Summer Stories Are the Best Stories: A Guest Post from This Would Make a Good Story Someday Author Dana Alison Levy

It’s no coincidence that of the three books I’ve published, two are summer stories. For kids, life is divided into School and Not-School, and there’s nothing more Not-School than summer vacation. In my new book, This Would Make a Good Story Someday, I wrote about twelve-year-old Sara and her family, who unexpectedly wind up going on a cross-country train trip, which she is NOT happy about. But even though nothing is going as planned, she finds unexpected friends and new adventures along the way. In The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island I wrote about a family returning to a beloved place, where everything is supposed to stay the same. But in real life, every summer brings changes, whether we want them or not.
I love summer stories as much as I love summer. Below are just a few of my favorites; books that capture summer moments, from cities to oceans, from rural Virginia to Oakland California. Some take place before I was born, and some could have happened yesterday. But they all transport me into a summer world different from my own.

The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall
This book is a modern classic, and does an amazing job of bringing us into the heart of this hilarious and loving family of four sisters. The adventures they have in Arundel, in the gardens, the pond, the meadows, and beyond, make me want to join the fun.

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia
Man I love this book! Three sisters travel across the country to spend the summer of 1968 with their mother in Oakland California, where they wind up attending a summer program hosted by the revolutionary Black Panthers. Full of important history that doesn’t get talked about enough, and funny and poignant enough to keep everyone reading.

As Brave as You, by Jason Reynolds
When two brothers from Brooklyn spend their summer in rural Virginia with their grandparents they have to adjust to a lot—from chores to chickens to family secrets. I pretty much love every book Jason Reynolds has ever written, and this one is a perfect blend of funny family time and hard questions.

You’re Invited, by Jen Malone and Gail Nall
What would be more fun that starting a party planning business with your three best friends? Nothing! Except that of course it’s not quite as easy as it sounds. Jen Malone writes pitch-perfect tween characters, and here she co-writes with Nall to create four distinct and hilarious characters having quite a summer!

This Would Make a Good Story Someday, by Dana Alison Levy
What if you planned on the perfect summer with your friends, getting new and improved for middle school? And what if your moms suddenly informed you that, instead, your entire family—including your loud younger sister, your political activist older sister, and her oh-so-annoying boyfriend—were traveling cross-country by train? For Sara, writing it all down in her journal is the only escape. But as they criss-cross the country she makes unexpected friends, sees the world outside the train windows with new eyes, and might just come home new and improved after all.

The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island, by Dana Alison Levy
The Fletcher family loves returning every year to Rock island, where nothing ever changes. Except this year, when the four boys and their dads arrive, everything is different. They have to deal with new neighbors, a forbidden lighthouse, and even changes among themselves as they realize that, even on Rock Island, time can’t stand still.
I could keep going—Moon Over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool, The Four-Story Mistake, by Elizabeth Enright, Half Magic, by Edgar Eager—the list of summer books goes on and on. But of course, you probably have your own favorites. So let me know…what are the summer stories that carry you away?
This Would Make a Good Story Someday is on B&N bookshelves now!