Summertime...and the reading is easy

Bees buzz, birds sing, and children roll in the grass and feel the heat of the summer sun. Illustrations and easy-to-read text introduce the colors, songs, and activities of summer.

In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.

Thirteen-year-old Socko and his mother leave their cramped, unsafe inner city apartment and move to a house in a new suburban development where they plan to care for Socko's crotchety great-grandfather, but when they arrive they discover that the rest of the homes are unfinished, they are the only residents of Moon Ridge Estates, and that trouble has followed them.

A little boy writes a letter to his grandfather about all the reading and studying he is doing this summer--but all his activities revolve around ice cream.

An African American boy enjoys a summer day on his family's farm, milking the cows, fishing, and having fun.

Thirteen-year-old Mary Beth Mullet and her twin brother, Johnny, discover that someone has been spending time in the old barn Mary Beth escapes to when she needs time to herself.

Told from three viewpoints, a brisk historical tale follows the experiences of two sisters who discover an abandoned baby on the library steps, while their estranged friend, racing to complete an important errand for his World War II soldier brother, jumps to the wrong conclusion.