This year’s Newbery Honor book is a collection of stories about a very different kind of grandmother. Each August from 1929 through 1935, Joey and Mary Alice leave Chicago to spend a week with Grandma Dowdel in rural Illinois. The life and people there, especially Grandma, are very different from anything or anyone the children encounter in the big city. In seven funny stories, one for each summer, Grandma comes across as a tall-tale hero, surprising Joey and Mary Alice with her antics.

“Across water so quiet it becomes part of the sky, the canoe slides in green magic without a ripple.” Even readers who have never been in a canoe or visited a lake will paddle along with Paulsen as he describes a day on the water. The spare text makes a perfect read-aloud, so don’t be surprised if listeners fall under Paulsen’s spell. After all, any noise might frighten the fawn at the lake’s edge or the sunfish darting below its surface.

Not a word is wasted or out of place in this description of how the residents of one city block react to a quenching cloudburst after weeks without rain. Tess laments she’s “sizzling like a hot potato,” but spots gray clouds gathering in the distance. She alerts her friends and quickly the girls change into their bathing suits and dash out to greet the long-awaited downpour.

Eight-year-old Maxine doesn’t create a world, but gets a glimpse of her own from a new perspective–she blasts into space. Despite extensive training, she’s unprepared for the awe-inspiring moment when she sees the Earth from her capsule. As Max gazes on the planet, she observes that, unlike maps, “The Earth has no lines to divide it into states and countries . . . . It’s just one Earth.”

Grandma is coming for a very special visit! Peek under the big, easy-to-lift flaps to see all of Grandma’s surprises!

A young city boy is sent to spend the summer on his aunt and uncle’s farm. Though he has lived many places over the years, he has never experienced anything like farm life . . . and he has never met anyone like Harris, his daredevil of a cousin. If the two of them can survive wrestling three-hundred-pound pigs and mouse-hunting with toothless old Louie’s fire-spitting pet lynx–which, unlike his master, has plenty of teeth–they just might make it through the summer!

Rhythm, rhyme, and humor add zest to this tale of a young naturalist who sets out in search of frogs. As he explores the bay, he never finds a single frog, but delights in other animals. Alert readers will not only spy the heron, turtle, dragonfly, and other creatures the boy describes, but also the playful frogs that elude him.

Little Critter and his grandmother spend the day at the beach in this funny-and-true picture book about Mercer Mayer’s popular character. Little Critter is a good helper, even at the beach. When his grandmother’s hot dog falls in the sand, he washes it off in the ocean. He promises to blow up the inflatable seahorse but needs a little help in the end. The joys and mishaps of a special summer day with Grandma are all brightened by Little Critter’s sunny disposition.

One day I was 12 years old and broke. Then Grandma gave me Grandpa’s old riding lawnmower. I set out to mow some lawns. More people wanted me to mow their lawns. And more and more. . . . One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about “the beauty of capitalism. Supply and Demand. Diversify labor. Distribute the wealth.” “Wealth?” I said. “It’s groovy, man,” said Arnold. If I’d known what was coming, I might have climbed on my mower and putted all the way home …

When May dies suddenly while gardening, Summer assumes she’ll never see her beloved aunt again. But then Summer’s Uncle Ob claims that May is on her way back–she has sent a sign from the spirit world.Summer isn’t sure she believes in the spirit world, but her quirky classmate Cletus Underwood–who befriends Ob during his time of mourning–does. So at Cletus’ suggestion, Ob and Summer (with Cletus in tow) set off in search of Miriam B. Young, Small Medium at Large, whom they hope will explain May’s departure and confirm her …