I am not on Carole’s official list of participants in the Ten on Tuesday party, but since this week’s topic took a literary bent, I’m gate crashing:

10 Books on Your Summer Reading List*

1. Matilda by Roald Dahl — Other people my age were fed a steady diet of Dahl growing up, but he wasn’t part of our household canon. Plus the main character really likes to read, judging by the cover.
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum — I’ve read two of the later Oz books (and a more modern adaptation), but never the original.
3. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall — A book about summer vacation. I’m hoping for something Eageresque. (These first three are part of getting caught up on the Top 100 Children’s Books from the School Library Journal.)
4. Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright — Karen rightly pointed out that you can’t very well get caught up on the 100 best kids’ books without re-reading a few favorites. This is another great summer read.
5. At Home by Bill Bryson — This was on my list as soon as I heard he had a new book coming out (and has catapulted toward the top now that I have my hands on an ARC (advanced reader copy). He’s my favorite non-fiction author.
6. Greenwitch by Susan Cooper — The next installment in the Dark Is Rising series. (Yes, I know in a year when people are eagerly waiting for new books to come out in favorite series that it’s funny that the sequel I’m most excited about was published the year I was born.)
7. Sun in the Morning by M.M. Kaye — One of Karen’s recommendations (which are nearly always good) and one of the books I’m reading for the Nonfiction Five challenge this summer
8. The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes by Idan Ben-Barak — Another one of the nonfiction summer reads. I started this back in February as a work assignment but it actually seemed interesting!
9. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link — Already in my Goodreads queue, this got bumped up when it was recommended based on the previous five books I’d read.
10. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver — I bought this last winter when I heard her read from it just after it was published. It’s been sitting next to the computer waiting for me to feel epically inclined. Hopefully soon!

What’s on your summer reading list?

*This is all non-binding, of course.

Queen Zixi of Ix; or The Story of the Magic Cloak, by L. Frank Baum

From the jacket: “When the renowned author of the wonderful Oz stories surpasses himself with a full-blown fairy tale, complete with magic wishes, palace life, an evil hag, and a poor boy and girl, we know we are in for something exceptional in story-telling.”

My take: In this lesser known tale by L. Frank Baum, the good fairy queen Lulea and her band of fairies decide to alleviate her boredom with dancing by creating a magical wishing cloak that will grant each wearer a single wish unless they have come by the garment in an underhanded means. The Man in the Moon suggests they give to the first unhappy person they encounter. After all, he points out, “The happy mortals have no need of magic cloaks.”

They dispense the cloak by messenger to the land of Noland, where the king has just died without an heir. After several days of hand-wringing by his cabinet, they remember eventually that they had a book of laws to refer to for occasions just such as these. The book decrees that the 47th person to enter the capital city’s eastern gate at dawn shall be declared ruler of the kingdom.

Approaching the city of Nole are three miserable travellers: the newly orphaned Margaret (known to all as Fluff) and Timothy (called Bud) and their stern guardian, Aunt Rivette. Bud and his aunt butt heads constantly, leaving Fluff in an endless stream of tears.

These three events conspire to land Bud on the throne of the land and Fluff in a more cheerful state of mind. They are whisked off to the castle, where they live happily for a good while, enjoying the periodic and accidental dispensing of odd wishes — from wings to a talking dog — to various people who unknowingly come into contact with the cloak.

It is not a perfect life in Noland, though, for there are enemies gathered outside the boundaries of the land. Queen Zixi of the adjoining Ix was not on speaking terms with her neighbors. A 683-year-old enchantress who had found a way to appear eternally youthful, she immediately coveted the magic cloak when she heard tell of its existence. She yearns to use it to turn the wrinkled visage she sees in the mirror to the same outward beauty her subjects see. And she’s not above using both trickery and force to try to get her hands on it.

Along another border, the Roly-Rogues, a quarrelsome, ball-shaped, bouncy people, have discovered the existence of the Nolanders and seek to invade and take over the land and its people.

Will the cloak be able to save them? Or will its wishes be squandered by foolish mortals?

This fairy tale is sweet and would make a good read-aloud bedtime book for families. And apparently Baum also created a silent film version of the story, which is available on dvd.

Pages: 231

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

The Necromancer, by Michael Scott

From the jacket: “Josh and Sophie Newman are finally home. And they’re both more confused than ever about their future. Neither of them has mastered the magics they’ll need to protect themselves, they’ve lost Scatty, and they’re still being pursued by Dr. John Dee. Most disturbing of all, however, is that now they must ask themselves, can they trust Nicholas Flamel? Can they trust anyone?”

