The FTT summer reading guide

some of our recent favorites, good for a hammock, beach chair, or anywhere you like to read

This photo was taken at our house, but scroll down for a HHI picture!

Hi from Hilton Head Island, where we are splashing in the ocean, getting a little sunburned, playing with cousins, and enjoying some great books that we want to share with you. We miss our garden and our cats, but we’re having a great time.

If you ask Bea to pack her own bag for vacation, she’ll stuff all her bathing suits, plus some shorts and tees, into a duffle bag. We’ll get everything settled in the car and THEN she’ll come down the stairs, lugging the heaviest backpack, plus a seam-straining tote bag, both of them filled with books. She feels more comfortable with books around—books she’s read but plans to reread, books she’s about to read, comic books, graphic novels, reference books.

Maybe you’re the same way! Maybe here on the day of the presidential debate, you need a story to escape into?

That’s what the FTT Summer Reading Guide is for.

Our number one pick is Plant Pets, of course! It comes out August 27, and we are so excited to share it with you—we have one sample copy, and it is absolutely beautiful. We’d love for you to pre-order a signed copy from McIntyre’s, our beloved local bookstore, but you can also order into a bookstore near you, or even (if you like) from Amazon. Pre-orders are really important to book sales overall—they tell booksellers, reviewers, and the publisher that people really like your book, and so they should pay attention and get copies out there for more readers!

So please tell someone about Plant Pets—and a bunch of other great books—by forwarding this link.

Harriet’s picks

Floof by Heidi McKinnon: I picked this book out for my birthday with a McIntyre’s gift card from my cousins. I can read the whole thing myself. It’s about a cat named Floof, and the cat is very funny and the drawings are very cute. I like that one one of the pages, the mice are stealing Floof’s food.

The Fox + Chick series: This is a fun and cute book series I got from the library. The fox and chick are friends and they have different personalities.

The Geraldine Pu series by Maggie P Chang: This is a graphic novel series for kids that I got from the library—I’ve read Geraldine Pu and her Lunchbox Too because the other ones have been checked out, but when they come back I’m going to get them. Geraldine is a little girl who likes her lunchbox, Biandang. She eats food her grandma makes, like bao and stinky tofu, but one kid thinks the food is yucky, and he’s mean to Geraldine Pu. She decides not to sit next to the mean boy, and to make other friends who have interesting lunches.

D’Aulaires’ Book of Trolls: Our friend Cat sent us this book, and my mom read it to me. The stories which are kind of like fairy tales are really cool.

Bea’s Picks

Ghost Book by Remy Lai: This graphic novel is about a girl who can see ghosts, and one day she sees a wandering soul—a boy who keeps having near-death accidents. (He’s in a coma but his soul is out of his body.) They become friends, and the girl sets out to find a way to save his life.

Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery: Beautiful photography and such interesting facts! For example, did you know that the plural for octopuses is not octopi because the plural “i” is Latin, and Octopus is a Greek word? Or, did you know how good octopuses are at squeezing through tiny holes, because they don’t have bones?

Hide and Don’t Seek and Other Very Scary Stories by Anica Mrose Rissi is a collection of short stories that are sure to send chills up your spine. Most of the stories are about kids in ordinary settings, but with some sort of twist—for example, one is about a crow, and one is a scary story from a dog’s perspective. Each one is only a few pages long, and that’s a good thing, because any longer and you might pee your pants.

Belle’s Picks

Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal: This is a republished kids’ book by beloved author and translator Lore Segal that I had as a kid. I love the matter-of-fact but off-kilter stories and the wonderful illustrations, depicting everything from a meandering presidential parade to a brother-sister solo trip to their grandma’s. I remember wanting a purple snowsuit (with orange stars) like Mitzi!

A Little Bump in the Earth by Tyree Daye: Tyree is a graduate of NC State’s MFA and a professor at UNC, and his poems will make you want to get out in the garden, plant your feet in the soil, and remember the matriarchs of your family.

Skinship by Yoon Choi: My friend Marsha recommended this short story collection, which came out a couple of years ago. If you haven’t read it, you’ll love these long, intricate, wise stories about the Korean immigrant experience in America. Maybe my favorite collection since Stories from the Tenants Downstairs.

Neighbors by Diane Oliver: A recommendation from our cousin Anne, this is a book of rediscovered short stories first written in the 1960s, when the author, an NC native, was a young editor and grad student at Iowa. Diane Oliver died tragically young, at 22, but left behind remarkable, chilling, ahead-of-their-time stories about life for Black families in the Jim Crow South.

Bright and Tender Dark by Joanna Pearson: A taut, mosaic literary mystery novel by our good friend Joanna. Set in Chapel Hill, it’s about a woman’s discovery of a clue to her college friend’s murder, twenty years ago. It’s also about the allure of true crime stories, urban legends, and Y2K anxieties. A must-read!

Mamie’s Pick

James by Percival Everett: I loved this book! The characters of Jim and Huck are wonderful—it’s scary and sad in parts, make-your-stomach-hurt-from-laughing in other parts. It ends well for Jim, who becomes James. I think it should be required reading, paired with Huckleberry Finn. Belle also says it’s a great audiobook.

How about you, Frog Troublers? Any favorite new reads? Please tell us in the comments!

Also, any ideas for bookstores or libraries (or schools?) you’d like me and Bea to visit? Leave those in the comments too—we’re starting to plan the Plant Pets book tour!

And finally, happy birthday to our awesome Cousin Anne, who always gives the best book recommendations!