Latest books for youths and kids provide fun reading this summer

There are great titles for both older and younger readers.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
Summer's here and it's time to warm up with a good read. The teachers of your elementary and middle school students definitely want them reading this summer. If you point them in the direction of these good page-turners, you should have no trouble getting them to book time for reading.
For older readers
"Beyond the Deepwoods" and "Stormchaser" by Paul Stewart with illustrations by Chris Riddell (Random House, $14.99 each).
This new British series is sure to please Harry Potter fans. These first two books are fabulous and in stores now. Stewart and Riddell have created a rich fantasy, with a likable hero, Twig, and a forest full of amazing creatures. Random House is already set for the publication of the third book, "Midnight over Sanctaphrax," in September. There's also a detailed and fun Web site, www.edgechronicles.com, where readers can get the lowdown on the creatures and the kingdom in this rich and clever adventure series.
"The Report Card" by Andrew Clements (Simon & amp; Schuster, $15.95).
The mail from school includes the last report card of the year. Whether it's good news or bad, Clements makes the grade with his knack for covering the issues kids think about. In his latest school story, he tackles grades and standardized testing and how they affect kids. With just the right touch, Clements writes about a fifth-grade genius named Nora who hatches a plan to challenge grades and tests. The kids are real and the story seems like it could almost happen at your child's school. Your reader will be rooting for Nora and her best pal, Stephen, as they risk getting in some hot water to make a point.
"A Coyote's in the House" by Elmore Leonard (HarperCollins, $15.95).
Leonard, who has topped the New York Times best-seller lists with many books for adult readers, turns his talent to kids. Leonard gets into the canine spirit with Antwan, a Hollywood hills coyote who meets up with show dog star, Buddy, while he's raiding the garbage. Leonard proves he's a master storyteller in the animal kingdom. This is a great read for the dog days of summer.
For the younger crowd
"The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!" by Mo Willems (Hyperion Books for Children ($12.99, ages 2-6).
Mo Willems has established himself in the children's book world as the poet laureate of wheedling. This book, his second featuring the pigeon, is even more hilarious than his first, "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" which won a Caldecott Honor Award this year. In the first, the pigeon tried to talk the reader into letting him take a bus out for a spin, after the driver had left it in the reader's care with the warning: "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!"
In the second, the tables are turned on the pigeon: He has found a hot dog and is about to sink his pointy beak into it when a duckling appears and tries to talk him into sharing.
Here is a premise preschoolers grasp with every shred of their being: I want that thing, and I'm not going anywhere until I get it. I'm small, there is nothing else on my mind, and I've got all day to bug you about it. Eventually you will give in.
Willems' cartoon-like drawings have the same pared-down simplicity as the text. Heavy crayon lines with imperfect connections at the corners look familiar to kids. (Note to Mo: Kids notice that the pigeon's neck is longer in the second book. Please choose a neck and stick with it.)
Multiple readings are inevitable, and a great pleasure for adults and children alike. The pigeon may even break some vicious whining patterns in your family: You haven't lived until your own small child, on the verge of a tantrum, quotes a line from the pigeon, cocks a tiny eyebrow at you and challenges you to decide where the argument will go from here. If that is not literary sophistication, what is? This is Oscar Wilde for the innocent, Dorothy Parker for the underage. Don't miss it.
"Sidewalk Circus" by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick ($15.99, ages 4-8).
As the late afternoon light casts deep shadows on a city street in Kevin Hawkes' rich paintings, readers will find themselves drawn into "Sidewalk Circus" before they realize the story is being told without words. A girl waiting on a bus stop bench observes an old man posting notices for The World-Renowned Garibaldi Circus ... or does she? As she watches the townspeople go about their business, it's unclear where her imagining begins and ends.
Shadows tell their own stories, so when the old man stretches and yawns, the shadow he casts is the ringmaster's, wielding a megaphone. The notices he posts all seem to announce acts under way on the street: Construction workers on an I-beam become tightrope walkers, skateboarders in their baggy clothing become clowns, and a dentist and his patient perform a sword-swallowing act. The pictures are clear enough for the youngest readers and detailed enough to engage older ones.