My take: Taking up where The Sorceress left off, the Newman twins and the Flamels have returned to San Francisco. They haven’t even made it in the house, though, when Sophie is kidnapped by their friend Scatty’s less upright twin sister, Aoife. In order to reclaim his sister, Josh must put aside his misgivings about the Flamels and unite at least temporarily with the rapidly aging couple. And they must somehow do this quietly, as Macchiavelli and Billy the Kid have returned to Alcatraz to unleash the monsters and John Dee, now branded an outlaw with a Gods-given price on his head, has united with fellow immortal Virginia Dare to also reach San Francisco. There they hope to find a way to rule the world themselves by reanimating a hideous monster from the past. And on another plane in another time, Scatty, Joan, Saint-Germain, Will, and Palamedes have all been reunited with a hook-handed, hooded man who has a different mission for them.

In fantasy series, the middle book is always supposed to be where things really start going downhill and where the tone becomes much darker, and this tome does not vary from the standard fantasy format. Unfortunately, I also worry this is the book in the series where the ambition has not lived up to execution. Because there are now four distinct storylines, the story occasionally feels a bit disjointed and I, at least, never felt like I was getting enough of one thread before being whisked off to the next. The book is still good (just less good than some of the earlier books), and I’m eager to read what happens in the next installment.

Pages: 403

This is one of the books I read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Dystopian fiction: Fantasy? Science Fiction? Neither?

So, I meant to post my Ten on Tuesday yesterday — y’know, when it was Tuesday. But life got in the way both yesterday and earlier today and now is when I find myself with the time to sit down and respond to this week’s topic:

10 Favorite Children’s Books

I tried to come up with picture book-type books, but I had a hard time recalling too many, so I morphed over to chapter books. Some of those may border more on the YA classification, but it’s a fuzzy boundary anyway.

1. Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss (Most important book I’ve ever read.)
2. The Please and Thank You Book by Richard Scarry (Richard Scarry is so good he can even make mannerly lessons fun.)
3. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (My high school French teacher first read this to us when we were seniors, and I hope someday to track down a copy in French to read to myself at the holidays.)
4. Snow White and Rose Red by the Grimm Brothers (I remember borrowing this several times from the library at my elementary school.)
5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (When our public library was about to be dedicated, the children’s librarian came to our elementary school and read this to us.)
6. The Trixie Belden series by Kathryn Kenny (It was actually a great relief to me to discover that these books, like Nancy Drew or the more recent Warriors series, are written by a publishing collective. I loved a great many of these (particularly the first ten or so), but periodically come across a dud, like the one I bought last year. Anyway, Nancy might have had the budding adult independence, the handsome college quarterback boyfriend, and the convertible, but Trixie was more instantly relatable with chores and schoolwork and annoying brothers. Plus, she had a clubhouse and the rest of the Bob-White Gang.)
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Still one of my favorite books of all time. Who didn’t want to be Jo?)
8. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Ditto. Plus Anne holds up so much better in her sequels than Jo did in hers.)
9. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (This book has to rival Little Women for being the most frequently re-read book in my life.)
10. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (Meg, Charles Wallace, the witches… The concept of tesserecting. Physics. Honestly, this book is what gives me any hope for science.)

Wow! I thought that would be so much easier than it was. I had to leave out so many favorites — The Little House books, Heidi, The Secret Garden, Eight Cousins, Ballet Shoes, the Lord of the Rings trilogy…

I also remember liking a series of picture books my brother was fond of, but which I can’t remember any title or author details. But it’s about a little old man and a little old woman who get married. And in another book they drive their old-fashioned car in a rally of sorts. (I could be muddling the details. They might not be in the same series, but I believe are by the same author/illustrator. Ringing any bells for people? Dad?

Finally, leave your own list in the comments. I still read kiddie lit with alarming regularity and would love to check out what’s been important to you.

I have decided to sign up for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge for the third year in a row. I have finished each of the previous two years’ challenge exactly zero times.

Here’s going either for a win or a third strike. Let’s hope for the former.

The challenge:

Read 5 non-fiction books during the months of May – September, 2010. At least one [should be] different from your other choices (i.e.: 4 memoirs and 1 self-help).

The five I currently aspire to read:

1. Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating: How to Choose the Best Bread, Cheeses, Olive Oil, Pasta, Chocolate, and Much More (because Kelle’s tea package reminded we owned a book by the owner of Zingerman’s and who doesn’t want to know these things?)
2. The Geography of Bliss (because I’ve failed to read it both other times)
3. The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes (because it’s a science book that actually seems like fun)
4. Sun in the Morning (because Karen gave this to me two Christmases ago and I can’t understand why I still haven’t read it yet)
5. The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Olive Oil in the South of France (because it was sitting by my bedside too long and is now on the floor next to my desk, because I enjoyed the author in All Creatures Great and Small, and because I love Peter Mayle-type stories)

Things could change. Life is too short to be dictated by a list written from lack of blog fodder.