If our 2025 Summer Reading Recommendations list isn’t enough for your intermediate or middle-school reader on their way back to school, try one of these six books, all set in the summertime. See also the Seasons--Summer tag in the Guide/Reviews Database.

The House of Found Objects [Bea Bellerose Mystery]
by Jo Beckett-King
Intermediate    Simon    288 pp.
7/25    9781665967174    $17.99
e-book ed.  9781665967198    $10.99

Twelve-year-old Bea Bellerose (from New Jersey) is spending her summer vacation in Paris. Bea longs to explore the city’s landmarks, but, alas, she is confined to Aunt Juliette’s apartment while her aunt works long days. The only place Bea is permitted to go is her grandmother’s antique store, the titular House of Found Objects. When a sketch of her great-great-grandfather drawn by a young Henri Matisse goes missing and a clue to its whereabouts appears under her aunt’s door, Bea decides to take up the case. She and her French cousin, Céline, stealthily travel all over Paris, from the Jardin des Plantes to Sacré-Coeur, searching for mysteriously placed clues and solving puzzles. Though they are hardly friends at first sight, Bea and Céline learn to work together to find the missing heirloom. The story is lighthearted and entertaining, with the sweetness of self-discovery sprinkled throughout as Bea becomes more confident and more proud of the person she’s becoming. Readers with an eye for puzzles and a knack for code-cracking will enjoy this first entry in a projected new mystery series. HILL SAXTON

Miss Camper
by Kat Fajardo; illus. by the author; color by Jose Garibaldi
Intermediate, Middle School    Graphix/Scholastic    272 pp.
7/25    9781338535600    $24.99
Paper ed.  9781338535617    $14.99
e-book ed.  9781338746501    $14.99
Spanish ed.  9781546176565    $14.99

This sequel to Miss Quinces (rev. 5/22) picks up the following summer, as Sue (short for Suyapa) sets off to Camp Willow. The two-week session will be the first time she is apart from her parents, but her sisters — younger sister Ester as a camper and college-age Carmen as a counselor — are along for the trip. As she adjusts to the quiet and chilly upstate New York mornings and eating roast beef for the first time in the mess hall, she also finds herself navigating tricky relationship dilemmas. She feels left out and envious of the bond her best friend from home and a camp friend share; another camper reveals his crush on her, which Sue is unsure she reciprocates; and Ester’s clinginess hampers Sue’s independence and time with friends. While the protagonist is in her teens, the familiar relationship dynamics and colorful, jewel-toned illustrations in this graphic novel will appeal to middle-grade and middle-school readers. Honduran cultural elements are treated with respect; Spanish dialogue is in English but printed in blue. Recurring characters should please fans of the first book, but Sue’s self-discovery and exploration of new interests through such activities as ­swimming, archery, and LARPing (live action role-playing) will thoroughly engage those new to the series. Concurrently published in Spanish as Srta. Campista. JESSICA AGUDELO

Blood in the Water
by Tiffany D. Jackson
Intermediate, Middle School    Scholastic    272 pp.
7/25    9781338849912    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781338849936    $18.99

Twelve-year-old Kaylani can’t understand why her incarcerated father wants her to go to Martha’s Vineyard with family friends so badly. She’d planned to spend her summer at home in Brooklyn studying up on law so she can help get him out of prison; she knows her dad is innocent of his fraud and embezzlement charges. Though her hosts’ granddaughter London is too snooty to attempt a relationship with her, Kaylani enjoys interacting with some of the kinder people on the island. Then, shockingly, a teen is found dead. The community is stunned to discover that authorities are looking into the death as a murder case, and Kaylani decides to put her investigative and legal skills to use. What she discovers could change the dynamic between her and London, expose hidden history of the island, and change her own future — if she can survive the summer. Kaylani is a protagonist with whom readers will sympathize — intelligent and determined without being two-dimensional. The history of African Americans on Martha’s Vineyard is worked naturally into the story, as are issues of incarceration and classism. This debut middle-grade novel from acclaimed young adult author Jackson (The Weight of Blood, rev. 9/22) is immediately accessible to preteens but maintains the intensity for which Jackson is known. EBONI NJOKU

