BOOK MARKED
Love Stories and
Campfire Tales
12 Books to Melt Hearts and Winter
Weather BY JENNIFER ROTHSCHILD, YOUTH SERVICES LIBRARIAN FOR ARLINGTON
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
L ove is in the air as we make valentines for our friends and family, but the promise of
warmer days is also ahead. This month, we have books for the chocolate lover, the
romantic, those who can’t wait for the long days of summer at camp and those of us
who are a bit of all three.

PICTURE BOOKS:
EARLY READERS
“Cocoa Magic”
by Sandra Bradley, illustrated by
Gabrielle Grimard
Daniel’s Great-Uncle Lewis is a chocolatier,
and Daniel loves to help him before school.

He often takes a bit of chocolate to secretly
leave for classmates who could use a pick-
me-up. When Great-Uncle Lewis goes on a
trip, it turns out Daniel’s gift giving wasn’t
much of a secret after all—his friends
return his small acts of kindness to cheer
him up until his uncle returns.

“On the Corner of Chocolate Ave-
nue: How Milton Hershey Brought
Milk Chocolate to America”
by Tziporah Cohen,
illustrated by Steven Salerno
This beautiful picture book biography
details Milton Hershey’s rags-to-riches
story, focusing on his many failures and
his persistence in trying to find the perfect
milk chocolate. In detailing the different
variables he used (such as trying milk from
different types of cows), it shows the pro-
cess of scientific experimentation, as well as
the importance of not giving up. The book
ends with Hershey’s philanthropic work.

“Moon Camp”
by Barry Gott
Jake is not a fan of summer camp. His bunk
is terrible, all the good activities are taken
and he misses home. Camp is no fun, even
if it is on the moon. But when a new batch
of campers arrives, Jake makes a friend
and finally discovers all the joys camp has
to offer in this classic camp tale with a fun
outer space twist.

“Who Wet My Pants”
by Bob Shea, illustrated by Zacariah
Ohoro Reuben the Bear and his scout troop are
camping in the woods when he notices a
tell-tale wet patch on the front of his pants!
Someone has wet Reuben’s pants! He
insists it wasn’t him and interrogates all his
friends to see who did it. Luckily, his friends
offer empathy and understanding, even as
Reuben says that his pants are broken. A
hilarious tale of kindness.

28 Washington FAMILY FEBRUARY 2022
“Matchmaker (Miles Lewis #3)”
by Kelly Starling Lyons
In the third installment of this early chap-
ter book series, Miles is not excited about
Valentine’s Day but does enjoy doing sci-
ence experiments on candy hearts. When
his grandfather comes in to help with his
class, Miles realizes he may be the perfect
match for his friend Jada’s grandmother.

Can the two friends play cupid for their
grandparents? “Nugget and Dog: S’More That
Meets the Eye”
by Jason Tharp
In this early-reader graphic novel, Nug-
get and Dog (a chicken nugget and hot
dog, respectively) are off to summer camp,
where they run into the mean kid, Dijon
(a mustard packet). Dijon has big plans



to prank everyone with a scary story. Will
he ruin camp, or will Nugget and Dog
save the day?
MIDDLE GRADE
“Twelfth” by Janet Key
Maren’s spending the summer at theater
camp, where they’re mounting a produc-
tion of Twelfth Night. The camp’s days
may be numbered due to financial troubles,
but there are rumors of a hidden treasure,
combined with clues related to the play.

The chance of finding the treasure to save
the camp leads Maren and her friends into
an old mystery from when the camp was
founded in this engrossing tale.

“Pizza My Heart”
by Rhiannon Richardson
Maya loves her family’s pizza shop in Brook-
lyn and has a hard time adjusting when
her family moves to a small Pennsylvania
town to open another branch. Things don’t
improve when she’s delivering an order to a
rude (but cute) customer and falls face first
into the pizza. Or when that rude (but cute)
customer ends up being a classmate, whose
dad is helping with the new restaurant.

Between a new restaurant, new friends, a
secret crush and joining the art club, Maya’s
year is full of adventure and fun.

“The Basketball Game”
by Hart Snider
This autobiographical graphic novel covers
the first time Snider went to Jewish summer
camp. There are good parts (comic books
and friends) and bad parts (lumpy beds and
gross food), but the scariest part is when he
agrees to join the intermural basketball team
only to discover they’re playing kids from a
nearby town who have all been taught by a
teacher recently fired for teaching Holocaust
denialism and anti-Semitic conspiracies. The
camp has invited them to foster understand-
ing and, hopefully, to forge a bond, but will a
game of basketball be enough?
TEEN READERS
“The Counselors”
by Jessica Goodman
Best camp friends are excited to return to
the elite Camp Alpine Lake, but this time as
counselors. While her friends are from the
glittering world of the wealthy, Goldie’s par-
ents work for the camp, making her the lone
townie. The girls look forward to another
fun-filled summer, but they’re each keeping
secrets that threaten to erupt when a local
boy is found dead on camp grounds in this
fast-paced thriller.

“The Do-Over”
by Lynn Painter
Emilie’s Valentine’s Day starts with crash-
ing her car and ends with her father
announcing he’s moving. In between,
she learns her college scholarship was
wrongly awarded to her and catches her
boyfriend kissing someone else. When
she wakes up the next morning, she finds
herself in a time loop, reliving the day
over and over again, trying to make it less
awful each time.

“The Matchbreaker Summer”
by Annie Rains
Pasiley loves the summer camp her family
runs, even more since her father died four
years ago. But this is her last summer to
enjoy it—her mom is planning on selling the
camp and moving to Wyoming with her new
boyfriend. Paisley hatches a plan with fel-
low counselor Hayden to break up Paisley’s
mom and boyfriend so the camp can stay
the same. But the two matchbreakers may
have more in common than they thought as
romance starts to bloom. 2
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