#TakeYourBookOutdoors: August 2018

This summer, I decided to join the #takeyourbookoutdoors challenge started by bookstagrammer Bronte, and August ended up being another great month for me to do so. There were some quite hot days, but many beautiful ones, and I took my books along to all sorts of fun places.

One one of those hotter days, I took SUNNY by Jason Reynolds along to the pool. One of my local librarians recommended this book to me, since she knows how much I loved LONG WAY DOWN. This book is for the younger (middle grade) crowd, but sings with musical prose.

Sometimes getting outside means taking the T, and I was reading GIRL IN DISGUISE by Greer Macallister on a trip into town for some dumplings. This book about the first female Pinkerton detective really hooked me.

A NIGHT DIVIDED is on the MCBA (Massachusetts Children’s Book Award) list this year, and my children both thrust it on me, telling me how much they loved it. The book tells the story of a family divided by the Berlin Wall. I had to keep stepping outside for fresh air and looks skyward as the clock ticked on against their escape plans.

On a literary field trip this month, we had the chance to read some of Emily Dickinson’s poems below her window among the tree stumps. We each opened to a random page and read the poem we found there out loud. I read this one just afternoon. Chills!

I read THE CONFIDENCE CODE by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman (here at the Japanese Garden at the MFA) this month. It was jam-packed with interesting science, but I’m now reading THE CONFIDENCE CODE FOR GIRLS (which I checked out for my daughter), and I’m enjoying that version even more.

A BOOK OF PEARL by Timothée de Fombelle was my companion for a few delicious days, including on a lakeside picnic. Part historical, part fantasy, part fairy tale, this book is absolutely gorgeous (as is de Fombelle’s other work–loved VANGO as well).

Finally, I took WHERE THE WATERMELONS GROW by Cindy Baldwin along to the Hatch Shell for a (free!) Landmarks Orchestra concert and got to read a little while waiting for the amazing dance performances to begin. This lovely, painful book is a perfect summertime read that ends with buckets of hope.

What great reads have you taken outdoors this summer?

 

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