Cool Reads for Hot Days

Hot enough for ya?
It's so hot, the cactus are melting.
It's so hot, the lizards are walking on stilts.
It's so hot, you might as well stay inside and read some books set in cold places.

For teens:

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

A troubled fourteen-year-old is taken to Antarctica by a man she thinks of as her uncle. She believes this is a vacation but then she discovers that he’s obsessed with seeking Symme's Hole, an opening that supposedly leads into the center of the Earth.

  

Frozen by Mary Casanova

When Sadie Rose was five, she was found nearly frozen in the snow, her prostitute mother dead nearby. Now sixteen, she remains unable to speak. After discovering some risqué pictures of her mother, her voice slowly returns and she is determined to learn more about her mother and the events that led to her violent death. Set in 1920 in northern Minnesota along the Canadian border.

 Towering by Alexandra Flinn

A retelling of the folktale, “Rapunzel.” Set in upstate New York where it is always winter, a teenaged girl is locked in a tower and a teen boy is the only one who can hear her voice in the frozen forest.

For middle grade kids:

Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen

This is a revised ending to Paulsen’s award-winning survival book, Hatchet. In this story, Brian is not rescued, but must build on his survival skills to face his deadliest enemy--a northern winter.

Peril at Granite Peak: A Hardy Boys Adventure by Franklin W. Dixon (really by an un-credited modern author)

Winter break at a ski resort is full of danger for Frank and Joe Hardy when they are trapped by a blizzard. A series of deadly mishaps threatens to sabotage the resort.

Ice Whale by Jean Craighead George 

Told in alternating voices of human and whale, this is the story of how a young Alaskan boy must break the curse of banishment that has bonded his family to the great whale Siku.

The Dogs of Winter by Bobbie Pyron

When Ivan's mother disappears, he's abandoned on the streets of Moscow with little chance to make it through the harsh winter. But help comes when Ivan is adopted by a pack of dogs and the dogs quickly become more than just his street companions.

For young kids:

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

A picture book of how animals survive in the winter.

Snow Dog, Go Dog by Deborah Heiligman

A fun rhyming picture book about Tinka, a golden retriever, having fun in the snow.

Way Up in the Arctic by Jennifer Ward

A fun counting book about animals living in the Arctic and set to the tune of the song “Over in the Meadow.”

Snowflake Bentley by  Jacquline Briggs Martin

A nonfiction book about a photographer who took thousands of amazing photos of snowflakes.

ENJOY!