2024 ELEMENTARY SUMMER READING

Summertime will be here before we know it and once again, we are delighted to be sending children home with one book to add to their personal libraries. This year, children will get to choose between two books that have been carefully selected by our teachers. We encourage you to review these selections with your child. We have included the titles with a brief synopsis of the book. Children will be giving their classroom teacher their selection in the upcoming weeks so that the books may be ordered in time for summer. Although we are only sending students home with one book, we want students to realize that readers read many books for enjoyment. We will also continue our Summer Reading and Math website to support parents/guardians and students. This website can soon be accessed by a link under FOR PARENTS on our DPS website (www.dartmouth.school). On this website parents can find all the Summer Reading Information (for all levels) Summer Reading Bingo Boards, Suggested Book Titles and Math Bingo Boards. Students can find these books in their local libraries. Thank you for your continued support in making reading exciting for our students.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Dartmouth Public Schools PTOs for their contribution towards providing each child a FREE book for summer reading! Each school will be having a Summer Reading Kickoff Celebration. We will be recommending some of our favorite books to each other! Students will be given the book they choose to bring home and read!

Pete the Cat is one groovy cat at finding shells and building sand castles at the beach. But when it gets too hot, there's only one way to cool off—jump into the ocean! Except Pete might be a scaredy-cat when it comes to the water.

The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster is a 2022 children's book written and illustrated by Mo Willems. It is about a pigeon who experiences a loop-de-loop of emotions before his first roller coaster ride.

Frog and Toad are Friends tells the story of two friends of different personalities and the adventures they get into. Each story explains how the friends view the situations they find themselves in and uses humor to help children understand how to accept the different personalities of others.

Cam Jansen can find a mystery anywhere, even in the school lunch room! When Jason opens his lunch box and finds only cookie crumbs, Cam's amazing memory clicks into action.

Every morning, Judy Moody measures Stink and it's always the same: three feet, eight inches tall. Stink feels like even the class newt is growing faster than he is. Then, one day, the ruler reads — can it be? — three feet, seven and three quarters inches! Is Stink shrinking? He tries everything to look like he’s growing, but wearing up-and-down stripes and spiking his hair aren't fooling anyone into thinking he's taller. If only he could ask James Madison — Stink's hero, and the shortest person ever to serve as President of the United States.

Lola loves writing in her diario and playing soccer with her team, the Orange Smoothies. But when a soccer game during recess gets "too competitive," Lola accidentally hurts her classmate Juan Gomez. Now everyone is calling her Mean Lola Levine! Lola feels horrible, but with the help of her family and her super best friend Josh Blot, she learns how to navigate the second-grade in true Lola fashion--with humor and the power of words. (In the first book of this series, Lola's big heart and creative spirit will ring true to young readers.)

In Chinese, peng you means friend. But in any language, all Anna knows for certain is that friendship is complicated. When Anna needs company, she turns to her books. Whether traveling through A Wrinkle in Time, or peering over My Side of the Mountain, books provide what real life cannot—constant companionship and insight into her changing world. Books, however, can’t tell Anna how to find a true friend. She’ll have to discover that on her own.

Jake Drake is excited about Despres Elementary School's first science fair. He wants to win the grand prize: a brand-new Hyper-Cross-Functional Bluntium Twelve computer system. And he really wants to beat the third-grade know-it-alls, Marsha McCall and Kevin Young. The trouble is, to beat the know-it-alls, Jake has to become a know-it-all himself. And he may just lose more than he wins.

Eleven-year old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the

Pointed end of a slice of pie And wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems

unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she really needs at all.

Can a robot survive in the wilderness? When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is—but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants. As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home—until, one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her.

Chase's memory just went out the window. Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof. He doesn't remember hitting his head. He doesn't, in fact, remember anything. he wakes up in a hospital room and suddenly has to learn his whole life all over again...starting with his own name.

The national organization, Reading is Fundamental (RIF), states, “Experts agree: Children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not often experience learning losses.”