in the shadow of her fame-hungry feminist icon mother, the writer Erica Jong. As Jong’s health declines, Jong-Fast – now an esteemed writer in her own right – offers an unflinching, albeit not unkind, reflection on the relationship between mothers and daughters.
On Her Game by Christine Brennan (Out July 8)
Caitlin Clark, the highest-scoring college basketball player in N.C.A.A. history, was a revelation to most observers following her standout season in 2024. Brennan draws on interviews and behind-the-scenes reporting in this energetic account of that campaign and explains how the ensuing explosion in popularity of women’s basketball is a legacy of Title IX’s passage in 1972.
Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton
Dalton, a political adviser based in London, was not much of a naturalist when she retreated to the English countryside during the pandemic. That changed one frigid morning in 2021, when she rescued an abandoned newborn hare. Their resulting bond prompts her to meditate on humans’ relationship to animals, to ourselves and to the rhythms of life. “If I could derive this much pleasure from something so simple,” she writes, “what else might be waiting to be discovered?”
The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates
The philanthropist reflects on the inevitable but uncertain periods of change – from new parenthood to career pivots to the loss of loved ones – that punctuate a lifetime. Though focused primarily on her personal experiences, French Gates also offers guidance to readers seeking support through their own times of transition.
Matriarch: A Memoir by Tina Knowles
This personal history from Knowles spans generations: her grandmother, Celestine; her own childhood in Galveston, Texas; and her daughters’ – Beyoncé and Solange Knowles – meteoric rise to superstardom. A testament to Black motherhood, this memoir offers a look behind the curtain at one of the best-known mothers in the entertainment industry.
We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle
Glennon, Abby and Amanda asked each other, their dearest friends, and 118 of the world’s most brilliant wayfinders: As you’ve traveled these roads–marriage, parenting, work, recovery, heartbreak, aging, new beginnings–have you collected any wisdom that might help us find our way? As Glennon, Abby, and Amanda wrote down every life-saving answer, they discovered two things: 1. No matter what road we are walking down, someone else has traveled the same terrain. 2. The wisdom of our fellow travelers will light our way. They put all of that wisdom in one place: We Can Do Hard Things – a place to turn when you feel clueless and alone, when you need clarity in the chaos, or when you want wise company on the path of life.
About the contributor:
Hummingbird Books is an independent, female owned and operated store on Boylston Street in Chestnut Hill. It is a welcoming community destination of an extensive collection of adult and children’s books and showcases a mix of local and widely beloved authors.