Summer Sun and Holiday Fun by Pippa Wilson

How many sleeps 'til the holidays start?

With kiddies and teachers already fizz-popping with excitement, I thought I'd put together a selection of Middle Grade books, old and new, to celebrate the glorious freedom of the long summer break. So, dig out your buckets and spades, find a nice comfy spot on the beach or in the garden, and settle down with one of these.

First off I've picked Flotsam, a wordless picture book, by David Wiesner. 

An inquisitive boy finds an old-fashioned camera on the beach, and after taking the film in to be developed, he discovers an intriguing mystery with a surreal twist. This is a wonderful book for kids to share with grown ups, and to pore over the pictures and imagine your own story; and perfect  for middle Grade readers to use their visual literacy skills to interpret how the story unfolds. A 2007 Caldecott Award winning book.

Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John.
This Blue Peter award winner tells the story of Laura, an orphan who wants to become a detective like her uncle. Set in Cornwall, mysteries and adventures abound, but the harsh realities of life are also reflected in this perfect-for-the-summer-holidays read.

Red Moon Rising by best-selling author Paula Harrison.

Laney expects a dull and boring summer holiday, until she sees a blood-red moon. She discovers that she's a faerie, and that danger threatens her Mist Tribe. Her summer turns out to be one of dark powers and magical adventures.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.

This classic story tells the story of Tom, who is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle for the summer. (I love the way the first chapter is called "Exile"). Tom fears a summer of infinite boredom, but one night the grandfather clock chimes thirteen. He thinks, "Even mad old clocks never struck that", so he goes to investigate. What he sees before him is a scene of past times. Is he dreaming? Are the people he's watching actually ghosts? Tom's summer has suddenly turned out to be much more interesting!

Binny For Short by Hilary McKay. 

Binny has a tough life, with her mum struggling to make ends meet since her father's death. What's more, Binny misses her dog who was taken away to be rehoused. Her prickly, awkward relationship with the insensitive and elderly Aunty Violet pushes Binny to the edge of reason. But when Aunty Violet dies and leaves her house to Binny, the family moves to the seaside, meaning their lives will drastically change forever. Lots of amusing sibling situations, and high drama by the sea. One to savour on the beach!

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. 
Orphan Maia is whisked away from her stuffy English boarding school by a governess, Miss Minton, and is taken to the Amazon  to stay with the most loathsome relatives imaginable, with their fears of the locality and its people. Maia is lucky to have Miss Minton keeping an eye on her. One day Maia meets a boy, Finn, in a canoe, and she embarks upon a journey into the unknown. A delightful story that will transport you to an amazing, exotic rainforest (even if it's pelting down with rain mid-August here!)

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan

A thought provoking picture book which follows two brothers during their summer holidays, with surreal images which make the reader work hard to figure it all out...or just be left wondering!

The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne. 

Take a trip around the world with Barnaby Brocket, the boy who keeps floating up and up. As he sets off on a quest to find his parents, Barnaby meets a diverse bunch of characters who, like him, are "different" in one way or another. This is a heart-warming read that makes you think about kindness and tolerance and I found Barnaby Brocket is a character who I often wonder about long after reading the book!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid-The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney.

In my humble opinion, no other writer at the moment comes close to Jeff Kinney when it comes to a humorous yarn. The Heffleys set off on a road trip to enable them to enjoy some quality family time...yes, you know it's not going to end up that way. Before long the Heffleys have won a pig, who becomes a tricky travelling companion, especially when they end up at some appalling hotels. This is a real hoot from start to finish. With so many laugh out loud moments, you probably shouldn't read this in an over-crowded public transport situation!

The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton.

It does amaze me, but kids today still seem to love the freedom and adventure of Enid Blyton's stories (this book has 2380 ratings on Good Reads). The Island of Adventure is, perhaps, Blyton's ultimate summer adventure. Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, Jack and Kiki the parrot set off on a holiday to stay in at Craggy Tops in Cornwall, but adventures lead them  to a world of tunnels and mines. One for families to share-and discuss how things have changed since the book was written.

My final pick is Over Sea, under Stone  by Susan Cooper. 
3 children go on holiday to Cornwall, find an ancient treasure map, and before you know it they are fighting evil in their quest to find the Lost Grail. A good book to launch an interest in King Arthur.


