Every school system requires kids to read during the summer, and most have  free choice options.  Here are our favorites for elementary school kids who can read chapter books...
- Pseudonymous Bosch is my cousin, and his books are huge hits.  When was the last time your children or grandchildren read really funny books, laughed out loud and couldn’t stop reading?  The third in the trilogy is in the works.
- PHARAOH’S BOAT, written and illustrated by David Weitzman, was edited by my friend Kelly Loughman, and I know that the high interest books for kids are dinosaurs and all things Egyptian.  This is a beautiful book about a fascinating aspect of Egyptian history.  The illustrations, too, are superb! 
- The other three are classics and should be part of every child’s cultural literacy!

• THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET by Pseudonymous Bosch
  

  From Booklist: In enormous lettering the first page warns: "Do not read beyond this page!" The reason? The book contains a secret so nefarious as to be dangerous even to innocent page-turners daring enough to venture forth. The first few chapters present a tricky little exercise in metafiction in which the story about a secret is revealed as being itself too secret to tell, a ploy sure to tickle more puzzlesome readers. But then the intrusive narrator, who is equal parts snarky and delightful, strikes a deal and deigns to tell the story with fake names in Your Hometown, as long as you agree to "forget everything you read as soon as you read it." Then follows a not terribly shocking story wherein two intrepid kids uncover a mysterious society bent on immortality, which gets them in and out of all manner of trouble. While some may be disappointed that there is no mind-bending secret at the bottom of it all as promised, most junior Da Vinci Coders will likely be having too much fun to notice. - Chipman, Ian
  BUY THIS BOOK

• IF YOU’RE READING THIS, IT’S TOO LATE  by Pseudonymous Bosch
  

  From Booklist: The adventures of aspiring magician Max-Ernest and survivalist-in-training Cass continue. As with The Name of This Book Is Secret (2007), the author often intrudes on the story to offer dire warnings to the reader that even reading this tale is too dangerous to consider, presumably because of a world-shatteringly nefarious secret and the evil machinations of the two young adventurers’ archnemeses, Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais. It’s a clever ploy that adds a level of heightened drama to the tale, which, underneath all the trappings, has some neat elements (a “Sound Prism,” a cantankerous homunculus) but lacks many true thrills. There are still codes for Max-Ernest and Cass to unravel and secret societies to infiltrate, but the injection of a third main cast member reeks of the old sitcom ploy of throwing in a hip new character in an attempt to make a show fresh. Chapter-opening illustrations add a lighthearted touch to this solid sequel, which is more character-driven than the first, and will hit or miss depending on what readers like more, the people or the puzzles. Grades 4-7. --Ian Chipman
  BUY THIS BOOK

• PHARAOH’S BOAT by David Weitzman
  

  With poetic language and striking illustrations, Weitzman tells the story of how one of the greatest boats of ancient Egypt came to be built—and built again. In the shadow of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the most skilled shipwrights in all of Egypt are building an enormous vessel that will transport Cheops, the mighty pharaoh, across the winding waterway and into a new world. Pharaoh’s boat will be a wonder to behold, and well prepared for the voyage ahead. But no one, not even the Egyptian king himself, could have imagined just where the journey of Pharaoh’s boat would ultimately lead .s.s.
  BUY THIS BOOK

• MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean George
  

  Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going--all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. In a spellbinding, touching, funny account, Sam learns to live off the land, and grows up a little in the process. Blizzards, hunters, loneliness, and fear all battle to drive Sam back to city life. But his desire for freedom, independence, and adventure is stronger. No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons. Jean Craighead George, author of more than 80 children's books, including the Newbery Medal-winning Julie of the Wolves, created another prizewinner with My Side of the Mountain--a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book, and a Hans Christian Andersen Award Honor Book. Astonishingly, she wrote its sequel, On the Far Side of the Mountain, 30 years later, and a decade after that penned the final book in the trilogy, Frightful's Mountain, told from the falcon's point of view. George has no doubt shaped generations of young readers with her outdoor adventures of the mind and spirit. (Ages 9 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
  BUY THIS BOOK

• THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster
  

  "It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," Milo laments. "[T]here's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." This bored, bored young protagonist who can't see the point to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull.

  Norton Juster received (and continues to receive) enormous praise for this original, witty, and oftentimes hilarious novel, first published in 1961. In an introductory "Appreciation" written by Maurice Sendak for the 35th anniversary edition, he states, "The Phantom Tollbooth leaps, soars, and abounds in right notes all over the place, as any proper masterpiece must." Indeed.

  As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be"), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or Alice in Wonderland-style adventure will adore this book for years on end. (Ages 8 and up)
  BUY THIS BOOK

• FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsburg
  

  After reading this book, I guarantee that you will never visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or any wonderful, old cavern of a museum) without sneaking into the bathrooms to look for Claudia and her brother Jamie. They're standing on the toilets, still, hiding until the museum closes and their adventure begins. Such is the impact of timeless novels . . . they never leave us. E. L. Konigsburg won the 1967 Newbery Medal for this tale of how Claudia and her brother run away to the museum in order to teach their parents a lesson. Little do they know that mystery awaits!
  BUY THIS BOOK