What does Capability Mom do all day? She reads, of course. When she is not unstopping the bathroom sink or walking the dog or making dinner or folding laundry or buying groceries or cleaning or paying attention to her blog or her family. I did all of these things today and posted on social media (okay, it was a really, really short post) at CoffeeShopBloggers.

Pragmatic Mom is an amazingly energetic and productive person (and she is sweet and funny, too) who gets more done in a day than I get done in a week. Seriously. She may not even sleep or maybe she does and is just so super bright and efficient… never mind. I grow weary of this hapless comparison. Go to Pragmatic Mom’s site and read her post that I helped out with…

Top 10: Books for Summer Reading (Middle School)

A HUGE thank you to Capability:Mom for creating this list.  She knows Middle School children’s literature much better than I do — my oldest is 10-years-old so I’m slowly getting there.  She also blogs on children’s literature but skews a little older towards YA (Young Adult) as well as on cooking/baking and other topics of interest.  She is a library freak and volunteers at every library in town including both elementary, middle school and public library.  Needless to say, I picked an authority on the topic and am excited to read these books myself!  Thank you Capability:Mom!  Check out her blog for more books as well the Rainbow Cake saga…

p.s.  Don’t forget that if your child reads 10 books and fills out a form at Borders, she or he can get one book free from their list of 10.  And there are some great books for middle schoolers on their list!

To purchase any book on this list, please click on image of the book.

10. Heartbeat by Sharon Creech

9. The Giver by Lois Lowry

8. Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech

7. Bud, Not Buddy by Paul Curtis

6. Holes by Louis Sachar

5. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia) by C. S. Lewis

4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Hugo is almost a book within a book.  The book IS actually mostly illustrations (284!) , and the illustrations tell their own story.  I call The Invention of Hugo Cabret a children’s literature version of The Phantom of the Opera.  They are both set in Paris; Hugo is set around 1931.  They both sneak around in hidden canals and passageways that they know like that back of their hand.  And They both have deep, dark secrets from the past.  ( I posted on this book previously…)

3. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

2. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

1. The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg

Honorable Mention

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

15-year-old Eragon, a farm boy, hatches a dragon and learns that he is the last of the Dragon Riders and must battle evil.