Dandelion Wine

The book is less a single plot than a string of luminous episodes. Douglas buys a pair of new sneakers that make him feel he can run forever. An inventor builds a Happiness Machine that nearly wrecks his family. An old colonel, whom the boys call a time machine, tells them stories of the past. An elderly woman and a young reporter form a tender friendship across decades. And a frightening figure known as the Lonely One haunts the town's evenings and the children's imaginations.

Bradbury's prose here is at its most rhapsodic, full of images of lawns, porches, trolleys and lemonade, and it can be read almost like poetry. But the summer also brings loss: friends move away, beloved elders die, and Douglas learns that wonder and grief come together. The emotional honesty beneath the nostalgia is what keeps the book from feeling sentimental.

Readers who prefer a strong plot may find the episodic structure meandering, and the language can feel overripe in places. Read slowly, ideally on a summer evening, it is unforgettable. About 256 pages in the Bantam paperback.