EASY

The Kiss Box By Bonnie Verburg

Mama Bear must go away for awhile but tells him “even when I'm not with you, Little Bear, I'll send you love and kisses every minute of every day.” Little Bear creates a “Kiss Box”, in which he places a hundred kisses. He asks that she make one for him, and he's comforted knowing that if he misses his mama he needs only open the box for a kiss.

The Circle Game By Joni Mitchell

The Circle Game, a charming nod to childhood dreams and memories, tells the story of a young boy experiencing the simple wonders of life. As time goes by, cartwheels are replaced by car wheels and the boy’s dreams change. Joni Mitchell’s first song to be illustrated for children, The Circle Game captures the timeless magic of youth.

FUN FACTS

A Butterfly is Patient By Dianna Hutts Aston

The opening pages of this beautiful book illustrate the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. This is the perfect resource for gathering information about the butterfly and its life cycle. Budding artists will also find it very helpful in creating their own drawings of one of nature’s loveliest specimens.

Extraordinary Endangered Animals By Sandrine Silhol

Thirty-five endangered animals from around the world are featured here, including the blue whale and the Asian elephant. Each animal is pictured in glorious colour, along with information about its natural habitat, its relationship with people, threats to survival, and what we as individuals can do to help protect it and all of Earth’s inhabitants.

JUNIOR

Planet Tad By Tim Carvell

When Tad receives his father's old computer as a Christmas gift, he decides to start a blog. In his first post, he announces his New Year resolutions: To get through seventh grade, learn to do a kickflip on his skateboard, have girls notice him, and start to shave. What follows are the trials and tribulations of a year in the life of this middle schooler.

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom By Christopher Healy

Prince Liam, Frederic, Duncan and Gustav. They are the princes who saved Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel, but thanks to those lousy stories you know them only as Prince Charming. All of this is about to change. Rejected by their princesses, they stumble upon an evil plot that could endanger each of their kingdoms.

YOUNG ADULT

I Hunt Killers (Jasper Dent #1) By Barry Lyga

Jazz is the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer. He has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could; from the criminal's point of view. In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has his own secret urges. Can he resist them in order to catch “The Impressionist”?

For Darkness Shows the Stars By Diana Peterfreund

After a genetic experiment caused the Reduction, decimating humanity, Luddites rose to nobility and outlawed technology. Recently Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, a servant Kai, choosing duty to her family over love. But Elliot soon discovers that Kai carries a secret, one that could change everything.

ADULT

Sarah’s Key By Tatiana de Rosnay

On Bastille Day (July 14) France remembers the Revolution. Alas, soon after is the 70th anniversary of the deportations of French Jews from Paris to the death camps. This excellent novel follows a modern-day journalist who finds her life becoming entwined with a young girl from the terrible days of 1942.

Beautiful Ruins By Jess Walter

Sure, St. Albert is lovely in the summer. But who doesn’t imagine a summer in Italy on the shores of the Mediterranean? Here’s a summer read that puts you right there, in a small Cinque Terre village on the Italian coast, with a story that moves between today and 1962, when Richard Burton and Liz Taylor were filming Cleopatra.