In Season: Summer Stories That Make Reading No Sweat

You may not know it yet, but your child could be suffering from one of the most common summer maladies. Forget sunburns and bee stings. If your kid, like most, has sworn off books during the school vacation, he or she is a likely candidate for Dumber in the Summer Syndrome, a condition that especially affects beginning readers.

“It’s clearly traceable to the lack of reading in the summer months,” says Jim Trelease, author of “The Read-Aloud Hanbook” and expert on children’s reading. “Reading isn’t something you want to restrict to school any more than you want to restrict the teaching of values to the school or the teaching of athletics to the school.”

Fortunately, there is a remedy: a steady and sustained diet of summer reading. Trelease suggests choosing books on subjects that interest your child, and few topics are more delightful to children than summer itself.

Two fun books themed for the season are Margaret Mahy’s “A Summer Saturday Morning” (illustrated by Selina Young; Viking; 24 pages; $15.99) and Stephen Krensky’s “Lionel in the Summer” (illustrated by Susanna Natti; Dial Books for Young Readers; 48 pages; $13.99).

The first, a warmly drawn book with rhyming text aimed at beginning readers, follows a group of children on a romp to the beach that nearly ends in disaster. The second, a collection of four short stories, focuses on an impatient young boy who spends his summer at a fireworks show, learning about business through his lemonade stand and taking the once-ubiquitous station-wagon vacation with his family.

Of course, books don’t have to be about summer to qualify as summer reading. But they do have to be captivating enough to challenge the array of movies, television shows and outdoor activities competing for a child’s attention this time of year. Among the books that meet that standard is “The Back of Beyond: A Story About Lewis and Clark,” by Andy Russell Bowen (illustrated by Ralph L. Ramstad; Carolrhoda Books Inc.; 64 pages; $5.95).

Bowen revisits the story of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose exploration of the North American wilderness at the turn of the 19th century opened the way to settlement west of the Mississippi River. Smartly, the author has broken up the tale into easily digestible chapters of five to 11 pages, a format which keeps the suspenseful story moving.

For slightly older readers, there’s Nancy Antle’s “Lost in the War” (Dial Books for Young Readers; 137 pages; $15.99), a novel set in New Haven, Conn., in the summer of 1982. It revolves around Lisa Grey, a schoolgirl whose attention to the things that normally concern 12-year-olds is diverted by her mother’s frequent and disturbing flashbacks to her days as a nurse in Vietnam. In an effort to end the nightmares, Lisa and her younger sister, Jenny, take their mother on a trip they hope will make her whole once again.

Although many young people may have trouble relating to the preoccupation of their parents’ generation with Vietnam, the novel touches upon universal themes of love and loss and courage and endurance that should resonate with all children.

Another page-turner for middle-school students is “The Umbrella Man and Other Stories” (Viking; 279 pages; $16.99), a collection of 13 short tales by master storyteller Roald Dahl. This collection reveals the two sides of Dahl, a Welsh native who was a bestselling author of books for adults before turning his attention to children’s stories and writing such works as “James and the Giant Peach” and “Matilda.” Ranging from the merry to the macabre, these offerings reveal Dahl’s penchant for the kind of literary sleight-of-hand and surprise endings that make reading fun.

For younger readers (and their parents), the delightfully wacky “Bill and Pete to the Rescue” (written and illustrated by Tomie DePaola; G.P. Putnam’s Sons; 44 pages; $15.99) is sure to provoke plenty of laughs. From the first paragraph, when we’re introduced to William Everett Crocodile (“who was called Bill”) and his friend Pete (“who was his toothbrush”), to the climax of the plot in which Bill and Pete rescue Papa Crocodile from the Bad Guy and his Big Bad Brother, this is a witty and humorous adventure. DePaola’s bright and amusing drawings provide the perfect accompaniment.

Monica Wellington takes a more serious approach in “Night City” (Dutton Children’s Books; 28 pages; $14.99), a richly illustrated look at what happens in the city after dark. Thirteen two-page spreads feature such nocturnal animals as nightclub musicians, newspaper pressmen, cargo ship captains and firefighters.

* Kevin Baxter reviews books for young readers every four weeks. Next week: reviews by Times readers.