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It always happens: I start planning out seasonal TBR lists far too early. I start thinking of summer books when it’s still snowing, and I find myself planning cozy fall reads on hot July days. To me, there is something delicious about looking forward to what books will be just perfect for another time of year.

As Anne Shirley would say, “When I think something nice is going to happen I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation.” To me, anticipation itself is one of the nicest things of all!

And so, even though it was just snowing a couple of days ago, I’m daydreaming of summer days, sitting on the porch reading …

• I love summer adventure books, so I’ll probably pick an Enid Blyton to read.

• Which reminds me, I’d love to get a copy of The House in Cornwall by Noel Streatfeild; it was reprinted last year but only in the UK, so it’s not the easiest to find. Hopefully I can find it!

• I’d like to get a Catherine Woolley book, either another in the Ginnie series I’ve been loving lately or something else, if I can track one down. (These are largely out of print.)

• After reading Marjorie’s Vacation by Carolyn Wells at Christmas, I now want to find some of other Marjorie books I haven’t read.

• I read a book of Faith Andrews Bedford’s essays last summer, which was marvelous, so I’d like to read another.

• And I want to read the third book in Heather Vogel Frederick’s Pumpkin Falls mystery series, because it’s set during summer (luckily, I received a copy for my birthday)!

• Oh, and there have to be other mysteries, because summer is perfect for vintage mysteries, so I’ll probably reread a Nancy Drew or two.

• (Pictured in this post is Astrid Lindgren’s Seacrow Island, which is a perfect summer book, and I may just have to reread it too. Ooh, and Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery!)

Do you love seasonal TBR planning? I would love to hear what books you’re hoping to read this summer!

My friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) and I decided to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our ninth week’s theme was Picture Book, and for this theme I chose to read Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burn. I had never read it before, but because Faith included it as one of her picture book recommendations—and because I already had a copy!—I decided to read it for this week’s theme. 

What a joy! I can definitely see why Faith recommended it. Doris Burn was both the writer and illustrator of this summer story, and she did a wonderful job. This is the story of Andrew Henry, who loves building things but whose inventions aren’t appreciated by his family. He goes off to build himself a little house in a meadow, where he is soon joined by other children from the neighborhood who want special places of their own.

I am so glad I read this one, and I wish I had read this book as a child because I know I would have loved it! The illustrations are lovely, and the final line is fabulous. (A bit of a spoiler, but … And his family was always curious to see what Andrew Henry would build next.)

Off to find more Doris Burn books …

What did you read for the Vintage Kidlit Summer this week? Let me know in the comments!

My friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) and I decided to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our eighth week’s theme was Talking Animals, and for this theme I chose to re-read Tucker’s Countryside by George Selden. It’s the sequel to The Cricket in Times Square, but I read Tucker’s Countryside before Cricket so I don’t really feel that you need to read them in order! This book is actually one of the first longer books I read as a child (I was maybe seven or eight?), so it was fun to revisit. (I was a very choosy reader as a child. I read slowly, so a book needed to be *amazing* for me to even consider finishing it.)

I can totally see why I enjoyed this one so much. It’s a quick, fun, engaging read centering on the characters from Cricket (Chester, Tucker, and Harry) as they attempt to save an endangered meadow full of animals from certain destruction (an apartment building is going to be erected soon). The climax is wonderful: Tucker, a very clever mouse, gets the idea to make it look as if the meadow is a site of “historical significance”—in other words, the original homestead of the town founder—and how the animals accomplish this feat and get away with the “deception” is quite hilarious and well-written.

One of things I like best about Cricket and what I also love here is the juxtaposition of animals and people. They are books that keep you equally invested in the human and animal characters, and they don’t feel like fantasies at all. They’re extremely realistic—well, except for the town making such a big assumption about a certain historical site … 😉

This was a delightful reread, and now I want to revisit the other books in the series!

What did you read for the Vintage Kidlit Summer this week? Let me know in the comments!

My friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) and I decided to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our sixth week’s theme was Well-known Author, Little-known Book, and for this theme I chose to re-read The Growing Summer by Noel Streatfeild. Such a joy!

If you haven’t yet heard me discuss this tale of four siblings and their summer adventures in a mysterious Ireland setting, you’re certainly going to want to pick it up now. This book follows the Gareth children as they are uprooted to the home of their unpredictable Great-Aunt Dymphna, where they have to learn how to cope with complex responsibilities and secrets. The reason why I recommend this book so often is because I think it will appeal those who love Elizabeth Enright’s summery books or Edward Eager’s magical tales, and I know there are tons of fans of those books. This sometimes overlooked Streatfeild story fits right in with those, and I hope you’ll give it a try! (P.S.—I recently bought my first UK copy of this story but haven’t read it yet. I don’t think there are many text changes from my US edition called The Magic Summer.)

The above paragraph is what I wrote about this book on my blog a few months ago, which gives a general overview of the story. I read this book for the first time as a child and enjoyed it, but I’ve come to love it more as an adult. I actually received it the Christmas I was nine, when I told my parents I wanted a whole box full of Noel Streatfeild books and that’s exactly what I received—it was glorious. But unfortunately, my original childhood copy is now in literal tatters from re-readings, so last year I invested in the aforementioned UK copy that has the original title. The illustrations particularly intrigued me—they look precisely like what I always envisioned (the big shadowy rooms and the placement of everything) … which I think means that Streatfeild described things very well.

