Reading, Writing & Chocolate: Great Books for Family Read-Alouds

One of my favorite summer pleasures is having more time to read and write. Whether on my deck or by the lake or waiting in an airport, I can lose myself in the pages of a good book and be whisked away to another time and place for a few hours.

Over the summer months, encourage your child's imagination by reading books with quirky characters or unusual locations. A family read-aloud can be fun whether your family is camping in the woods, staying at a beach house or roasting marshmallows in the backyard fire pit.

For younger readers (Second/Third graders), I recommend The Mouse and the Motorcyle by Beverly Cleary, George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl, and my own children's chapter book, Kitchawan Kenny and the Summer Garden Mysteries. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater is a classic and much better than the movie version. If you read these books out loud, the stories provide terrific imagery and a great excuse to make cool sound effects.

For older readers (Fourth/Fifth graders), I recommend Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs by Betty G. Birney.  More favorites: When the Circus Came to Town by Polly Horvath, The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry, and Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor.  Start a family discussion about discovering what is wonderful and wacky in your own neighborhood.

Summer is also a great time for creative writing: writing stories, poems or travelogues about summer vacations. Pack a journal, notebook, sketchpad, and pencils for your next trip. Encourage kids to draw and write about new adventures, new friends, new foods, and highlights from their vacations. Like books, journals are easy to take on plane trips -- just make sure you remember to bring a pencil sharpener.

If kids write down their summer memories—sights, sounds, smells—they'll have great details to use for future stories and poems. For a cool summer treat to nibble on while you sit outside and chat about your story ideas, let the kids make frozen chocolate-dipped bananas. Yum!