Link + Hud: Sharks & Minnows
by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey; illus. by the authors
Intermediate    Norton    192 pp.
7/25    9781324016113    $16.99

The high-spirited brothers are up to more high jinks in this entertaining sequel to Link + Hud: Heroes by a Hair (rev. 5/23). In summer, the community rec center, complete with too many pickleball courts and both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, is the place to be. After a sunscreen fight gone wrong results in the outdoor pool’s closure, the boys take their copious imaginations inside. They’re spotted by a swim coach — first as human cannonballs, then soaked in their Sunday best (i.e., their version of “wetsuits”) — whose no-nonsense approach seems to be no match for their antics. But after many imaginative and humorous digressions around pirate ships, shark behavior, family pickleball, and more; and with wise words from their “occasional babysitter and former archnemesis” Ms. Joyce (“Lord knows y’all can be a handful, but you good boys. Y’all just gotta show this coach…that y’all can take all that wild energy you got and put it to some good”), the brothers become unlikely joiners. Happily for readers, though, the siblings’ stint as team players does not dampen their exuberantly imaginative and individualistic spirits. Dynamic and varied black-and-white illustrations appear throughout, some alongside the lively text, others as cartoon panels, and occasionally overtaking the pages: SPLASHH. ELISSA GERSHOWITZ

Peachaloo in Bloom
by Chris Raschka; illus. by the author
Intermediate    Porter/Holiday    304 pp.
7/25    9780823458554    $18.99

Twelve-year-old Peachaloo Piccolozampa is staying with her beloved grandmother Omi in small-town Pennsylvania for the summer, as usual. This year their idyllic life, characterized by early-morning swims in the local pond, is threatened by villainous real estate developer Major Gasbag. (Gasbag speaks exclusively in hyperbole; timely parallel noted.) The story (which has a mysterious first-person narrator, eventually revealed) continues in this satirical vein as Peachaloo and Omi attempt to resist Gasbag’s machinations. Entwining with this plot line is a historical story of two 1930s bank robbers who experienced a conversion from their life of crime due to an encounter with a local religious sect, a society that treated skipping as a spiritual practice. (The use of skipping as a form of social protest may be a sweet nod to Eleanor Farjeon’s classic, Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep.) Peachaloo stars in the town’s annual play devoted to this inspiring event. It all adds up to a rollicking, digressive, and (unsurprisingly given Raschka’s work as an illustrator) highly visually descriptive novel. “Ship-like clouds were burnt a fiery scarlet on their undersides, with their fluffy topsides going lilac.” In a dramatic conclusion, Gasbag is ejected from paradise, Peachaloo gains confidence, and order is restored in proper comic fashion. SARAH ELLIS

The Best Worst Summer of Esme Sun
by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Intermediate, Middle School    Scholastic    224 pp.
6/25    9781546115380    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781546115397    $19.99

It’s the summer before middle school, and all Esme Sun, twelve, wants is to have fun at Deep Woods Pool. Her vacation is off to a rocky start, however, after she mistakenly embarrasses new girl Kaya, who is Black, by assuming she needs rescuing from the pool. She also wavers in connecting with her white “cool girl” swim team teammate, Tegan, who is becoming more interested in boys and fashion. On the plus side, practice pays off when Esme, who often feels outshined by her sisters’ music, math, and technology talents, becomes one of the fastest swimmers. As summer progresses, she grows closer to Kaya and helps improve her flip turns. When the team starts winning, Esme’s mom makes dismissive remarks about Kaya and pushes Esme to be the best, forcing the tween to choose: individual success or camaraderie and good sportsmanship? Shang’s (Bubble Trouble, rev. 7/23) realistic slice-of-life story, centering a Chinese American family, captures the joy and rush of summertime and does a great job of portraying pre-adolescent awkwardness alongside more serious topics such as racism, colorism, divorce, and negative parental pressure. A refreshing, nuanced tale about the importance of being kind, supportive, and yourself. MICHELLE LEE

From the August 2025 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.