Tiny Wonders: Porch Swing Stories: 5 Summer Reads for Growing Girls

Stories of lemonade days, porch swings, and the holy work of growing up.

If you look the right way, the whole world is a garden — and a story.

Part of the Tiny Wonders series: short reflections on children’s books, faith, and everyday holiness.

Dear fellow wonderers,

Summer is a season for long afternoons, sand in your shoes, and reading by sunlit windows. I’ve gathered a list of books we carry to the porch swing or sneak under the covers with a flashlight.

As one of my favorite children’s authors, Frances Hodgson Burnett, writes in The Secret Garden: “If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” I like to think these books help us look the right way. Here are five summer reads with girl heroines that I still turn to when I need a jolt of bravery or a different kind of heart sunshine, stories that remind us how much there is to notice in the holiness of languishing, long summer days.

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1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
My daughter read Because of Winn-Dixie at school a few years ago, and then insisted we read it together at home, namely because it had her laughing so much! In between all the humor and Southern charm, DiCamillo presents something beautiful. Near the end, there’s a prayer I found absolutely stunning:

“Dear God, thank you for warm summer nights and candlelight and good food. But thank you most of all for friends. We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. And we appreciate the task you put down before us, of loving each other the best we can, even as you love us. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.”

That’s the heart of this story: the holiness of friendship, forgiveness, and loving each other well, even in our brokenness. This is a really good one. And if you haven’t seen the movie with Cicely Tyson as Gloria Dump, you now have a summer movie to watch, too!

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2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I had a beautifully illustrated edition of The Secret Garden growing up — a rare treasure in our home — and I was captivated by the book and the idea of a garden. Recently, I reread it for a book club, and found myself seeing new things: how Mary grows along with her garden, how grace moves in supposedly locked places (both metaphorically and literally), and how hearts open with the steady work of tending. It reads like a parable—resurrection written into every leaf and stone. Read it with your kids, or if you don’t have any, read it on your own and notice it all with either fresh eyes or new ones. This is a gem, as you probably already gathered from my opening quote.

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3. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
I first read Sarah, Plain and Tall in third grade, and I keep returning to it. The story is deceptively simple, or plain, if you will: a woman from Maine travels west to possibly marry a widowed farmer, but it stays with you! The movie adaptation with Glenn Close somehow captures the mood perfectly, too, making this prairie tale feel like a nineteenth-century story reframed with grace. At its heart, it’s about vocation, the call to belong, to make a home, and to choose love, even when it’s uncertain and hard.

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4. Kristy’s Great Idea (The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novel #1)
I was a huge Baby-Sitters Club fan growing up. I always identified with Mary Anne (the shy reader—surprise, surprise!), and while I was a little wary when the series was turned into graphic novels, I've been delighted to see these stories reformed for the next generation—and to see my daughter carrying them around now. In fact, her babysitter just gave her some of her old copies of these, and my heart leapt! There's something lovely about seeing these stories handed forward like a baton. The graphic novels capture the real work of caring for others, which at its core is a kind of early training in stewardship and love. And if you want a peek at why we still love them, this Instagram reel says it better than I could. #SummeroftheBSC

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5. A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle
I found this book in my middle school library and couldn’t put it down. L’Engle’s Austin family was one I always imagined wanting to be like someday. I hesitate to reread it now because I loved the parents so much, but I also can’t wait to share its magic with my own children when the time is right. Set on a small island during one unforgettable summer, Vicky Austin wrestles with life, death, and her growing sense of vocation, all while swimming with dolphins. L’Engle treats her young readers not as problems to be solved, but as souls capable of awe; her book is a kind of long summer psalm: “"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers…"” (Psalm 8:3).

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What summer stories have stayed with you? Which books would you hand to a young girl on a sunny afternoon? Which books would you like to read with her?

In hope and holy curiosity,
LuElla