How is it June? Like, where has this year gone? I now understand why my parents constantly asked how time was passing so quickly. I get it. I do.

Summer is ALMOST here and we’ve got two delightful months stretching ahead of us. Ahh, no early wake-ups, no homework…it’s wonderful. But also kind of scary, because what am I going to do with the girls for…like…60 days?

Sure, we have some stuff planned. We’re going to meet our penpals in person (yay) and have a great time with their Auntie. We’re going to be tourists in our own city, which is awesome. We’ve got a trip planned to the same wonderful Auntie’s cottage, visits with lots of aunties and uncles and the grandparents…

But then there are days with nothing in particular scheduled. And that’s when we call on…

The reading list.

My girls both love to read, which is lucky. Vivi is HUGELY into the His Dark Materials series, and Lily really likes The Secret Zoo. Vivi also read Like A Duck THREE times in a row, which…yeah, she loved it. So, based on their interests, here’s part one (Vivi’s part) of the summer reading list!

Doll Bones – Holly Black
Like A Duck – Deborah Kerbel (Vivi can read it a fourth time! Now she has her own copy!)
When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead
The Seventh Most Important Thing – Shelley Pearsall
The Night Diary – Veera Hiranandani
Strange Birds – A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers – Celia Perez
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise – Dan Gemeinhart
Rain Rising – Courtne Comri
A Duet for Home – Karina Yan Glaser
Once There Was – Kiyash Monsef
Winterhouse – Ben Guterson
Ride On – Faith Erin Hicks

Next week, we’ll cover Lily’s list. It can sometimes be challenging to choose the right level of book for an eight-year-old because some kids are still loving picture books, while others are early readers, and others (like Lily) are fully immersed in novels. I’ll talk about that more next time!