“Vintage” inspiration for summer reading

I was a huge bookworm as a kid, to the extent that my mom had to all but force me outside by the pool during the summer (I can’t remember why I didn’t want to read by the pool; I think the sun was in my eyes or something). 

To my chagrin, it’s always a bit of a struggle to get my kids to hit their summer reading goals. We go to the library, we hit the book section at Ollie’s, we try everything to find books they’ll enjoy.

But sometimes, all we have to do is look at the collection of books from my childhood. Some of those are from my mom’s childhood – I cut my teeth on her old Bobbsey Twins collection, for example. Some of the series I used to read have popped up on GenX nostalgia pages lately, so I thought I’d share a little look at the past. Admittedly, these are mostly female protagonists, but I think boys can enjoy some of them as well.

Annabelle, my 9-year-old, has delved into the Betsy-Tacy Treasury, the first four books of the classic series by Maud Hart Lovelace, in one. This is essentially historical fiction, set in the fictional town of Deep Valley, Minnesota, at the start of the 20th century – but the books were written from the stories Maud told her daughter of her family and friends and growing up, so are almost autobiographical. 

Spoiler alert/content warning: there is a death very early on in the first book, which has made Annabelle sad, but just after, there is a lovely chapter that can help children understand how to help a friend who is grieving.

I think the Treasury is a great read for younger readers and the latter part of the series, starting with “Heaven to Betsy,” can be interesting for middle- through high-school readers. I can also tell you that a lot of the pre-WWI European history knowledge I learned from “Betsy and the Great World” popped up later in AP European History class, so consider that a bonus.

You always hear about Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, but if you like old-school teenagers solving mysteries, might I suggest Trixie Belden? This was another series handed down to me by my mom, but to this day, I yearn to discover a secret passage, like Trixie and her friends did in “The Mystery of the Emeralds.” Trixie and her best friend, Honey, are 13 in the series, and the rest of their crew ranges from ages 14 through 16, but I think it’s an easy read for upper elementary and beyond.

And one more series is The Cheerleaders, a late-1980s Scholastic series with multiple authors. I got two of the books from the book fair in middle school and later bought the whole series off eBay so I could find out what happened. The team is always made up of four girls and two boys, and you do get a good bit of the boys’ points of view. In addition to some, let’s say interesting, descriptions of their cheers and stunts, there’s the everyday intrigue of academic struggles, dating and sometimes mysteries, usually revolving around the token villain/mean girl. There are passing mentions of sex, a few kidnappings and the death of a classmate in a mountain-climbing accident, as well as the subsequent grief of his girlfriend and friends.

Are all of these suggestions a bit of a time capsule? Definitely. But they can broaden our young readers’ horizons a bit, or if nothing else, give them a bit of a chuckle.

Did you read any of these books? If you have any other reading suggestions – “vintage” or otherwise – I’d love to hear them!