Summer at Camp Mimi: Me, Toma, and the Concrete Garden by Andrew Larson

I'm staying with Mimi for most of the summer. My mom had an operation. She has to take it easy for a while.

Most everything is pretty gray around here. It doesn't look like much of a summer.

But Aunt Mimi is nice. She lets him pick the paint to make the spare room into his own space. But there are just gray apartments all around and a fenced-in concrete space below with some cast-off bike parts. And there's a box of dirt balls on Mimi's balcony.

Kind of weird, if you ask me. "Why do you have dirt balls out here?"

"They were from a secret admirer," Mimi says with a twinkle in her eye.

"Are you sure this person likes you?" I asked."They gave you a box of dirt!"

We both burst out laughing.

But when the boy spots a kid bouncing his ball against the wall of the lot, he grabs a bunch of dirt balls and heads downstairs to ask the boy if he wants to help toss the dirt balls over the fence, adding that his aunt will pay to get rid of them. The boy's name is Toma, and soon the two are busy tossing dirt balls and bouncing Toma's ball. Aunt Mimi rewards their efforts with money for treats from the ice cream truck. Soon the two meet each day to toss dirt balls and play.

One day a grumpy old neighbor man shouts at them for throwing things into the fenced area.

"Dirt balls!" I said.

"We're actually recycling them!" says Toma.

And while the boys' friendship grows, all kinds of flowers begin to sprout from their balls of dirt. Soon the other neighbors notice that inside the fence, a garden of blooming things is growing. Mr. Grumpypants brings out a hose to water the flowers, and noticing the difference, people begin toclean out the junk inside the fence. Suddenly the drab grayish space becomes a butterfly garden. People come to plant little garden patches and neighborhood kids come to play on the grass that grows there.

It's a pretty good summer after all at Aunt Mimi's, in Andrew Larson's Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden (Kids Can Press, 2019). Sometimes friendships just grow naturally from shared experiences, and Larson's gentle narration and artist Ann Villanueve's ink-and-watercolor illustrations portray the development of friendship and a bit of a community that grow from an unlikely gift. Says Booklist's starred review, "... a heartwarming story of serendipity and connection, both among people and with the environment."

A Different Drummer! Judy Moody and the Bucket List by Megan McDonald

Sunflower seeds. Sharpie. Superglue. She, Judy Moody, was pawing through Grandma Lou's purse. Her bag was like a treasure chest.

Looking for a pack of cards for a game of Go Fish, Judy spots a piece of paper sticking out of an inside pocket in Grandma's purse.

It was a list. But not a boring old shopping list. Grandma Lou's list said Bucket List.

This list has things like Ride An Elephant, Dance the Rhumba, and Sleep in a Castle. Grandma Lou tells her that that's a list of things she wants to do before she kicks the bucket. Grandma Lou assures Judy that she's going to live a long time, but still has things she want to do. Hmmm! Judy has lots and lots of things she wants to do before fourth grade, and she's on it, creating her own Bucket List.

Visiting Antarctica is high on her list, but Stink points out that it'll cost at least a thousand dollars to get there, and after a day scooping dog poop from Mrs. Soso's yard. Judy Moody, Super Pooper Scooper is on the job, but when she get paid a measly 50 cents, Judy realizes that at this rate Antarctica is going to be on her bucket list until she's Grandma Lou's age.

Turning a Cartwheel seems more do-able, but Judy just falls on her face.

Turning a cartwheel was a B.L.B--a Bucket List Bummer!

But Riding a Horse turns out to be easy-peasy. Grandma Lou invites Judy and Stink to have a Western riding lesson at the Majestic Dude Ranch. Stink's hinny (half horse, half donkey) Tamale trots like a tornado, while Judy's horse Tumbleweed is more of a Stumbleweed, shuffling along and stopping to rest every ten feet, and Judy has to fork over a chunk of her Antarctica Fund to Stink to trade mounts with her, but her ride on Tamale doesn't disappoint.

Buoyed by success, Judy visits the band room at her school with Stink to find something to satisfy her next wish, Learn a Musical Instrument. But the flute squeaks, the sax squawks, and the tuba moos, and she, Judy herself, is getting moo-dy until she picks up the drumsticks and beats out a jazzy ba-da-bum, ba-da, bum-bum-bum, and she's found her passion!

"You're a drummer!" said Mr. McNulty.

Then Judy tackles a biggy on her bucket list: Face a Fear. Stink dares her to face her fear of Grandma Lou's attic spook, Otis!

"There he is!" shouts Stink, pointing to a shapeless white lump.

There in the darkest corner huddled Otis! "Face my fear, Face my fear!" Judy whispered to herself.

And Otis was a dusty old sheet covering something lumpy and bumpy. Judy yanked off the sheet. The lumpy bump was not Otis. It was not a ghost. It was a glittery, shiny, silvery... drum kit!

"The ghost is Dad's old drum set?" cried Stink.

Judy Moody beats the bucket list challenge in Megan McDonald's thirteenth in series beginning chapter book, Judy Moody and the Bucket List (Candlewick Press). With Peter H. Reynolds' inimitable black and white cartoons, Judy is marching to a different drummer, with her own hand-me-down drum kit, with a wish-fulfilling season ahead. McDonald knows how to write for young elementary readers, with comic characters and plenty of family-centered humor that will have young novel readers marching to a different drummer right to the library to read more Judy Moody books. Says School Library Journal, "This latest installment has the heart and humor that readers have come to expect from Judy.

Solstice Time! Summer Colors by Diana Murray

Mama serves lemonade.

Daddy and Uncle bring chairs from the shade.

It's the lazy, hazy days of summer for the grownups.

But the summer colors of the flowers and fields run riot, and so do the vacationing kids. It's summer and they mean to make the most of it. Even a threatening cloudburst doesn't inhibit the joy of the two kids who own the landscape. Summer's lease has too short a stay, and they don't need Shakespeare to tell them that.

In Diana Murray's joyful Summer Color! (Little, Brown and Company, 2018), the kids hit the ground running and see it all--grazing deer, egrets taking flight, frogs hopping into the creek, and a water snake slithering silently through the water. Then the sky darkens and down come the showers, leaving behind a rising mist--and a rainbow to spot as they race to shelter on the porch.

There are no delicate watercolor scenes here. Artist Zoe Persico's landscapes pop with supersaturated hues. The deep greens of the trees and the bright, bright colors of the flowers fill the pages with the showy shades of high summer. And a good time is had by all.

"A chipper frolic through nature's colorful palette," says Kirkus Reviews.