One of the things I like best about this book is the atmosphere. Streatfeild never wrote a book that had more connection to a certain beautiful environment, and I think it was perhaps her way of paying homage to Elizabeth Enright (to whom the book is dedicated). Enright, such a careful observer of the natural world, must have inspired Streatfeild.

Another aspect I like is the characters. Streatfeild tended to re-use sets of characters, but I don’t mind that at all—I enjoy the familiarity of old favorite characters. But this story differs a bit because the four Gareth siblings actually mature throughout the course of the story and come to be more responsible individuals, which isn’t always the case in Streatfeild families.

Aunt Dymphna is a wonderful character because of her unpredictability, her endearing poetry reciting, her ways of disappearing and reappearing. She doesn’t look after the children the way she should, and never really seems to learn a lesson of her own, which I felt should have been resolved better. But she’s immensely entertaining, and there are subtle hints that there’s more to her than meets the eye (for example, the moment when Alex learns that she has memorized her last correspondence from her brother, whom she lost in World War II).

The ending is abrupt, too, and slightly mysterious—but so heartfelt. Which is perhaps a good way to describe the entire book!

There was a TV film version of it in 1969 that starred Wendy Hiller (Mrs. Harris in the 1987 Anne of Avonlea), as Aunt Dymphna, and apparently has never been released anywhere, which I find incredibly sad. Wouldn’t it be fun to watch?

I do vaguely remember finding a radio dramatization online a while back; I should dig it up and give it a try! It was a delight to revisit this book.

What did you read for the Vintage Kidlit Summer this week? Let me know in the comments!

My friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) and I decided to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our fifth week’s theme was A Book in a Series, and for this theme I chose to read Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin, which was recommended by Faith for this category. I had never read it before, but I enjoyed it so much and I’m looking forward to checking out the other books in the series (Homework Machine appears to be the third book in the series).

This book follows Danny Dunn and his two best friends, Irene and Joe, as they try to use a sophisticated new computer to help them with their homework. They give all the information from their textbooks to the computer and program it to understand their homework test questions, and then the computer provides them with perfectly typed homework pages. Their teacher isn’t quite sure what to think at first, but after some brainstorming with Danny’s mother, she assigns them more advanced homework. But of course, this doesn’t stop them either—until an act of sabotage does!

What a fun book! I loved the conversation that Danny has with his teacher about whether or not the computer is merely a tool like a typewriter.

It’s interesting to think about how different technology was in the 1950s, when this book was published. The amazing computer in the story is enormous, not small and compact! The whole premise reminds me of 1960s-70s Kurt Russell movies, only a bit less fantastical. 🙂 

So glad I read this one, and I can’t wait to read the other books in the Danny Dunn series!

What did you read for the Vintage Kidlit Summer this week? Let me know in the comments!

My friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) and I decided to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our third week’s theme was Magical Adventures, and for this theme I chose to read Half Magic by Edward Eager. First published in 1954, this is the first book in the Tales of Magic series that have been a joy to several generations of readers.

I don’t typically read an entire book in one day—in fact, I’d say that’s extraordinarily rare for me, unless it’s something like a picture book—but when I first read Half Magic, that’s exactly what I did. And I also don’t typically read fantasy—it’s not my favorite genre and it’s hard for me to find books I love that also contain magical elements. But I wouldn’t really categorize Half Magic (or any of the Edward Eager books) as fantasy … they’re more just stories of ordinary children who happen to find some magical object.

Such is the case in Half Magic, when four siblings find an ancient coin that grants their wishes by halves. It takes them a while to discover the coin’s secret, but when they do—well, then the fun can begin!

Of course, in Eager’s stories, the kids never quite get what they bargain for when they’re attempting their extravagant, wild, and sometimes frivolous wishes. But in the end, they always try to do the right thing and use the magic to help someone. I wish I could tell you how this happens in Half Magic, but that would be giving spoilers!

One of my favorite chapters in Half Magic is when one of the children—Jane—loses her temper and wishes that she belonged to another family. The wish is granted, but growing up as someone else isn’t what Jane had hoped it would be. I also love the scene when the children’s mother makes a wish on the coin, not realizing that it’s magical.

The reason why I tried these books in the first place is because my copy of The Penderwicks said that it was perfect for fans of Noel Streatfeild, Elizabeth Enright, and Edward Eager. Having read (and loved!) books by the first two of those authors, I knew I had to try Edward Eager. I vividly remember my delight when I opened the book and realized that it was set in the 1920s. A historical book with gentle, humorous magic! What a delight!

And then of course, I had to go read Magic by the Lake when I was finished re-reading Half Magic. I couldn’t resist!

What did you read for the Vintage Kidlit Summer this week? Let me know in the comments!

Three years ago, I invited my blog readers on a Summer of Vintage Kidlit, during which we read a bunch of delicious vintage titles over the course of summer.

Guess what? It’s back!

I teamed up with my friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer, and it’s *going to be amazing.*

Here’s how it’s going to work:

We will have 12 categories over 12 weeks, so each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer.

Throughout the summer, we’ll also be hosting giveaways for participants, so you won’t want to miss it!

It’s going to take place from May 27 to August 12. Here’s the full schedule:

I’m already so excited about it, and starting to plan out what I’m going to read. I’m planning to write about each title on my blog, so stay tuned!

And if you are in need of recommendations for each week, we have those too! 

(And if you’re wondering what counts as vintage, I think anything pre-1980 counts!)

Please leave a comment if you hope to join in on the Vintage Kidlit Summer!