Welp, summertime is here again and I…am…furious. I’m gonna fight the first firefly I see.

Then again, it’s not like the other seasons have been so great this year. Winter—at least here, in central Pennsylvania—gave a lackluster performance, without a single day of snow sticking to the ground. Spring was okay; everything bloomed beautifully and the squirrels were all twitterpated and whatnot. But in April a bird died on our sidewalk, so then there was a funeral to arrange, and it’s so hard to get back on track after that.

Now it’s summer, and I can’t say my hopes are high.

It’s just such a sticky season. Why must it be so sticky? Between ice cream and sunscreen, sweat and humidity, bug spray and lemonade, it’s three long months of peeling things off other things: your thighs off a seat, a coaster off the bottom of your glass, the rind off of…an orange.

Wow. I really thought that list would turn out better.

Anyway.

That being said, I’m tired of doing nothing but complaining every summer. The season refuses to change its attitude, but I CAN. It’s time to be the bigger person and make the best of things. To that end, this year we’re going to do some THEMED SUMMER READING. (Indoors. Obviously. In the air conditioning.)

And what is the best type of character to read about when you’re trying to make the best of something? That’s right: a plucky, imaginative, outdoorsy girl with no parents! (Be honest, did you say Ivan Denisovich? Close. Very close. That’s a good guess.) Buckle up, buds—it’s WHOLESOME HEROINE SEASON: Or, the Summer of the Whimsical Orphan! Featuring our most beloved and charming literary ragamuffins:

• Anne of Green Gables!

• Pippi Longstocking!

• Pollyanna!

• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm!

• Heidi!

• Mary Lennox! (Just kidding. NO ONE LIKES MARY. But we’re reading The Secret Garden, anyway!)

• AND MANY MORE!

[N.B.: Not all of the characters we’ll read about are technically orphans, like Matilda and Harriet the Spy. But their parents are pretty neglectful—not to mention they’re both SO precocious—so I’d say it counts.]

Surely the summer heat will seem but a mere trifle if we spend the season minding goats in the Alps and baking pepparkakor at Villa Villekulla and fishing with our wolf friend on San Nicolas Island! Surely the pathological optimism of these parentless poppets will chase the summer-grumps away lickety-split!

If you’d like to join, rustle up a library card and get to readin’! First up is the ultimate whimsical orphan, PIPPI LONGSTOCKING by Astrid Lindgren. Or, if perchance you’re not all that interested in these SILLY ORPHAN BOOKS, tell me in the comments what you are reading this summer! Gimme the deets, señoreets. There’s nothing I like talking about more than books. And then, at the end of the summer, we can all have a BOOK IT! party with personal pan pizzas for everyone!

PERSONAL. PAN. PIZZAS.

Need I say more?

Follow along on Instagram @carriemulleryay! Happy reading, friends.