By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
As summer approaches, we shed warm outer layers, along with the stress of potential snow and sleet and cold, dark days. We seem to breathe into the relaxation the upcoming season promises. And what better way to relax than with a good book?
Whether you are a reader by nature or not, summer always offers the temptation of lounging on the beach or poolside, immersed in the pages of a novel. Long, leisurely days present the perfect excuse for digging into a recent release or that classic you haven’t perused since high school.
While adults may look forward to reading more in the summer, school breaks are looming, which means kids may be doing the opposite – reading less, something most experts discourage.
“Summer reading is so important to children because they are truly fostering their love of reading – and the library – while creating lifelong reading habits,” explained Marissa Hall, the youth services manager at Middletown Township Public Library (MTPL).
To encourage kids to continue checking out books and reading during the school break, the library develops a summer reading theme. This year’s is “Color our World.” While it can be interpreted as art-related, Hall said, it is also a metaphor for how reading can influence someone’s life. “When children come into the library and pick up a book, they start to learn about a new world or story that can enrich – or color – their lives.”
“Our goal in the children’s department is to help create lifelong readers,” Hall said. “Creating fun, engaging programming that ties in with reading helps to foster this.”
In the children and teen areas, librarians will also have copies of the books on local schools’ required summer reading lists and they are always available to make recommendations.
Adults can benefit from summer reading, too. A study published in Social Science & Medicine in 2016 showed reading books doesn’t just take your mind off everyday worries for a little while, it can actually help you live longer. Reading promotes cognitive engagement, which increases vocabulary, reasoning, concentration and critical thinking skills. It encourages “empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence,… cognitive processes that can lead to greater survival,” according to the study.
If you don’t love lying in the hot sun with a book or just don’t have the time to read, why not try listening to an audiobook? No, it’s not “cheating.” One small study published in Sage Journals showed that participants “recalled similar amounts of information, regardless of whether they listened to an audiobook, read on an electronic tablet, or listened and read simultaneously.” So, download a book, stick in those earbuds and listen away while you fold laundry or work in the garden.
However you choose to do it, the message is clear: Summer is for reading!
Middletown Township Public Library Librarian Book
Recommendations
Juvenile Books
Read Aloud Books
“Beautiful Butterflies” by Margarida Esteves
“Never Touch” series by Rosie Greening
Early Readers
“Bugs at the Beach” by David A. Carter
“The Cool Bean Makes a Splash” by Jory John
Chapter Books (for Early Readers)
“Poppleton In Summer” by Cynthia Rylant
“The Princess in Black” series by Shannon Hale
Tween Books
“Stick Dog” series by Tom Watson
“I Survived: The Shark Attacks of 1916” by Lauren Tarshis
Young Adult/Teen Books
“Primer: A Superhero Graphic Novel” by Jennifer Muro & Thomas Krajewski
“Slip” by Marika McCoola & Aatmaja Pandya
“Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid” by Ngozi Ukazu
“The Art of Insanity” by Christine Webb
“Wings in the Wild” by Margarita Engle
“The Art Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained” by Caroline Bugler, et al.
Adult Fiction
“The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune
“Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt
“How to Solve Your Own Murder” by Kristen Perrin
(and the recently released follow-up “How to Seal Your Own Fate”)
“The Night Watchman” by Louise Erdrich
Adult Nonfiction
“All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” by Patrick Bringley
“Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy
“The Art of Winning” by Bill Belichick
“The Radium Girls” by Kate Moore
“The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert
“The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures” by Paul Fischer
“What I Ate in One Year” by Stanley Tucci
Classic Pairings
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain/“James” by Percival Evans
“David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens/
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
“Sherlock Holmes” books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/
“Sherlock” TV series
“Murder at the Vicarage” by Agatha Christie/
”Crooked House” 2017 movie
New Releases
“Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow
“The Road to Tender Hearts” by Annie Harnett
“Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry
“The Knight of the Moth” by Rachel Gillig
“Detective Aunty” by Uzma Jalaluddin
Beach Reads
“One Golden Summer” by Carly Fortune
“Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds” by Allison Brennan
“Variation” by Rebecca Yarros
“The Whole Truth” by David Baldacci
“Can’t Get Enough” by Kennedy Ryan
Coming Soon
“Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” by V.E. Schwab (June 2025)
“Finders Keepers” by Sarah Adler (June 2025)
“Death of an Ex: A Vandy Myrick Mystery” by Delia Pitts (July 2025)
“Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue” by Spencer Quinn (July 2025)
“The Hounding” by Xenobe Purvis (August 2025)
“Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang (August 2025)
The article originally appeared in the March 15 – 21, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