See how many books are set in Cornwall! I was going to include a Michael Morpurgo story set in Devon, but with so many to choose from, I couldn't pick one above the others. So how about working your way through a boxed set? Or maybe take a set of audiobooks to listen to in the car? The Classic Collection 1, for example, features The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, and is set in Slapton in 1943. My children have listened to this evacuee tale dozens of times, and never tire of hearing it.

Any we should have included?

Have a lovely summer break.

Pippa @hellopipski
(photos from my holiday at Lyme Regis)

The books that made me by Paula Harrison

Things change a lot between the ages of eight and twelve. I didn't move schools or travel across the world. Not much had happened on the outside, but even so I was a different person with a different outlook at twelve compared to who I'd been four years earlier. As I spent a huge amount of that time with my head in a book, it wasn't really surprising that the stories had affected me greatly.

One of the books with a big impact on me was The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. I'd read a lot of Enid Blyton around the ages of six and seven and I'd loved The Enchanted Wood series, but Alan Garner's book opened up a more rounded fantasy world to me that seemed at once really strange and really familiar. I love the slant on the King Arthur legend which forms the backbone to the story and the way the author makes it his own. The sheer scope of the story world that Alan Garner invented was an absolute eye opener to me as a child. It was one of the books that began my love of fantasy and showed me how a writer can use fantasy to say things that are relevant to the world we live - things about people's motivations, about greed, loyalty, self-sacrifice and endurance.
I also love the escape motif. Susan and Colin, the children at the centre of the book, spend a great deal of the story trying to evade capture. This book has a page-turning quality that stands up beside the faster-paced middle grade novels of today, which is not something you can say for all the classics.

This brings me nicely on to The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I could have lived inside this book forever. I read the whole sequence of books and loved the ones involving the Drew children too, but this one is my favourite. I have re-read it many, many times.
Like The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, I love the fact that this is fantasy within our real everyday world. Susan Cooper is an expert at brewing atmosphere. She creates a feeling of menace that had me hiding under my covers long after I'd put down the book and switched off the light. If you haven't read them, I recommend starting with the first book, Over Sea Under Stone, and reading all five books in order, finishing with Silver on the Tree. Cooper sets up the battle between good and evil, drawing on mythology and the English landscape throughout history. The time slip passages are woven neatly into the narrative.

I did have a varied reading diet, though, and when I wasn't feasting on fantasy, I loved school stories. The Chalet School series was my absolute favourite. Jo Bettany (who always got called Jo-seph-ine when she was doing something outrageous) is such a brilliant character - impulsive and mischievous but with a strong sense of right and wrong. It seems odd, in a way, that they chimed so much with me. Maybe I found the Austrian setting alluring - it was a long way from my everyday life. I was born in Bletchley (home to the code-breakers) and lived in a small town all through my childhood. Nothing seemed more tempting than being in a school in the Alps and having a meal called "Kaffe und Kuchen". In amongst the tales of sports matches and pranks, there's one book where the girls have to escape from the Nazis on foot in a Sound of Music-esque way. I remember so clearly reading about the teacher, Miss Wilson, whose hair turns white overnight from the stress of the escape.

I could add lots and lots of other books to this blog piece, from The Lord of the Rings to Anne of Green Gables. The best thing is that I found so many books that I loved that I didn't stop reading them when I passed twelve. Middle grade books became a long term passion for me and I believe this is a great time for UK children's books with excellent new stories coming into the book shops all the time.
Of course my reading then had an enormous impact on me as a writer. In particular, I never let go of my fascination with fantasy set in our everyday world. I love that lifting of the veil, where a fantasy dimension is revealed showing the characters and readers something they never knew was there. I'm very proud that my own fantasy middle grade novel, Red Moon Rising, will be released on the 2nd April. The main character, Laney, discovers that she is part of a secret community of faeries living as if they're humans. They belong to tribes with powers over water, air, plants, animals or fire. Laney awakens to her new identity on the night of a blood-red moon and this instantly makes her an object of suspicion. She sees a dark figure searching the graveyard and has to try to figure out what all of it means.
I'd like to thank Lisa Evans for an awesome cover, and my publisher Nosy Crow for believing in my book.

So, what books made you?

http://paulaharrison.jimdo.com/