Have you seen the #KidsNeedBooks movement? It was a small gesture that turned into a Twitter hashtag movement by author Ann Braden. A number of authors have jumped on board giving away free stacks of their books to teachers so that they can, in turn, give them to students for reading over the summer. The heart of this movement is to help kids avoid the summer slide.
Booksource, an educator’s best friend in the book department, has also been tweeting about how to help students enjoy summer reading and avoid the summer slide. Their infographic that explains how to stop the summer slide inspired me to write this post. Based on student reading personality, we’ve put together a list with links to their Amazon page. Please know that some of these links are affiliate links, and if you choose to make a purchase we will be compensated at no extra cost to you.
As a career-long middle school teacher, and wanting to incorporate some high school titles, I asked my friend Melissa Kruse from Reading and Writing Haven to help curate this list of titles. With our own students in mind, we created each category based on popular book choosing habits. Any of the titles that are meant for a more mature audience have an (HS). We hope your students, or children, enjoy their summer of reading!
For the student….
Who has read EVERY book on the shelf
Who says he/she “hates” reading
Who likes a visual
- Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfeld and Devin Grayson
- Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
Who likes their plots twisty
Who likes a good belly laugh and ugly cry
Who wants to go on an adventure
Who wants to figure out “who done it”
- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus (HS)
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Who likes a happy ending
Who wants to travel back in time
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (HS)
- Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
- The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Who wants to join a revolution
Who likes their characters out of this world
- Feed by M.T. Anderson (HS)
- The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
- Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, by Rick Riordan and John Rocco
Who always has a good joke
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (HS)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Who saw the movie first
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel (HS)
- Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Who needs to see the relevance
- Mockingbird by Patricia Tauzer
- We Beat the Streets: How a Friendship Pack Led to Success by Sampson Davis and George Jenkins (HS)
Who is a mathematician
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon (HS)
- Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra by Wendy Lictman
Who loves science
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax by Rebecca Skloot
- Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Virals by Kathy Reichs
Who enjoys art and music
Who is an athlete
Who wants to be in the military
- Choosing Courage: Inspiring True Stories of What it Means to be a Hero by Peter Collier
- Navy SEAL Dogs: My Tale of Training Canines for Combat by Mike Ritland and Gary Brozek
Who is “outdoorsy”
Who likes apocalyptic fiction
Who has always wanted to live in a castle
Who enjoys Christian lit
Who needs pictures to stay engaged
Reading over the summer is imperative for students’ development. Teachers can partner with parents to increase the likelihood that it will happen. Send home this recommended reading list and a few tips for how parents can help students enjoy reading. Teachers can also take students to the library so that they can browse the shelves and create their own summer reading list.
If you’d like tips on how to create more of a literacy culture in your classroom, read Melissa’s post on how to run a classroom book club. For a set of FREE Notice and Note annotation bookmarks and other great resources join the TeachMomRepeat newsletter.
Help add to our list of summer reading novels in the comments! What book is always checked out in your classroom? What book did you teen talk about endlessly?
