Book Recommendations for Summer Vacation Part I
Summer is approaching and while most students hope to take a reprieve from homework and school responsibilities, we encourage our students to stay connected to some form of academic learning. Summer reading can be enjoyable and a great way to keep a student’s language skills sharpen all the while engaging in reading material that is of their interest. To best prepare them for a seamless transition back to school, academic skills such as reading and analyzing both fiction and non-fiction texts should be kept on the forefront. Summer break is the ideal time for students of all grade levels to enjoy reading an engaging award winning book while strengthening their comprehension skills. Here are a few recommendations!
Reading Together in the Early Years
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Are You My Mother? By P.D. Eastman
Olivia by Ian Falconer
What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Grades K-2
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Corduroy by don Freeman
The Mitten by Jan Brett
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Grades 3-5
Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Because of Winn-Dixie by Katie DiCamillo
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by James Howe
The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories by Richard Peck
Grades 6-8
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio by Tony Johnston
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Hatchet by Gary Paulson
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Holes by Louis Sachar
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Al Capone Does My Shirts By Gennifer Choldenko
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Grades 9-12
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Feed by M. T. Anderson
The Immortal Life of Henriette Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Dragonsong by Anne McCarrfrey
1984 by George Orwell
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The American Library Association released their favorite books of 2016. You can find their recommendation in the link below.
Don’t forget to also stop by your local library to check out their summer reading list. Then, encourage your child to create their own reading list in June and locate those books so they are ready to go in the months of July and August when summer reading time is optimal. Reading is powerful and we hope your child will find a book that will captivate their mind! Stay tuned for Part II of our Summer reading book recommendations. We have a few more favorites to add to the list!
