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Roberta Baker's Summer Reading List
Roberta Baker was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island, where she learned to swim, play tennis, sail, and navigate the country's first large shopping mall. She has worked in England, Ireland, New York, and New England. Today she lives with her daughter and husband, Jim, who renovates riverfront mills, in a 200-year-old former tavern on a old apple farm they call the Fifty-Acre Wood. Ms. Baker attended Middlebury College and is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a member of the New Hampshire Writers Project, the Vermont sub-local of the National Writers' Union, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She enjoys skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, swimming, yoga, and being a helper for her daughter's Brownie troop.
This summer, to my almost-eight year old daughter, I'm reading aloud:
 HARRIET THE SPY
by Louise Fitzhugh
Yearling Books
ISBN: 0440416795
Ages 10-14
300 pages
This character is timeless, perfect for adventurous little girls. Mine could read about Harriet forever. She likes Harriet's cantankerousness, and the book's comedy and emotion.
TROUBLE IN BUGLAND: A Collection of Inspector Mantis Mysteries
by William Kotzwinkle
illustrated by Joe Servello
David R. Godine
ISBN: 1567920705
Ages 9-12
190 pages
A masterful writer (also enjoy his picture book, The Million Dollar Bear), Kotzinkle takes bugs to new heights in this Sherlock Holmes-style series of adventures of Inspector Mantis and his popcorn-eating sidekick, Doctor Hopper.
 MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH
by Robert C. O'Brien
Pearson
ISBN: 0689710682
Ages 8-12
240 pages
A gentle and compelling fantasy for kids who love animals.
 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
by C.S. Lewis
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0064409422
Ages 9-12
189 pages
I missed out on this classic when I was growing up and really enjoy this and the rest of Lewis'Chronicles of Narnia. I like stories in which good triumphs over evil. Kids find them reassuring. They also like the idea of befriending a giant lion.
 The Story of Dr. Dolittle
by Hugh Lofting
William Morrow & Company
ISBN: 0688140017
Ages 9-12
176 pages
Most of us just remember the movie, or seeing it in video stores. Lofting's prose is smooth and easy to read aloud, and his animal characters are still endearing after 50 years.
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