Summers to remember

The holidays are here and we're celebrating with this list of our favourite books about unforgettable summers. From love stories to dark comedy, these are all tales of memorable and life-changing summer adventures.

Swim the Fly

by Don Calame

Templar Publishing

Matt, Coop and Sean have been friends forever. Each summer, they set themselves a goal, and this year tops the lot - they must see a real live naked girl.

Read about 'Swim the Fly'
Drive By

by Jim Carrington

Bloomsbury

Death, family fall-outs, spiritualism, ghosts, sibling relationships, young love and murder all feature in this engaging page-turner.

Read about 'Drive By'
Dear Dylan

by Siobhan Curham

Electric Monkey

A tender-hearted and funny teenage novel about the power of even the most unlikely friendships, with a wonderfully effervescent and likable heroine, Dear Dylan was a deserving winner of the 2010 Young Minds Book Award.

Read about 'Dear Dylan'
A Gathering Light

by Jennifer Donnelly

Bloomsbury Children's Books

Mattie is entrusted by a female guest at the hotel where she works with some letters and instructed to burn them. The next day the woman is found drowned: murdered.

Read about 'A Gathering Light'
Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

Corgi Yearling

In a small town populated by larger-than-life characters, truth meets fantasy as this hilarious, semi-autobiographical novel charts the progress of Jack’s summer

Read about 'Dead End in Norvelt'
Everybody Jam

by Ali Lewis

Andersen Press

Set during a long, hot summer, this is an unflinching look at life on a cattle station in the Australian outback as a family tries to come to terms with the death of their oldest son in a horrific accident.

Read about 'Everybody Jam'
How I Live Now

by Meg Rosoff

Penguin

15-year-old New Yorker, Daisy, is sent to England to spend a summer with her unconventional cousins: Isaac, Edmond, Osbert and Piper - plus their two dogs and a goat in a rambling English country house. So far so perfect, but...

Read about 'How I Live Now'
White Crow

by Marcus Sedgwick

Orion

City girl Rebecca, spending the summer in a remote East Anglian seaside village, encounters Ferelith, a Goth who lives in a commune.

Read about 'White Crow'
I Capture the Castle

by Dodie Smith

Red Fox

17-year-old Cassandra lives an eccentric existence with her bohemian family in a crumbling castle in the English countryside, in this delightful classic coming-of-age story.

Read about 'I Capture the Castle'
The Probability of Miracles

by Wendy Wunder

Razorbill

Cyncial teenage cancer patient Campbell has a summer to remember in the magical town of Promise in this moving and bittersweet debut novel

Read about 'The Probability of Miracles'